Fun! I've had the game sitting around for years now and last December decided to buckle down and finish it since my I was just taking miscellaneous credits at the university to complete my undergraduate studies this year.

The final mission certainly felt more epic and heroic than any found in HoMM3. The last campaign - The Mage (Academy) - was a mixed bag. I recognize it was more of an epilogue to tie up loss ends than a full fledged campaign, but the difficulty was erratic.

Missions one and two felt very challenging depending on the difficulty and random luck. Note: I am playing with the latest patch which apparently makes this two missions more challenging than found in earlier editions.

Mission three was challenging up until you capture the second town -after that point the rest of the campaign is a push over. I'm still not sure what the designers intended the fourth map for: It was not a challenge at all and even with Quick Combat enabled felt tedious. All I can conjecture is that it was a stat-increasing map in preparation for the final one and nothing more. Given the precision and fine care that is required to complete the first map and even the precision required to gain an initially footing in the third map, it surprising the extreme scaling back of difficulty on the fourth map.

It is a small strike against a very rewarding and otherwise enjoyable game.

I'm glad how the stories between Dark Messiah and HoMM5 are interwoven and better explained at the end of HoMM5. I played D-M over a year ago and the entire time I found myself wondering what its relation was to HoMM (having played HoMM2, HoMM3, and HoMM4 previously) other than in name. Bravo Ubisoft for the integration and synergy of storylines.

I'm about to install Hammers of Fate and give it a go now. Cheers.

Hammers of Fate is a mixed product whose many qualities are dampened if not at times overshadowed by its shortcomings. The first campaign follows Freyda and places you in control of Haven units. While the new units are fun, they at times seem like simple recolorations of prior units with a small new twist. Often the twist is quite powerful although never gameplay breaking.

The gameplay and pacing is the worst part of the expansion. I had read the warnings that Hammers of Fate was an easy game - particularly to veterans of HoMM5 - but I was stunned how even on Hard difficulty, every mission in the first campaign was a joke. The only challenge emerged towards the final mission which required a two week retreat to challenge more units from your cities. Recruiting units is greatly facilitated by the caravans which will ferry units from dwellings and other cities. They sometimes become stuck in the most silly ways imaginable, but most of the time they work and make it easier than having a fleet of Fedex transport heroes (such as in HoMM3 and HoMM5).

There is much more to Hammers of Fate - such as characters now blinking during in-game cutscreens (it makes these cinematic pieces look much, much better) - , but I simply couldn't recommend this to HoMM5 fans. Stick with HoMM5 and user-created downloadable content instead of spending money what ultimately feels like a mediocre experience.

Yes, Hammers of Faith is useless… but if you are serious about playing HOMM5 you really MUST get Tribes of the East!