Too be honest, though I like the genre, I'm getting sick of purely Diablo-ess games...
Heroes of Ruin: Diablo for Your 3DS?
By
Jane Douglas, Section Editor
Consider Heroes of Ruin for a spot of dungeon crawling on the go.
With Diablo III up and (just about) running, what better time to talk about Heroes of Ruin? This is a game that squeezes the essentials of a Diablo-like experience onto Nintendo's 3D handheld: a fantasy-flavoured, class-based, multiplayer dungeon crawler with randomly generated levels. You play as one of a party of up to four adventurers, drawn together by a local or Internet connection and a quest to save the realm's sphinx king, Ataraxis, who has been laid up with a nasty curse.
The four character classes are cast mostly from the archetypal fantasy moulds. There's the spellcasting alchitecht, brawling savage, dual-wielding gunslinger, and the vindicator--a knight-like, swordfighting lion-man.
Early on, your band is despatched from the hub city of Nexus to a network of catacombs in an underground lagoon which, like Heroes of Ruins' other labyrinthine dungeons, is procedurally fashioned to be different in each playthrough.
Here, rays of light leak through the rock overhead, looking natty in 3D, and in general the styling resembles the pleasing fantasy chunkiness of World of Warcraft, between the floating exclamation points over quest givers' heads and the catacombs' froggy murloc enemies.
Bipedal shark monsters and light puzzling also feature down in the catacombs; for the latter, you must arrange the arms of ancient statues to unlock the way to an enemy boss.
The peppy combat is based on a primary attack (a basic sword swipe, as a vindicator) and three of the other manoeuvres you choose to learn as you level, each mapped to a face button. As you might expect of a portable Diablo-alike, there's an emphasis on loot, with a nicely streamlined system that lets you immediately sell goodies you can't use, to save them from cluttering your inventory.
Publisher Square Enix makes some interesting noises about Heroes of Ruins' eventual daily challenges, issued over the Internet and with which players can earn rewards. Though we haven't seen those for ourselves, they could add another layer of longevity to the game, as could the promised in-game shop, in which you can trade rare items with others.
The cooperative play system is easygoing, letting players drop in and out of friends' games regardless of their own progress. Single-player is an option but, much like in Diablo, is missing the point. There's more fun to be had in multiplayer, so here's hoping for efficient matchmaking and a healthy population of potential party members after launch in June.
In the meantime, if you're in London from 25-27 May, you'll be able to play the game for yourself at the MCM Expo, where GameSpot UK is the official gaming partner.
By
Jane Douglas, Section Editor
Jane rejoices in the title of Section Editor, GameSpot UK. Fears: spiders, oblivion.
42 comments
BIG BLING FLINGIN PASS on this pixelLaughingGAS~
save your Stash- kids- ain't worth the technotrash
The demo was very fun. I can totally see playing this online. The 3D effects were really cool as well. My only concern is if the story will at least okay. I know it's a loot and fighting based game, but with an okay story I can at least justify what I'm doing ha ha. But I'm for sure getting this after the demo.
1 Like Played the demo too,and I LOVE it!!!For me,Heroes of Ruin and the new Castlevania game are the must haves of this year!!!This game reminds me of the Gauntlet games when I was a kid.....loved those games! :D
3 Like Played the demo and I think it's an awesome 3DS game. I'll get the game today. It's out for a few days now here in The Netherlands.
idk i want this to be good and the details sound good but watching the videos and looking at the pictures ... ugh it looks bad :/
3 Like The Demo is available in the eshop its really good apart frm the fact its only one level, at least multi player is there. Definately gonna pick this up
2 Like Looks really cool but I just hope it's not a game that can be finish in 10h let's say.
2 Like I haven't touched my 3DS since Snake Eater. I've been waiting for this game for a while. I get excited when developers give handhelds love too. So I just hope the game is good. It would be cool to have a game like this to play online.
