Yearly Archives: 2013

Arena of Heroes Preview

By W.B. Wemyss (Tagspeech)

Arena Of Heroes Preview 1

Arena of Heroes is now in open beta, and is essentially a turn-based DOTA game that pits players against one another through matchmaking. With the recent announcement that PWE would be picking up the title as one of our mobile line launch games, I was given the assignment to check how ready Sneaky Games was for the big time. Individuals are expected to use the game’s premium currency to unlock new skins and new characters, much like League of Legends and similar titles.  The big difference here is, once again, that the game is both turn-based and squad-based – individual matches feel more like a game of wacky chess than anything else.

 

The character roster is colorful, but initially limited.  Players are able to increase levels and earn rewards through gaining fame, which is awarded after victories.  The game fortunately allows for a lengthy tutorial and plenty of practice matches, but some players may find the game’s slow-pace and unusual approach to competition a bit off-putting.  This is certainly going to be a niche title.  And fans of anthropomorphic animal people wearing human clothes will certainly enjoy the game, because there’s plenty of that.  There’s even a mole person with beefy forearms who smashes things, has terrifyingly bushy armpit hair, and wears John Lennon glasses.  Truly, there’s something for everyone in Arena of Heroes.

Arena Of Heroes Preview 2

More on that: it’s just difficult for me to imagine who this game is targeted to.  If it’s targeting the turn-based strategy fans, then why use such a limited system?  As it stands, the game feels like someone took an RTS strategy game and shoehorned in a turn-based element.  I don’t know who would enjoy that.  As a big fan of squad-based strategy games like XCOM, on paper I should like this kind of thing, but the lack of a coherent grid for planning movement and attacks feels strange.  There simply needs to be more to it than this, like actual cover mechanics or using terrain to one’s advantage.

 

It’s difficult to do that when attack ranges are so limited.  Normally I’d be the kind of person to play a more patient, defensive game when it comes to turn-based strategy, but even my “sniper” couldn’t attack beyond a stone’s throw distance.  He had an overwatch mode (allowing him to attack the first enemy that comes into his attack range) but again, limited range, and limited only to that character.  All in all, the game just feels plodding and confused, like it just doesn’t know what it’s trying to accomplish with itself.

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Why not just create yet another active, MOBA/DOTA style of game wherein players select their favored hero, jump into an arena, and go nuts?  This one vs. one squad-based stuff is for a real niche of patient, older gamers who are more likely to actually play something like chess, Civilization, or another cerebral strategy game in their spare time.  Therefore, the question has to be asked, why don’t those players just go off and play those games instead of Arena of Heroes?  Why exactly, in this era of extreme competition, would I want to play Arena of Heroes?  Perhaps these questions will never be answered.

 

The simple fact of the matter is, a turn-based game is generally the approach you take when you want your combat system and gameplay to have a great deal of realism or complexity.  But the whimsical nature of the characters, setting, and combat in this game seems like it was designed for a more active, action-y title than what Arena of Heroes currently is.  There’s just so much clashing and confusion.  You may be wondering, “Tagspeech, I’m hearing a lot of complaints.  Didn’t you enjoy anything in the open beta of this game?”

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To that, my answer is this:  No.  But I’m just one person.  Sure, I may not be the kind of person who obsessively enjoys matchmaking PVP strategy games, but I know plenty of people do.  And sure, maybe I’m not the biggest fan of whimsical, goofy characters; but plenty of people are.  I can’t speak for the entirety of the gaming community, but that still leaves the fact that I am struggling to figure out who this game is for.

 

So, it’s too early to tell exactly how successful the game is going to be upon official release, it has been garnering a bit of attention from tired DOTA and LoL fans who are looking for a change of pace.  The whimsical character roster (a hillbilly rabbit with a minigun, anyone?) and easy-to-use matchmaking system are its best points, but so far it seems that the game needs a little extra ‘oomph’ in the combat to make it more engaging for a wide audience.  If they want it to be a niche title, then they’re going to have to make the combat a lot more complex and tactical.  Either way, serious decisions need to be made by the game’s developers, or Arena of Heroes won’t attract (and keep) enough attention to stay afloat.

 

Tagspeech is the alias of author W.B. Wemyss, who was responsible for the bizarre cyberpunk fever dream called Children of Athena

Heva Clonia First Look

By Taylor Lux (DeerTayorKay)

Heva Clonia First Look

Heva Clonia, the Korean inspired game from OGPlanet, introduces something that’s generally lacking or only for specific classes in other MMOs, the use of pets. Want to play a Warrior? Great, have a little bouncy blue guy to follow you and heal your wounds. Playing the squishy mage? That’s alright; clone a little blue hermit crab to follow you and tank oncoming enemies while you blast them with spells. These are the perks of the upcoming Heva Clonia.

