Hero
Academy, developed and published by Robot
Entertainment.
The Good:
Approachable game mechanics, cross-platform multiplayer, satisfactory
unit variety
The Not So Good:
Simplistic game mechanics, needlessly drawn-out games, bare settings
options, abbreviated single player content, must purchase additional
teams through DLC (or pay for the gold version)
What say you? This
accessible online turn-based strategy game lacks the depth and
PC-friendliness similar competitors offer: 5/8
MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION
The new online buzzword in turn-based
games is “asynchronous multiplayer”: the ability to play multiple
matches at one time, submitting turns when available to a central
host. Of course, this feature has been around for quite a while in
the form of play by e-mail, but most (if not all) gamers don’t like
messing around with extra steps: why not have the game process the
information for you? A handful of recent games, such as Frozen
Synapse and Decisive
Campaigns: Case Blue have used this kind of system with
good effect. Next in line is Hero Academy, a turn-based tactical game
from the Orcs
Must Die! developer that was originally designed for mobile
platforms but has now appeared on the PC. This particular entry
features one-on-one battles with randomized characters of various
classes attacking each other on a grid layout. Does Hero Academy
offer satisfying tactical gameplay?
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
Because of the game's mobile heritage,
Hero Academy features decidedly bland graphics in some areas. The
character design is pretty decent, with cute 2-D portraits for each
unit that are animated well during movement, attack, and when units
are damaged. The maps are boring to look at, static backgrounds with
poor detail serving as the battlefields for your destruction. The
sound effects are basic and the music is generic. There is no voice
acting, which is disappointing considering the Team Fortress license.
Hero Academy does not let you change the screen resolution or alter
the volume levels, two features so common in PC gaming that their
exclusion is startling. Overall, Hero Academy looks and sounds like a
$5 game.
ET AL.
The objective in Hero Academy is to
kill the entire opposing team or destroy their crystals. Each team
has twenty-eight units (twenty-four for the Team Fortress team) that
randomly appear six at a time to be placed on the battlefield.
Joining matches is easy: you can play against random individuals,
people in your Steam friends list, Twitter followers, or search for a
specific adversary. You can play multiple games at one time, and the
game will let you know through the notification area (and the
flashing taskbar icon) when it's your turn. The $5 game ships with
two teams (the council and Team Fortress) and the rest can be
purchased with the $15 gold pack or individually for $5 each. Yes, a
single team is worth the same amount as the entire game. Oh, and you
would like to change your team color? 99 cents, please. While the
base price of Hero Academy is reasonable, the $15 required for
unrestricted enjoyment is a bit steep for what you get. Each map
layout (there are a handful that are recycled for each match)
consists of deployment squares where new units may be placed and
spaces that add attack or defense bonuses. The interface is
straightforward, and helpful tool-tips describing each unit appear
with a right-click. The tutorials describe the basics but are a bit
too brief. Hero Academy focuses on multiplayer, but there are a
series of single player challenges for each team (accessible even if
you haven't purchased the DLC) that require you to eliminate the
entire enemy team in five moves; they are exceedingly difficult and
usually require one specific set of moves to complete.
There are five (if you buy them all)
team in the game that focus on different strategies: you get the
flexible Team Fortress and healing Council for free, and can buy the
vampiric Dark Elves, area attack Dwarves, or offensive Tribe. Each
team has the same types of units: melee, ranged, magic, healing, and
tank, along with a couple of spells and items to buff or heal
friendly units and damage enemy ones. Each unit has a movement and
attack range, along with an attack type (physical or magical) and
defense rating. Once a unit is knocked out, you have one turn to heal
them, or the enemy can stomp on them to remove them immediately from
the game. Overall, the unit variety is decent and allows for varied
tactics during each match.
You get five action points to spend
during your turn moving units, ordering an attack, calling in
reinforcements, or using an item. This restriction requires very
detailed planning so you don't waste moves or leave units in
vulnerable positions. Key is using items that buff units at the right
time, conserving them until you can eliminate troublesome units in
one turn, and using the right units against the right opponents.
Units cannot attack or move diagonally (that counts as two spaces),
which is initially confusing (hex-based maps would have been more
intuitive). Games last quite a long time, since there are so many
units to go through, typically lasting one to two hours. This is
certainly not the quick under-ten-minute matches of Frozen
Synapse that I was expecting, and the game definitely drags
on towards a conclusion. Getting stuck in healing loops (defeated
units get revived the next turn by shielded healers) is a common
afflicition, and the ability to stack units with several items can
make powerful troops very hard to defeat. Five moves is just
not enough most of the time to fully execute your plan, especially
when both sides camp on their side of the map, not wanting to expose
their units to powerful ranged attacks.
IN CLOSING
With only five moves per turn, Hero
Academy really requires you to plan out what you want to do. You need
to pay attention to the two types of damage in the game: each unit
can deliver one type and sometimes defend against another. A lot of
the planning involves fast math, calculating how far you can move and
how much damage you can cause against specific units in the short
time limit. A match can come down to using special abilities and
items at the right time, and the map layouts, with their attack and
defensive bonuses, can dictate where to camp. I found most games to
last quite a while (longer than I had expected for a mobile title),
and the propensity for some units to become overly powerful through
stacked items can become annoying. Games certainly drag out longer
than necessary, with stalemates developing when healing units are
shielded behind strong attacking units. While the relatively simple
nature of Hero Academy does make the game more intuitive (and ideal
for those mobile devices), on the PC, increased depth is for long
term enjoyment. Hero Academy works as a light strategy game, and the
$5 price tag certainly warrants this level of involvement, but the
priced DLC (or $15 all-included cost) is a bit distasteful. Hopefully
DLC will be added that will allow you to change the screen resolution
or volume within the game (only $20!). The online matchmaking works
well and the single player challenges are, well, very challenging.
While Hero Academy works as a good, inexpensive introduction to
turn-based online strategy gaming, advanced tactics, quick game
speeds, robust single player content, and PC-specific features are
all lacking.
