The iOS classic comes to PC.
There are five teams available, some of which require a seperate purchase, but the Team Fortress 2 fellas steal the show.
It’s easy to look at mobile gaming as the poorer, dimmer cousin of PC gaming. In place of nuanced experiences which take hours to master are cutesy bite-sized games which are only supposed to entertain until you get off at the next bus stop. Hero Academy is the absolute antithesis of that idea of this competitive turn-based strategy game features deep gameplay, charismatic animations and crucially cross-platform play between PC and iOS.
The formula is simple, two tearns compete on a 5×10 board to either kill the other team or destroy their crystals. Each player spawns a finite amount of units, each of which has their own set of unique abilities be it shooting from afar, devastating hitting from up close or being able to revive fallen allies. The easiest comparison we can make is that Hero Academy is a bit like chess, with each piece able to perform different feats, but it’s about how you use them that counts. To further complicate things there’s also different power-ups which can heal and destroy enemy units, and specific squares on the board can provide extra protection or buff attacks.
The new Team Fortress 2 board type is ideal for some turn-based mischief.
Needless to say the gameplay is ideep, but what would you expect from a team of developers who used to work on the Age of Empire? Turns are split into five different actions, be it calling in reinforcements, moving a unit, attacking a unit or deploying a power-up. After your turn is done, your foe makes his or her move and you repeat this process until somebody wins.
Sounds simple right? It would be accept you never know if you’re playing a person on iOS or PC, so matches can vary from being over in an hour, to lasting for days as you wait for your opponent to either find time to compete or get a better network connection. You can have at least a dozen of different battles going on at any time, but it’s still really frustrating to have matches unresolved from days previous clogging up your play bar. You could resign of course, but why should you be penalised for the lazy play of others? To help with that regard there are thirty six puzzle challenges to introduce you to the game’s different squads and their abilities, but after their done you kind of just have to move on.
Overall this is an experience to play in the background for an occasional distraction, while you’re doing something else. Yet when that turn comes around you’d better be switched on as one false move often can cost you victory. Robot’s release easily excuses its paltry asking price with clever gameplay and a good online infastructure. Sure it may look simple, but Hero Academy will happily swallow up any time you devote to it, just be prepared to be twiddling your thumbs on occasion.
The best and worst of iOS gaming optimised for the PC platform.
Final Verdict: 83%
Tags: Hero Academy
Company of Heroes 2, Batman: Arkham Origins, Grand Theft Auto V, Watch_Dogs, Beyond: Two Souls and Night of the Rabbit previews.
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