Challenges are extremely tough to take on from the very beginning, which forces you into a lot of repetition. Each of the 16 maps featured in the trio of campaigns is crushingly difficult. Thankfully, you don't have to have any familiarity with Dark Messiah to understand what's going on here.īut you do have to be awfully good at Heroes V. Influence from the Dark Messiah of Might & Magic action game can be seen throughout the campaigns, especially in the Necropolis section, which revives that game's big baddie, the necromancer Arantir. You start by guiding an orcish rebellion with the Stronghold in a single mission, move on to the Necropolis faction, go back to the orcs, and finally head to the Academy. The three campaigns carry over from last year's Hammers of Fate expansion. The story also centers around more of the same. For example, the new bloodeyed cyclops plays much like the Sylvan treant, and the orcish recruits generally match up with their Dungeon dark-elf counterparts.Ĭrank up the blood rage to make a handful of orcs fight like an army. (These guys wear grey hats.) Creatures are also similar. Characteristics are somewhat familiar, at any rate, despite the fact that the overall personality of your grunts is not quite as cherubic as the former yet not quite as evil as the latter.

The Stronghold fits in well with the existing factions and sort of resembles a mash of the Sylvan and Dungeon groups. The hook here is the new Stronghold faction, which consists of various types of orcs ranging from warriors to shamans, along with other wild humanoids such as goblins, centaurs, and cyclopes.

Those who pick it up will find themselves with a solid, if derivative, series of new maps and enough gameplay tweaks to make the production feel a teensy bit fresh. However, Tribes of the East is a long way from essential to anyone aside from the Heroes V hardcore. Serious fans of the series will likely enjoy getting a look at the new Stronghold faction as well as taking on the tough missions in the three new solo campaigns, but everyone else will shrug and go back to waiting for Nival Interactive and Ubisoft to get going on Heroes VI.įor the few uninitiated out there, Heroes of Might & Magic V is a continuation of a classic fantasy-themed turn-based strategy series. If not, it probably should, because even though this add-on is loaded with new content, none of it is particularly interesting.

Orcs top the marquee in Tribes of the East, a stand-alone expansion pack that is expected to put the finishing touches on the Heroes of Might & Magic V franchise.

Tribes of the east walkthrough