Written by Jeff Buckland, 10/6/2003
Played on:
Xbox
It was a couple of years back that Interplay released the PS2 version of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, an RPG/action title that didn't have a whole lot to do with the previous BG games. Its simple yet satisfying gameplay was like Diablo II-lite with better graphics and a console-oriented feel. The game did well enough to spawn ports to both the Xbox and GameCube, and now a couple of other games like it are in the works: a BG:DA sequel as well as Sony's Everquest-themed Champions of Norrath.
D&D Heroes is the first game out the door in this year's batch of console action RPGs. It does a great job of keeping the core gameplay simple while adding some features that probably won't be seen in the other RPG/action games due this year.
D&D Heroes offers a fairly similar control scheme to BG:DA, although several of the buttons are switched around. Jumping is gone, as well as a button to pick up items and open doors. Instead, these buttons are for launching several different special attacks - this is very nice because you don't have to fumble around in a D-pad menu to configure your attacks nearly as often. It still has to be done more than I'd like, but it sure is an improvement.
Your aim with the analog stick will be very important when using projectile attacks, so building that skill will be 100% necessary for a couple of the character classes. Since D&D Heroes supports four players at once, you'll also need to be able to get along with three other people in-game. This is not as easy as it sounds, as a ton of spells and projectiles will fly around on-screen while everyone is trying to spin the camera around so they can see better.
In some ways, D&D Heroes improves upon its action/RPG predecessors. The spell effects are wonderful and don't bog down the frame rate nearly as much as one would expect. The animations are also excellent, with plenty of moves for both the player characters as well as the enemies. The camera can be zoomed in up-close, which shows off the environments nicely. Some of these levels are great, but it seems Atari has saved the best for last, as many of the initial levels are very drab. The close-up camera also shows off the unimpressive character models, which are generally a step backwards from the characters seen in BG:DA - both the players as well as NPCs are a little disappointing to look at.
Even in a solo game, I found the frame rate to stutter occasionally; in a four-player game, frame rate issues happen quite often. Since the four-player action is such a cool feature, it is disappointing to have it somewhat ruined by the very spotty frame rate. At the very least, it doesn't deter the action as much as it could since the game slows down with the frame rate. That way, you can concentrate a little better when the explosions are going off everywhere.
As with previous games in the genre, the view is mostly top-down - this means we see no sky being drawn, and the maps are fairly simplistic. D&D Heroes does include a few levels where there are two "floors" to traverse, but rarely does one overlap on top of another. Still, this was specifically done because of the camera view, not because of some sort of incompetence on Atari's part.
This is a hack and slash game at its core, although you may find that with the easy switching of special attacks and spells, a more tactics-oriented approach will bring you victory (at least when compared to BG:DA). You'll traverse all kinds of environments, from swamps to cliffsides, arctic mountains to some very classic D&D-style dungeons. The enemies are highly varied, many of which come in different variations with their own specialized attacks.
Enemy tactics are all hard-coded, though, so don't expect any sort of revolutionary AI. Compared to BG:DA I found them more challenging, though, especially when a combination of enemy types would gang up on me. The fact that some enemies also block normal melee attacks means that switching up your own skills to match the enemy's defense is necessary pretty often.
Much like your standard action/RPG, levelling up will get you skill points as well as stat points to put where you want. Each of D&D Heroes' four playable characters (Elf Sorceress, Human Warrior, Dwarf Cleric, Halfling Rogue) has a pretty wide range of skills, most of which can be upgraded multiple times. This is probably the source of most of the game's replayability, as there are a ton of combinations available for each character. By the time you get through the game twice, though, you'll have enough points to fill everything out, so that's a good time to try out another of the four characters.
