Reviewed: November 29, 2003
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Atari

Developer
Atari

Released: September 16, 2003
Genre: Action / RPG
Players: 4
ESRB: Teen

9
8
7
8
8.8

Supported Features

Anyone who has ever played any of the Gauntlet games will already have a good idea of what to expect. This is the game that I have always dreamed Gauntlet could be if the series were taken up a notch and Atari has gone and done just that.

Check out these amazing features:

• Play as one of four distinct Hero characters: Fighter, Wizard, Cleric or Rogue in solo games or 4-person cooperative games
• Join forces with up to three other Heroes on a noble quest against a mighty evil.
• Discover the unique skills that each team member possesses. Then, gain experience to learn new traits and attacks.
• Roam through seven distinct environments filled with fiends and classic Dungeons & Dragons monsters.
• Block, parry and deflect opponent’s blows in lethal close-range melee combat.
• Use an innovative control system that lets players customize attacks and spells... on the fly!
• Battle authentic Dungeons & Dragons monsters.
• Customize characters with armor, weapons and special items
• Enhance character powers with found or purchased armor and magical artifacts
• Collect soul shards to unleash incredible powers of ancestral weapons
• Sell or buy weapons, spells and other items, or exchange them with other Heroes to maximize a party’s powers
• Master new spells to heal wounded party members or harm dangerous enemies
• Dynamic Camera — zoom the camera in for individual battles or pull out to survey wider surroundings
• Experience a new level of adventure with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound
• Brings D&D 3rd Edition skills, feats and character building systems to life
• Battle the classic and the latest D&D monsters!
• Play right away through the streamlined controller interface
• Elevate your Hero’s power with gemstones and rune stones
• Explore visually stunning 3-D worlds filled with secrets, bonuses and rare items

There is a nice story to backup the action. Without going into too much detail the four selectable Heroes joined together more than 150 years ago to defeat an evil wizard. That evil has been resurrected and so have our Heroes. It’s a classic and timeless tale of good versus evil, but the opening movie and ongoing story tells it so well you won’t even notice.

Since Heroes is more about action than character development these choices will dictate how you end up playing the game, especially if you are going in alone. The Fighter is the obvious choice for solo gamers. Heroes does not adjust the difficulty based on the number or players in the party. This creates some interesting opportunities since playing alone will allow you to increase in experience and levels rapidly. When you play the same section of the game with multiple characters you might have an easier time fighting through the monster hordes but you also have to share the experience and increasing in levels takes much longer.

One nice feature is that you can have a new player join the game at anytime using a base character or any previously saved character. This is a huge advantage as when I started this review I was playing by myself as the Fighter. Then when a second GCM reviewer joined in to play the Cleric I decided to start over with a fresh Wizard. By the time we had advanced to level 9 a third GCM reviewer wanted to join in. Rather than have him play “catch-up” he simply took over my earlier fighter character who slipped right into the party.

Heroes is a real-time action game, which could put off gamers who are used to turn-based RPG’s. Everyone is running around in real-time hacking and slashing and firing spells. Working as a team is crucial. Having played a big part of the game as a fighter I have a tendency to boldly take the lead – not a good idea when you are playing the wizard. Instead, you have to consciously be aware of your location and formations so the tougher characters can work the frontline while spellcasters sit in the background and lob fireballs and magic missiles.

Controls are joyously simple and quite clever. You have your standard melee attack but are free to customize the other three face buttons to hotkey other attacks, spells, or missile attacks like daggers or bombs, and special finishing moves. A quick pull of the left trigger slows down the game and you can use the D-pad to cycle through the options for each button. This is an awesome interface that lets you handle most of your character management without ever leaving the game screen. The only time you have to exit to the character sheet is when you want to sell, exchange, or equip armor or change primary weapons. Even repetitive tasks like healing and mana restoration are conveniently assigned to black and white instant action buttons.

Heroes borrows on the AD&D rulebook but doesn’t follow it close enough to bog down the game. You get all the basics like skill points you can spend to buy new abilities then upgrade those abilities as you earn more points. Every four levels you get to increase an attribute and get the appropriate modifiers that go along with it. You can also earn a variety of finishing moves that resemble a fighting game combo system. Execute a sequence of attacks then follow through with the finishing move and you can do massive damage to multiple opponents.

Each character also comes with their own special weapon that can never be lost or sold. You will upgrade this weapon over time as you earn Soul Shards and by the end of the game this should be the most powerful weapon in your arsenal. This is a great failsafe system in case you missed or lost some of the more powerful weapons you would normally find in the game.

The characters and monsters are all excellent but you seldom get to see them up close enough to appreciate the finer points of their design. This is perhaps the only advantage to playing alone in that you can play at a much closer zoom level and appreciate the graphics and detailed animations.

There are some very nice special effects including glowing weapon arcs, flames with real-time lighting and shadows, some excellent water with ripple effects when you wade through, and don’t get me started on the near infinite library of special effects that go along with your spellbook. Magic Missiles, Fireballs, the warm glow of the Clerics healing power, are all quite spectacular. The HDTV progressive scan support only adds to the visual goodness.

The audio effects are limited to the sounds of clashing weapons and a whole bunch of supernatural effects that fit the vast library of spells. There is the occasional grunting or cries of monsters and Heroes, and the voice acting during the cutscenes and NPC encounters is excellent. It’s all mixed together in a wonderful 5.1 surround package that envelopes you in sound creating appropriate echoes and other environmental effects.

Of course the true staying power, much like Gauntlet, is the multiplayer aspect that will make Heroes one of the most popular party games in your library. The game is designed to promote cooperative play and the classes complement each other perfectly. I only wish the game offered Xbox Live support.

Dungeons & Dragons Heroes will hopefully spark a new franchise of multiplayer games and if we are lucky the next generation will support online play. Meanwhile, this is one of the best new multiplayer games and its exclusive to the Xbox, so you even get some system bragging rights to go along with your hack and slash adventures.