Before I logged down my first impressions on Heroes of Honor, I had a few questions in my mind. What is the difference between Heroes of Honor and other popular strategy games such as Clash of Clans, and Dragons of Atlantis alike? What is the biggest feature in the game? Is this game worth my word of mouth? Will this game be a new hit?
With these questions, I started playing Heroes of Honor. Actually, this is my second time that I have played it. The first time I played the game is when the game was in alpha beta. At that time, Heroes of Honor was a web browser-based game only, and after I registered an account and played it for a few minutes, I quit the game mostly because I cannot do anything in the game except that I was waiting for the prolonged upgrading and building, and there wasn’t a tutorial at all throughout the game.
As the game is now exclusively playable for iOS and its open beta is imminent, I downloaded the game from the New Zealand App Store, spending 3 hours playing the game on my iPad. I should say the game has been great and could have been better if it could improve on its tutorial and combat system.
Unlike Clash of Clans and Dragons of Atlantis, Heroes of Honor starts with some basic buildings erected like Army Camp, Castle, and Hall of Heroes. So you just need to build other buildings in the empty land like Cottage, Storage, Barracks, Blacksmith, Treasury and more. I am not sure what is this for, but this is just a bit different from those games I was familiar with.
What I want to complain here is its tutorial. It is actually a failure for newcomers. Players will have to read small-size words and then find the Build button to build. Neither will the functional buttons be highlighted in the tutorial quest, nor they are explicitly marked in the City view. So most of the times, you will have to guess which building is the one that you are looking for.
Heroes of Honor has a few features that make me have a strong passion to share it with my friends. For example, its refreshingly clean art designs that remind me of The Settlers Online and its Alliance feature that allows me to ask help in the game.
The biggest feature in the game is its combat system, but the core mechanic is very similar to Kabam’s Dragons of Atlantis. You will need to hire a hero to lead an army of troops to combat enemies in the Map. Rather than attack enemies directly on the map, you will have to move around the enemies and select your command to attack enemies. It looks like a board game, but it lacks the board game’s strategy. Also, combat is not fully animated, so you won’t see intense actions on the map.
When you finish whatever the quest requires, you will have a message in your Inbox. Each message has very detailed information with regard to what you have done and will do. This is like a guide message. On the contrary, the battle log looks simple enough.
While Heroes of Honor is still not released worldwide, I think the game could be better if the developer could improve its tutorial and its slow-paced and board-like combat.
Overall, I enjoyed playing the game. If you like Kabam’s strategy games like Kingdoms of Camelot, or Dragons of Atlantis, you will love Heroes of Honor as its graphics are outstanding, and other parts are very true to Kabam’s fashion. But if you are a fan of Clash of Clans, you won’t see animated and skill-based combat.
Note: iTunes Link for NZ AppStore: https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/heroes-of-honor/id606106962?mt=8
