Game Review - Hero's Academy

By Robot Entertainment comes Hero Academy, a strategy much akin to Chess, with quite the spell/turn based twist.

This will be a first impression, not a full review, as this game is multiplayer based, requiring quite some time to fully appreciate (more on that later on).

http://www.robotentertainment.com/games/heroacademy

http://store.steampowered.com/app/209270/

Summary

It's showtime!

Hero academy is played on a 5x9 grid. From one of 6 teams - that is, should you have the full DLC, as the base teams are only 2 - each with a number of units and items, you're given 6 at random from your "deck" and 5 action points. Every action costs a point unless your unit's special ability dictates that it doesn't (including using items, deploying units, switching items and EACH attack your unit does). You're given a full simulation environment. As this game is turn based, whatever action you do WILL have that exact outcome once you submit your play. Before submiting, you can try whatever combination you wish, undo action points, move however you please, and plan item swaps. Once submitted, you'll have to wait for your opponent's submission. Your opponent will now see the same board you do, at least before (s)he starts taking action.
The goal is to knock out the enemy's crystals on the field, which are high health, no defense, non-healable or controllable structures placed randomly on your half of the field.

There is very, very limited single player experience. You get to try out all teams, but only on challenge mode (You're presented with a board and premade hands, and are given a single turn to either finish the enemy crystal or all enemy heroes), and you have a tutorial, but absolutelly nothing else. In fact, if single player is your goal, 5€ (the current Steam cost) for this game is horrendously overpriced (and all DLC is useless, you have challenges for all teams regardless).

The game is available on iOS and PC. The focus, however, seems to clearly be the iOS version (the original, the PC was a port).


Gameplay

Single Player

Challenges for the Council team

What single player?
Well, jokes aside, Steam's tag of single player in this game is actually not the best placement. You cannot play against the computer a full game, and all you have is challenges, which are all single-turn-wins with 1 or 2 possible combinations that work. If you don't want multiplayer, 5€ for this is just throwing money out of the window. As Single is non-existant, there just isn't much to say about it.

The challenges are quite effective in highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each team and each map, but as a stepping point to the multiplayer game, it mostly doesn't teach you to think predictivelly, as only 1 turn is played. That has to be self-taught.




Multi Player

What close to the end of a game looks like

This is where we can actually talk about gameplay, since it's actually where a full game can be played.

You start with 6 random pieces from your deck. You're given 5 action points. Action points are spent with each action: deploying a unit, moving a unit, using an item, attacking (each attack is an action point spent). Each team has a set of units. Each unit has a number of stats:

• Movement (number of squares it can move in a single action), 
• Attack Range (how many squares away your unit can attack), 
• Damage (how many points a single attack inflicts), 
• Physical Resistance (a percentage that reduces incoming physical damage)
• Magical Resistance (Equivalent to physical resistance, but for magic damage).
• Health (hit points).

Each unit has a special power, but the game's descriptions aren't enough without trying it out.The Cleric for council, for example, reads "Spellcaster who revives and heals allies." That doesn't give us numbers, and reviving a character with 20 health and 1000 health is quite different. This comes back to the lack of a single player mode; this things need to be tested on the fly, which is not exactly good with 6 different teams. Another example, the wiki for hero academy states on the Priestess:
"Can heal 3 tiles away. Heals for 2x Power and revives for half Power. Any unit attacked by the Priestess has their Power cut in half for their next attack."
However, in-game, it reads "Can heal up to 3 tiles away, and weakens enemy attacks." I wasn't even sure if the priestess COULD revive with that description, since the cleric clearly states "revives and heals" allies. This inconsistencies make playing the first games a huge gamble that a lack of single-player mode only makes worse. This obviously isn't that troublesome in a turn based scenario, but it still adds unneeded complexity.

Each team has a team bonus. The Council (which I find a bit uninspired) provides better healing from Clerics and Potions. Frankly, they could have simply tuned the numbers on said items/caharcters, it isn't much of a "team" bonus (even if it makes sense from a balance perspective). The Dark Elves, for instance, heal every time they attack - with any unit.

The goal is to take down the crystals on the map or exhaust the enemy of units. Each player does 5 actions, submittting when they decide on their final setup, and testing whichever play they wish.

This is where the iOS focus really shows. The limit to executing a play and submitting is seven DAYS. Yes, DAYS. The typical session of Hero Academy is to enter 15+ games, execute plays when they pop, and leave. You rarelly find a game where both players are actually on it, and there is very little incentive for that - even the chat function is timed this way, the chat updates only on submitting your play, it's not real time. If you wish to go in and spend an hour or two playing a couple of games, you'd better bring your real life or steam friends, because you cannot trust random players to net you an actual full game.


Presentation

Info on the Dark Elves (in-game)

The very cartoonish style for the characters works fairilly, though it's not really my taste. The interface is a bit hectic; for instance, the screen above with those detailed descriptions cannot be seen outside of a multiplayer game. I've had a bit of trouble setting up a game with a friend, but that might've been because of my shaky connection at the time. The chat not being real time is actually really annoying if you're not playing with a Steam friend. The animations for the characters are also decent.
The sounds are OK; the loop can get on your nerves eventually if you keep there waiting for people to finish their plays, but you really shouldn't be doing so with Hero Academy at all.


Verdict

Overall, Hero Academy is a little to based on it's community. The lack of real single player dictates so. If you're looking for an experience to play a few hours, forget it. Hero Academy could be a concept for a pretty fun and competitive game, but as it stands, it's a casual title; a good one at that, don't get me wrong, I simply think that there's a lot of wasted potential on the casual approach that the interface forces you on. Lack of co-op (and it mostly wouldn't make sense... Co-Op Chess?) means that the incntive to buy it with your friends isn't all that appealing either. However, during a steam sale (the way I picked mine, 1.75€ for 2 copies), it certainly is worth a shot, and if you have a group of friends that would enjoy a fairilly competitive setting (again, rely on arranged matches for actual playing sessions, do not bother with randoms unless you want the casual approach), this is a thing to consider.