Friday, June 20, 2014

Heroes of Atlan Review: The Game of Thumbs

Published on Friday, 20 June 2014 10:52
Written by John Shieldsmith

I mash my thumb into my phone’s screen for the umpteenth time, watching as the numbers next to my sword climb ever higher. I switch to my next hero, mashing my thumb once again into the glass, as the numbers next to my sorcerer’s boots jump up another 200. I jab my battle-worn thumb into the screen a few more times and find myself at the airship screen. My eyes glaze over with sheer joy as I watch the numbers next to my airship climb higher thanks to some hard earned upgrade components. Those too required many presses of my thumb. I pray my thumb will see my heroes to the level cap without breaking. This is the game for those with fortuitous thumbs. This is the game for those with little free time. This is Heroes of Atlan.

Heroes of Atlan, (87.35mb) made by WeMade Entertainment, tells the story of Atlan. Atlan was once a peaceful kingdom, but has since fallen into a slump thanks to the Demon King Beelzebub. You, the chosen one, must unite the many heroes…of Atlan. This entails thumbing your way through numerous locations and cutting down countless foes. The story is filled with too many clichés to count, with heroes turning villain, villains turning hero and a seemingly endless supply of demons standing in your way. That said, it’s entertaining enough and sports some witty writing.

The game leaves little to be desired in the way of content. While the core mechanics are akin to the typical time-based RPG affair – tap here tap there – the amount of content is staggering. The game features numerous zones, each containing several fights. The fights themselves play out automatically, with your characters attacking the target directly in front of them. This seemed overly simplified to me at first but quickly proved otherwise as the formation of your heroes comes into play early on in the game. For example, during one of the more difficult elite encounters, I had to move my more defensive units to the sides in order to absorb the heaviest of blows. Not knowing what units you will be fighting beforehand does leave your victory up to fate to an extent, but the ability to return to a fight at any point leaves a lot of room for success.

Further enabling the success of your merry band of heroes is the item system. Each hero can equip the same pieces of armor, all of which can be upgraded numerous times. The upgrades require you to hunt down recipes in elite areas, which as you likely guessed, feature elite enemies (read: you’ll die a lot). Once you’ve obtained a recipe you must then gather the required crafting materials from the zones unlocked through the story mode. This can get a bit tedious, as you will find yourself repeating this process for the same pieces of armor, for each of your several heroes. Repetition aside, watching your heroes do more and more damage as their equipment increases is satisfying and caters to the number junky. Furthering the numerical goodness is the Tempering system, which allows you to temper a piece of gear for an increasing amount of gold. Tempering an item increases all of its stats but also increases in cost – quickly.

The graphics are very clean and very colorful, with the detail on the heroes and enemies looking hand drawn in many cases. This is largely possible thanks to the limited animations of the game. Rather than have attack animations, the characters simply glide into one another when attacking, similar to the older “Pokemon” games. While the lack of animations were off putting at first, I quickly found myself loving the aesthetic and forgot about the animation issue altogether.

The music is top notch. Orchestral pieces matched the dark tone of the story while the light and peaceful music played during sequences in town helped me feel as if I were in Atlan. The sound is neither hit nor miss, but rather forgettable, with attacks lacking the kind of oomph one might expect them to have. This wasn’t a huge sticking point for me, however, as the music was sufficient enough to set the tone of battle.

As is the case with many free-to-play games, Heroes of Atlan does feature an energy system. Your energy is capped at 200, with bonus energy beyond that being applicable in certain cases such as an event or reward. Each fight costs five energy which quickly eats away at your 200. This became even more evident as I began crafting gear, with some pieces requiring twenty fights for an upgrade. Once your energy dips below 200 it begins regenerating every 30 minutes, but can take a full day to reach the cap again. Using a premium currency you can buy energy potions which restore 50 energy, but at nearly a dollar a pop I found these to be extremely pricey. It isn’t all bad, however, as the game does give you 50 free energy a day as well as additional energy from your friends.

Overall I have enjoyed my stay in the kingdom of Atlan and plan on staying there for the foreseeable future. The energy system does manage to get in the way as you progress, which makes it hard for me to recommend this game to those looking for long play sessions. That said, if you want a game that you can fire up for a few minutes here and there, this is perfect. If you’re a numbers junky, then consider this game your new drug. With “Windrunner” already under their belt, WeMade Entertainment appears to be doing something right. Like my career in Atlan, I see a long and bright future ahead of them. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go stretch my thumbs.

Heroes of Atlan

46,845 ratings

Offers in-app purchases

by WeMade Entertainment CO., LTD
500,000 - 1,000,000 downloads

Appears in a list of Role Playing Games

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source: droidgamers

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