Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes Review
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.
The Rogue includes many skills seen in the more dedicated RPGs: hide and sneak, using a bow or daggers, opening locks, and disabling traps. I was a bit skeptical about her combat ability, but the game was balanced well; even solo, she winds up being a powerful character that connects with a ton of critical hits.
The other characters are all just as unique and powerful. Even the Sorceress has a pretty decent melee ability, especially considering the finishers - these moves are available to all four characters (each is unique, though) and really makes combat more interesting. It basically means that you're more effective mixing up your attacks rather than just mashing buttons constantly, and in some cases you will need to mix things up.
We do get plenty of gear to play with in D&D Heroes, although I have to admit that it would have been nice to see a diversity of gear closer to Diablo II than to BG:DA. A few unique items come up every once in a while, but most of the game's gear is the standard stuff with a small selection of "prefix" and "suffix"-style attributes, much like the other games mentioned above. More items and more effects to go on items would have been really nice.
The game does include four difficulty levels to play on, including Nightmare, which will probably be necessary for a challenge for 3 or 4 players that use a bit of strategy. Since the Cleric can heal, he commonly winds up as the support class that you see often in the actual RPG titles of the day.
The story is pretty dull overall, relying heavily on item and switch hunts to wrap the actual plot around. Basically, there's a bad guy that you already killed, and now that he's back, you have to go kill him again to save the kingdom of Baele. To do so, you collect portal gems and visit these other themed areas, all of which have been seen in RPGs before in some familiar form.
The multiplayer modes are where D&D Heroes is at its best. Few console games today allow four players to cooperate together - most of them might allow two players to work together, but four players usually means duking it out against each other. This is a nice breath of fresh air, and it also means that less skilled players can still have fun rather than get beat up constantly. That alone makes this game worth it if you have a few friends coming over regularly, but there is a pretty good amount of replay value in trying out all four characters to play.
D&D Heroes' music appropriate for the game's setting, and a few of the tunes are kind of catchy, but overall I wasn't very impressed. It seems like they got a few good bits completed and then filled the rest of the space up with almost an ambient style of background sounds rather than music. While this works in some games, it just didn't quite feel right here.
The sound effects are much better overall, with plenty of good explosions and a nice range of audio work done for each of the four characters. Not that the heroes actually talk, mind you, but the NPCs do. That stuff is pretty sub-par, but it's mostly excusable in an action-oriented dungeon crawl like D&D Heroes.
Atari has mixed old-school dungeon hack games with modern gameplay to make D&D Heroes a pretty decent success. The four-player action is great, and while the depth of a serious RPG is missing, the multiplayer mode makes up for that pretty well. If you and a few friends are looking for an all-around blast in cooperative mode, then pick this one up.