 

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These Aren’t Your Dolly the Sheep

Remember playing various games where you go “That enemy would be awesome for my character to have.” Sure some titles eventually made a small effort to let you live the dream… except it was only for a select few enemies that are expensive or hard to obtain. Then when you finally had the epic monster by your side, most often you would be disappointed to see your little critter standing around doing nothing but offering moral support while you fight solo. Heva Clonia pushes this feature without limitations. Not only can you have any defeated enemies you come against follow you around, but they actually serve a purpose other than cosmetics. How it works is there’s a chance for each enemy defeated to drop a DNA strand. Once the DNA is in the palm of your head, simply grab a life scroll, find the creepy tree guy, and next thing you know you can have your own clone of that defeated enemy!

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Each clone fills a specific role, such as Healer, Guardian, or Attacker. Clones also get a bit more customizable because they have different skills and grades. You can evolve your clone to obtain a better grade of Clone as well, so obtaining duplicate DNA isn’t actually a hardship. Also, they have a collection book where you can place clones to obtain mechanical benefits, so clones that exhaust their usefulness still offer one last gasp of utility by joining your collection.

 

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Platforming Is Alive

In several of the zones along with the instanced missions, there’s actually some platform gaming involved. I found the basic combat and platform-based puzzles and adventuring refreshing compared to the usual MMO where jumping is either extremely limited or nonexistent. Heva Clonia’s combat and platforming will offer a familiar experience to Kingdom Hearts and similarly styled games. Though that’s not to say it plays quite as smoothly.

The most glaring issue was the camera angle and automatic adjustments it makes. You might attempt to run in a straight path by holding down the W key, only to find yourself slowly drifting off course as the camera readjusts automatically to best fit the background of the level. As one would expect, this is the last frustration you need when trying to line up platforming jumps.

 

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Prospects of the Future

While I know I only tested Heva Clonia’s initial beta test, the content on offer here was severely lacking. The number of interesting quests feels sub-par and, to make matters worse, “Coming Soon” pops up while attempting to explore outside the hand-guided regions. Hopefully Coming Soon signifies “Cool Quests and Innovative Content Coming Soon” rather than the continuous barrage of Kill X of Y and Gather A item from B creatures that fills the beta version at every turn. However, if those “Coming Soon” notices decide to stick around or reveal more of the same, then we have a serious critique against this game.

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What we have been promised for the future is PvP and another playable class. With their heavy emphasis on platforming and pets, this game’s PvP stands to offer some longevity to the game. However much remains to be seen, though I’m optimistic that a few post-launch updates will add the polish this game needs to really shine.

 

Heva Clonia First Look 2

Dialogue the Epilogue

Since OGPlanet has Korean influence, there are no problems with the character dialogue not being in English. What rubbed me the wrong way though was how fairly dull the NPCs were. The enemies even more so than their actionless counterparts. It seemed as if there were only two or three different pieces of dialogue on enemies. It wasn’t that each enemy or class of enemy had a few phrases that they said, but all enemies had the same few dialogue boxes, nearly all of them containing “lawl” or other leet speak, which was rather distracting when attempting to get engrossed in the game. Hopefully this is simply a Beta test to ensure that the text is working properly and that they will place the real text for the enemies as it gets closer to launch, but this was something that took away from the veil of belief that the player was in the game and just pointed out the fact that it was indeed simply a game.

 

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Current Verdict: Good

There’s always some polishing that needs to be done when you bring out your Beta for the world to tinker with before you actually launch the game. However, for each strong point, such as an emphasis on platforming, you get a negative, such as camera angles constantly changing, which ultimately starts to undo the strong that was brought to the table. They did a decent job with their pet system and making it a centric role in the game while allowing it to be utilized and beneficial to all classes. Hopefully they will revise their enemies’ speech to allow for better immersion in their game. Otherwise each enemy is going to just be a bad joke that shatters the veil separating their fantasy world from the Internet culture.

Dungeon Hero

Dungeon Hero (previously known as Hero of the Obelisk) is a free to play 3D fantasy MMORPG developed by Eyasoft for PC where players can create their own adorable anime character and become a legendary hero through both PvE and PvP battles. Players will be able to take part in fierce hack-‘n’-slash combat and collect equipment on their adventures, further strengthening their power so that they can take down even tougher foes that await them. No matter if you prefer open world content or instance-oriented dungeon crawling Dungeon Hero has something for you, but do you have what it takes to become a true legendary hero?

Features

Numerous Dungeons: Hundreds of different dungeons are available for you to explore on different difficulties, where with each increasing difficulty comes even more powerful enemies.

Three Character Classes: Choose for your character to become a Scholar, Adventurer, or Swordsman. Each class offers two distinct trees with 3 class evolutions each so you can further specialize your character’s role.

PvP Wars: Shown your skills in the hundreds of dungeons and gathered a set of powerful weapons and armor? Demonstrate your power as you take on other players in Camp Wars, Siege Wars, and War Channels.

Multi-Team PvP: Join up with your band of friends to take on rival teams in a variety of objective based and siege style PvP.

Auto Hunter: Dungeon Hero supports a completely integrated auto hunting system that will make your hunting binges effortless.

Absolute Champion

Absolute Champion is an online turn-based MMA fighting game. Build and customize your own fighting champion, including body type, tattoos, hair styles, and skin tones. Specialize in one of over ten fighting styles, with over 90 attack and defense moves to choose from. Will you become the new champion of the ring?