Score
Gameplay:	9
Graphics:	7
Sound:	6
FunFactor:	8
PlasmaFactor:	8
Overall:	7.6

Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes Review
December 30, 2003 by Ryan Newvomb

by RyanN - December 30, 2003

In ancient times, an evil wizard rose to power and began to rule the world--- until four heroes of extraordinary power overthrew him; however, their victory was not without a price: the evil wizard cast one final spell before his death which killed the heroes. Now the dark wizard has returned, and raised from the dead, the four heroes gather together to finish their quest once and for all...

That still only counts as one!

Everyone should be familar with the EA Games The Two Towers and Return of the King, two of the greatest hack-n-slash games to come out since the Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles appeared in arcades more than a decade ago. Well, if you are a fan of those games, you will love Dungeons & Dragons: HEROES. The story is simple enough: the evil wizard Kaedin has created several gems to harness the power of four portals to planes of existence, which he himself opened. A fifth gem was created to control them all, and was given to a fearsome guardian who continues to protect it.

Four Heroes: a man, master swordsman; a she-elf, learned in the arts of magic; a dwarf, a healer; and a hafling, deadly with the arrow and the blade-- were gathered together in the town of Baele by fate and set out on a quest to slay Kaedin before his rule became absolute. The heroes died as they killed the wizard, and the land was peaceful for another 150 years before Kaedin returned! Rising from the grave, the four heroes now must finish their ancient enemy once and for all!

Controlling your hero is suprising familar. You move your hero around with the joystick and hit the attack button to hack away at your enemies with your sword or staff or whatever weapon you have chosen. You also have a secondary attack-- usually a ranged attack with weapons such as throwing knives -- which is very useful when fifteen or so giant spiders or goblins are charging you. As your character gains more experience he has access to powerful spells, upgrading his attributes, and even learning to wield new weapons. The controls for the game are incredibly easy to master, and it won't be but a few seconds before you are slicing the heads off of a few undead zombies. Want to know one of the coolest features of the game? By simply pressing the left trigger you can go into slow motion (for all characters if in multiplayer). This comes in extremely handy when reassigning which spells, finishing moves, to different buttons. This feature is extremely valuable because you will be able to manage your character's abilities without pausing the game or exiting to a menu... you can do it all while you are slicing the necks off a few baddies.

Now we come to the Ancestrial Weapon- the King of Gondor's sword but in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. When you are brought back from the dead in the beginning of the game, you are raised with your once powerful weapon; however, the power of your weapon has waxed over time, and is held within several items called Soul Shards which you must seek for throughout the game to return the full power to your Ancestrial Weapon. The weapon upgrades itself throughout the game, and once you reach the end of the game it should be the most powerful weapon you own. Speaking of that, you can neither sell or drop this weapon. Of course no roleplaying game would be complete without the ability to purchase new items, such as weapons, armor, ammo, etc. One of the cool parts about this game is that your character's strength determines how much of a load he can carry. You wouldn't really expect the 90-something pound Hafling Rogue to be able to sport a full set of 80 pound Gothic armor do you? Fans of Baldur's Gate should be familar and at ease this system. In addition to strength, you can upgrade your character's dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. Each of these categories is crucial to how well your character performs on the battlefield. For example, having a high count of charisma points will effect how much items cost in the shops. Pretty neat, huh?

Dissapointments

The only dissapointment I had with this game was not the graphics, but the manner in which the camera shows them. As the gamer, you are given complete control over how you view the game. You can rotate the camera three hundred and sixty degrees as well as zoom in and out. Zooming in shows the true beauty and quality of Dungeons & Dragons: HEROES graphics. The game looks better than most Action-RPGs I've ever experienced, so I was excited at first to be able to interact in such a great looking game. The problem: because there are usually so many enemies charging you, it's best to keep the camera completely zoomed out to see them all.

The framerate is overall excellent unless there have been a large number of spells casted at once or too many bad guys are on the screen. The lighting is great, especially from the torches in the crypts and the magic coming from the spells. The bad guys don't look too great-- they generally all look the same depending on the class they are in (hobgoblin, spiders, skeletons, golems, etc.) Some of the harder badguys are highlighted to make it easier for you to tell them apart from the standards.

Wow! Surround sound on an RPG! Very cool idea, very poorly executed. The game's score, some footsteps, of course the clang of weapons, and maybe a scream or two as you kill your enemies rounds off the sounds in this game.

Internet! Why can't this game be on the XBOX live? Yes, it's fun to play with up to four people on the same screen so why didn't ATARI think that it would be even funner to play with 4 people on the internet with different televions... or at the very least, perhaps with system link play. Playing with all four heroes is fun, but it could be funner. Remember that complaint I had with the camera? It becomes more of an issue in multiplayer because it obviously zooms out automatically when characters are far apart... but this can mean your character becomes trapped behind an object or is being attacked by enemies it can't see, and there is nothing you can do about it until the rest of the characters move closer to you so you can zoom the camera back out.

 

 

 

 

Fun Game

Overall this is a very fun game, and can bring back memories of the days of the original Legend of Zelda as well as the Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles! It is best played with more people (even though it would be better on XBOX live) and this game is definately worth checking out.