User Rating: 6.1 | Dungeons & Dragons Heroes XBOX
It is apart of our gaming heritage for developers such as Atari to make clones of the classic hack-and-slash game, Gauntlet, which was released in 1985. Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes is no exception to the rule, it offers very little to the genre, but still is capable of providing a weekend's worth of good fun. Beware, if you are looking for a game that presents complex and intriguing gameplay, look elsewhere, because Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes is a very basic hack-and-slash dungeon crawler that has you defeating wave after wave of baddies. There are far better games in the genre, Diablo and Neverwinter Nights for instance. Both of these games have both short term and long term qualities, unlike Heroes. But what the game does right is pay homage to Gauntlet by having up to four people play in cooperative mode. But let me reiterate, if you want a good 15 hours worth of solid fun, then this game is a good choice. Yet, it is a difficult to recommend to anybody looking for an epic RPG. The story plays out that four heroes are revived to complete a deed they were once set out to do almost one hundered years ago. The deed was to defeat the evil wizard, Kaedin. He too was revived to reek havoc onto the earth. What needs to be mentioned, is that once the four heroes are reanimated, they don't possess the same strength they once did a century ago. You will travel through an icy desert, a dense jungle, countless catacombs from those who have past, and the ruins of an ancient castle. In favor of a more cinematic approach, Atari decided to unfold the story through beautifully executed cutscenes. All in all, the story medium is straight forward and uninspired. There are four classes to choose from in Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes. A mighty human fighter who should at all times be a tanker for your team (that is, if you choose to play cooperatively). An Elven Wizard who has a plethora of offensive abilities at her disposal. A Halfling Rogue which provides as a great support character with his long ranged bow. And a Dwarven Cleric, who packs a punch with his axe, but can also heal his fellow teammates. Each character can traverse through the entire game by his or herself without much trouble. However, Heroes is best played with a group of friends, although, the level of difficulty and depth basically remains the same. Even if you choose to play on the "Nightmare" difficulty setting, which is unlocked after your completion of the easier modes of play, the game can be finished without much frusteration. At first, the level of ease seems like a good enough idea, but in turn, it defeats the purpose of the many weapons and powers that you can pick up throughout the game. What strongly assists you in your brief journey, is the seemingly limitless amounts of health/magic potions you acquire after defeating enemies. It becomes quite easy to obtain the stronger items from shops relatively early on in the game thanks to the ridiculous amounts of gold you recieve from foes, which includes adversaries that can be taken out with one swipe of a sword. And it doesn't stop there, raise dead amulets (which at no point in the game will you ever run low on) allow you to return back to life after your hit points have been depleted. If at any time you are falling short on gold or potions, you can quickly return to the only shop in the game via a warp stone. At this point, you can sell the exceedingly powerful weapons that you have attained for large amounts of gold. But the single most embarrasing thing throughout the entire game, is the final boss, Kaedin. All of his stages can be defeated without your hero shedding a drop of blood. Strange enough, a game with the words "Dungeons & Dragons" in its title, barely, if at all follows the rules of D&D. Also unlike the board game, your characters have incredibly limited use of items, ranging from swords to staffs. This factors into why Heroes requires little strategy or skill. It doesn't give you the choice of appointing a weapon to a given hero. For example, magical staffs are only available for use under a Wizard, and no one else. A similar idea is also applied to stat points: Strength is only applicable to the Fighter, Wisdom is only helpful for the Cleric, Intelligence is only necessary to the Wizard, and Dexterity only accommodates the Rogue. It is unbalancements such as these that severely damages the games replay value. Heroes is a bland and flat looking game. Every aspect of the environments and the character models are clunky and insipid. As far as colors, the textures are meshed together with a small arrangement of blacks, browns, grays, and dark blue's. The framerate is shameful as well, considering how powerful the Xbox is. Heroes' frames tend to drop dramatically during large scale battles and areas of dense population. Keep in mind, however, D&D: Heroes is by no means an awful looking game. Yes, that is the light at the end of the tunnel; the sound in D&D: Heroes is one of the games finest qualities, yet, it still falls short of being great. The soundtrack can be riveting at times, especially during boss battles or traversing through eerie dungeons. The characters grunt and scream utterances of anguish (although they never do speak actual dialogue in the game). Furthermore, sword swipes and spell casting is done in full 3D sound, which are suitable during dense fights and add to what little immersion the game consists of. Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes is a solid game that you can play with a few friends for a weekend or so. Though the $20 price tag does seem tempting, the game is best left as a rental. This is due to its sub standard visuals, lack of depth, and incredible ease. D&D: Heroes does no justice to the "Dungeons and Dragons" name.
