Hands-on: Dawn of Heroes (DS)
You might expect Dawn of Heroes, a tactical, turn-based RPG from Wicked Studios and Majesco, to be super serious. It seems games in this genre seldom stray into the territory of slapstick and humorous banter, but here's Dawn of Heroes, doing just that -- and doing it well!
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The humor is the first thing I was exposed to as I met Reynald and Jiro, two reluctant "Chosen Heroes." As mercenaries tasked with locating a certain book in a spooky, haunted mansion, the two soon find themselves embarking on a quest far too epic for their liking. Luckily, the generic plot takes a back seat to the game's hilarious dialogue, which is often incredibly irreverent and laced non sequiturs.
The game sports a stylus-driven control scheme that works quite well. At the outset, I could only tap and move my guys around the grid and do basic attacks, but as I progressed through battle after battle and enlisted the aid of some extra companions, I was using spells and bending foes to my magical will fairly easily. Almost too easily, to tell the truth; the preview build provided little challenge and it wasn't until after many battles that I had to actually start using a bit of strategy.
Each battle is enhanced through the inclusion of classes and stipulations. The former is easy enough to get -- you've got your healers, your magic users, your warriors and so forth -- but the stipulations really helped to keep the battles from getting too stale. For example, a battle against numerous foes on the back of a giant turtle, dubbed "Fair Fight," only allowed an enemy to be the target of two offensive abilities in one turn. Any subsequent attempt would only be nullified.
The Dawn of Heroes preview build showed promise and will likely be a solid choice for any fan of tactical role-playing games when it releases next month. The retail product promises over 50 missions to play, along with local and Wi-Fi multiplayer (this feature wasn't available in the preview build, sadly). The game's comical dialogue and characters really stood out as the unique defining qualities that made it worthwhile to play. Should the final release sport a greater degree of challenge and some more variety in the battles, it could be a really unique entry in the genre.
