DnD Heroes
or Red Elf needs ass kicking badly

Article by Chiz

So I bought an X-Box. I had put it off because the game selection just wasn't there. But I had really liked Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance last year and when I saw DNDH was to be X-box exclusives and that there were a few other games that were going to be exclusives finally got me to give in. I did get the X-Box cheep used so I avoided taking Microsoft's barbed demon phallus directly in my mouth, just some splash on my face and hands. BGDA was a fun two player game. I still remembered the first time I played it. I had just driven in to Albuquerque and was crashing at a house with no heat but did have a great big TV. Middle of the winter rapped in a sleeping bag and happily slaying evil till the sun came up. So when I saw the similarity in DNDH I had to give it a try.

DNDH has four characters for you to play by yourself or with three buddies. They are well balanced with the thief being a bit week but different enough to be fun. You still get points as you level to spend on powers and spells. You have the hit points and magic points with potions to go with each. You get a item slot for stuff like holy water and rods of magic missile. You end up with more money then you know what to do with and a convenient way to travel back to town to sell and buy stuff. This does have some odd parts. This is the only game were the equipment you can buy is actually the best stuff in the game. Usually by the time you can afford the stuff from town you have found much better, but not this time. You get lives by finding or buying an item, but these items are cheep and plentiful in the wild. Before I realized how much weight they were taking up I had over 30 of the dam things. The equipment also tops out relatively early so all your characters tend to have the same stuff.

Graphics are nice. The heads up map was nicer in BGDA, this map is less controllable and varies from hard to see or harder to see through depending on the board. The controls are good, no walling off bridges or anything, although aiming could be better. The items have a nice auto aim function, but the direct fire weapons, tend to be hard to hit at angles. I really miss the laser site that BGHA gave you, in this game I tend to just spray and pray. Every special move takes magic points so you tend to go though magic potions faster then a whore through wet wipes. I like the finishing moves that all the characters get. These are moves that you have to charge up by scoring 1-3 hits before you can use them. Like in most games some powers are much better then others, it tends to be best to find a good power and max it out early. As the mage I used magic missile until the very end of the game.

The only real problem I had with the game was that it was too easy. You very rarely if ever die and extra lives are like water. The most damaging thing in the game is fire. And I don't mean fire attacks, every day fire like camp fires that stuff eat you up if you stand too close. The button selection interface is ok but could be better. You could not exclude moves or items that you don't want to use. So to get from great big fire damage spell to great big ice damage spell you have to go through manhandle fluffy bunny spell and making the orcs itch spell in the heat of battle.

Better then the latest Gauntlet games worse then BGDA2 I hope.
Overall 8.5

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