If you've spent any time gaming on the PC
or even major consoles it's hard not to have
come across Orcs Must Die, Robot Entertainment's
third-person take on tower defense gameplay.
Now iOS gamers can experience a taste of the
developer's whimsical sense of fun thanks
to their free-to-download tactical title,
Hero Academy.
Part card game, part turn-based strategy,
players pit themselves against opponents from
around the world in asynchronous matches.
As such you can take part in multiple games
at any one time, though nominally you'd like
to be paired up with someone who's waiting
to immediately respond to each turn, helping
you to finish a game in a reasonable time.
Each turn players are given five actions,
be it to summon a creature or item from their
hand and in to the game field; move a particular
unit in to a new position; or make a direct
action such as combat, healing or summoning
ghouls from the corpses of the recently deceased.
Anything used from your hand is randomly replaced
from a limited stock of reinforcements.
While one of the victory conditions is to
destroy the opponent's crystals, you could
also find yourself facing defeat if you treat
your items and characters like so much fodder.
It's tempting to push out too many units on
to the field and this would be a huge mistake
- given the limited amount of moves per turn
you'll need to make the most of anywhere from
1 to 3 units.
Any more and you start to limit your options
and leave units open to retaliation.
Despite the small amount of units at any one
time the game feels immensely dynamic, with
players being able to counter almost any situation
given patience and resourcefulness.
However, being free you'd expect limitations
and you'd be right - firstly access to the
second available race (Dark Elves) along with
access to aesthetic changes such as avatars,
team colors and 'taunts' requires a cash purchase.
More worryingly though is the lack of stat
tracking for matches, making victories and
losses hollow or devoid of meaning in the
long-run.
Players can see their recent matches, but
it's a far-cry from climbing a competitive
ladder and being matched with equally skilled
opponents.
Speaking of which, it's also odd that the
game opts to utilize Facebook for matching
up with friends instead of more readily available
solutions such as Game Center.
Hopefully the currently implemented accounts
tied in to Robot Entertainment's website result
in better competitive features in the future.
Ultimately what you get with Hero Academy
is what you pay for - a game with stunningly
simple and refined tactical gameplay that
is otherwise crippled by a lack of solid competitive
features and no form of offline AI-based gameplay
to keep you playing while you wait.
I need more opponents, so I heartily recommend
giving this game a go while it remains free.
