Dungeons & Dragons Heroes

"An unbiased review of a great hack and slash game"

When People hear Dungeons & Dragons they think magical creatures, spells, wizards, swords and sorcery, well Heroes contains all of these. in D&DH you choose to be one of 4 heroes ressurected to stop evil (yeah we heard it before). This game plays very similar to Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance, so if you have played that you are in familiar territory. I would like to start with the Packaging.

Packaging - 9/10: The box displays a cool red colored cover with the heroes over the logo (i had to include this cause this is part of the game as a whole)

Graphics 7/10: D&D Heroes is not a game that the graphics will make or break. The character models are fairly decent sporting some nice little details. The textures are not of the highest quality but they get the job done, Dark Alliance technically does look better anyway. Heroes sports some nice lightning and spell effects, such as the heat filter coming off of torches in the dungeons. THe animation is a little repetetive because after seeing your character wield its blade for the 6000th time it all looks the same. Overall the graphics while not of true Xbox Calibur, are still respectable in that they get the job done, and they do it well. Except for an occasional ugly texture. And did I mention exceptionally good CG cutscenes.

Sound 7/10: The music in the game sets a good atmosphere and has a score suitable for the game. The only thing that brings the sound down in score is the repetetive grunts, groans and slashes. The characters themselves have no voices they do not speak. The dialogue that you hear from NPC's sound professional, it isnt the voice acting from RE:1. Another nail against the score is the fact that some of the voices in the game were recorded too low i guess. Example the SHop Keeper in Castle Baele, i couldnt hear him that well in the cutscenes. But that must be due to the recording.

Control 10/10: Very Similar to Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance. You have a melee button, 2 secondary attacks, throw button, a Mana and Power potion, the coolest is the R trigger, it acts as a slow down time button so you can map out your skills to the X, Y and B buttons. Heroes controls very fluidly and I do not have any gripes with the controls what so ever. They are suited for this game perfectly.

Gameplay 8/10: Ok so the Hack And Slash gets repetetive, but the games story is good enough that you will follow it and keep playing. THe fact that you can level up your characters, equip hundreds of different items, armor and weapons is a major plus. I took a point off only because of repetition. I personaly enjoyed every moment of this game. the multiplayer mode is the real reason to own this game, you and 3 of your buddies can sit there and kill monsters all day long. Its sad they couldnt have put this game on Xbox Live, it would truly add to the experience, but the lag mixed with the slowdown when it gets hellish on screen wouldnt be good. Now im just nit picking so i apologize.

Overall 8.5 - 9: I enjoyed D&DHeroes for 2 main reasons, one being that i enjoy D&D games or games that have that theme and two being I had fun playing an action RPG that didnt have me reading for hours, the game doesnt try to be a heavy set RPG. if i want that ill play one of my hundred other RPG's

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/07/03