1 Like I hope this game turns out to be as good as it looks. Because it looks pretty awesome.
1 Like I would be excited about this if the developer wasn't n-space. They have a pretty sketchy track-record.
If by sketchy you mean all the Call Of Duty series for the DS, Goldeneye 007, Star wars battlefront elite squadron, Star wars the force unleashed, Blood Stone 007, all games that came out for the DS and they were mostly well received by critics. Sure not all games are great, but they are all competent and some are really, really good. I own most of them myself and they are all good titles. Also Geist for the Gamecube was a great game developed by N-space. I actually am excited about this title, and in my opinion they have proved they can make great titles, namely portable ones.
But we will see how the game is received by the press, even though to me that really doesn't affect the decision of buying it or not.
@PeetBurton I only really liked Geist and the other games are easily forgettable. They can produce good titles at times but I'm worried that this game may be a little too ambitious for them because it actually sounds impressive. Here's to hoping they actually pull it off.
@thetravman what you and PeetBurton haven't taken into account is that Square Enix is the publisher, that alone should mean that it could probably be good seeing as Square has made some of the best games ever and I refuse to believe that they would publish a unsatisfying gaming experience.
This game does look awesome. I must say, with titles Res. Evil and this, I might need a 3ds
2 Like I seriously hope that this game will be good...
OR it might just be a waste of my money.
1 Like This could be good, or it could flop harder than a magikarp out of water.I've been tracking it for a while now, so I hope it turns out well.
I'm really looking forward to this game , this along with Kingdom Hearts DDD will provide a pretty good summer.
Ah indeed! I am looking forward for the exact same titles. I will be a happy 3DS player in the upcoming months!
@TheZeroPercent it has been confirmed that heroes of ruin will allow people to chat with people who aren't their friends (assuming parental settings allow it).And I believe that friend codes will be gone from the 3ds when the wii u is launched.(That whole friend code thing was said by this guy who has family working for nintendo)
nintendo needs to get some online communication on the 3ds
the servers seem pretty tight
but no communication = bad co-op experience
plus you cant friend people you meet in co-op or anything?
it is 2012&1/2 right?
@TheZeroPercent Not only is chat available but voice chat , I'm not sure about the workings of friending,etc. but I know it is possible to friend strangers without friend codes in co-op , it's just if they decide to do so. However you seem to be acting as though you developed the game considering you know so much about it as 'fact'.
Alright, I'm sold. I've been looking for something for my 3DS to tide the time till the EU MHTriG release!
Not bad. I'm still pounding away at Lunar Knights for the DS. If a long quest is broken into little chunks with a "save anywhere - anytime" feature, and a "pick up and play" approach, it can work awesome on a handheld. Lunar Knights pulls that off beautifully.
1 Like Wow the 3DS is going to have great summer of games. Hereos of Ruin, Kingdom Hearts DDD and New Super Mario Bros 2. That's a impress line up.
2 Like doesn't look as though this game is doing anything new for the genre but having a portable dungeon crawler on my 3DS with drop in multiplayer and voice chat might be worth the buck ... will have to wait for reviews to see what the verdict is.
1 Like I might just have to pick this one up. Looks cool, and the voice chat is a really nice addition. Just have to find some friend that actually have a 3DS...
Waiting for reviews and opinions for this game before buying it.
It could be really good, or just plain bad. Hard to tell this early.
@Ripper_TV you can't. because you have a vita.(probably,which isn't a bad thing don't get me wrong)
looks:
1.RPG
2.tons of loot
3. tons of skills
4. co op
buy? heck yeah everything is good when there is co op
Not really excited for this. But I wasn't really looking forward to Diablo 3 anyways, maybe this just isn't my kind of game.
This looks good. With this and Torchlight II round the corner we could be in for some good dungeon crawlers.
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Heroes of Ruin
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- Publisher(s): Square Enix
- Developer(s): n-Space
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- ESRB: T
Heroes of Ruin Navigation
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