Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes review

Things can start to get frantic.

Dungeons & Dragons is without a doubt the granddaddy of all Western role-playing games (RPGs). Years before computers and consoles could ever dream of displaying “level 4 burning hands”; geeky types were sitting around kitchen tables the world over rolling d12 dice galore and dreaming of being wizards, elves and thieves. The tradition branched out into numerous different games playing worlds and desktop games are still reasonably popular, but ever since PCs started being able to display half decent artwork images, PC role-playing exploded.

RPGs (in the Western world, at least) have branched into two very different sub-genres: text and statistic heavy slogathons like the Baldur’s Gate series (which have now evolved into the likes of Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) and “action RPGs” like Dungeon Siege. Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes falls firmly into the midst of the “action RPG” camp and holds its own pretty well.

Move softly and carry a big stick

Nice cut scenes feature a lot.

If you’ve ever played Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance on the Xbox, or indeed Dungeon Siege on the PC, then you’ll be right at home with Heroes. Like those two classics, the pace is fast enough to keep things interesting and yet the whole experience “feels” like an RPG. I’ll not keep anything hidden from you at this stage: if you didn’t like Dungeon Siege, then I don’t think you’ll like this in the slightest. The stats aren’t very deeply involved and the character growth isn’t vastly involving.

Things start off, as they often do in these games, with the story of dark times long ago that were overcome. The chap responsible for those dark times has returned and now needs a bit of a kicking to send him off again. It’s all standard stuff really and it has to be said that it doesn’t really matter; Heroes is not story led in the slightest. We’re not looking at subtle character development, we’re looking at trouncing goblins with big swords and smiting wizards with bigger, flamier fireballs than they’ve got.

Bird’s eye view

Spell effects are always pretty.

In that respect, Heroes does not fare badly at all. The graphics, whilst not the best ever seen, are clear and feature some nice lighting and other effects (the water being some of the best ever seen). The game plays from a top-down view and this is handled reasonably well with a decent floating, fully manoeuvrable camera. The view can be zoomed with the right controller and turned with the triggers and this all happens at a pretty good pace. The game features a minimum of slowdown and this only really happens when the screen is absolutely jam-packed with baddies. All in all, any imperfections are excusable as the game on a whole runs very smoothly.

Sound is perhaps less impressive, but then again there’s only so much one can generate in the way of fireball sounds, grunts and classical background music. Narration and other voice acting is suitably gruff but on the whole pales in comparison to the likes of Knights of the Old Republic.

The fellowship begins

The fantastic four!

One area where Heroes really does stand out is in the multiplayer side. The entire game can be played with anything up to three mates and it’s when in these situation that you’ll really see the best of the game. Bounty from kills and chests/barrels has to be shared of course, which only serves to make rivalries that bit more fraught.

Unfortunately, it’s often difficult for many of us to get loads of likeminded RPG fans into the same room and on this basis I would have really like to see some Live support here, but still, we can’t have everything, can we?

Happily ever after.

Level design is standard RPG fare.

It’s clear that there could have been a little more flair encased within Heroes. Whilst it is thoroughly enjoyable, it just feels a bit too familiar. There’s nothing here that’s not been done before; no real innovation and more importantly, no reason to but this above anything else. It’s not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just not quite as polished or as full as we’ve come to expect from our games more recently. If you’re a fan of this sort of game, then you’re not going to be disappointed as long as you realise you’re going to be treading some pretty familiar ground here. The dungeons, the swamp land, the caves. I know it may come across as being trite, but it really has been done before

I was going to end this review by suggesting that potential buyers should also consider Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance or (if your PC’s capable enough) the very accomplished Dungeon Siege, but to be honest the only reason I was going to recommend those titles was because they’ve been out longer and are therefore cheaper. However, it’s been brought to my attention recently that Heroes is already available at many online retailers for sub-£25. That makes it a lot harder to pin down which is the better of the three.

Overall, if you’ve got a mate or two who you’ll be able to play the campaign through with, then there’s much, much worse available than Heroes and for under £25, I’d say you’d be getting a clear bargain here. I couldn’t quite justify an eight, so please consider the mark below a “high seven”.