[Review] Heroes of Ruin – It’s Gauntlet, only with more “being good” and less “charming goof”
Never heard of Heroes of Ruin? Check out this launch trailer!
It was a very long time ago that I first played Gauntlet Legends on Nintendo 64. For some reason it sits in my mind as one of those “N64 classics” despite not REALLY doing anything revolutionary at the time. Maybe it’s the really funny running animations? Still, it was fun, but thinking back it really wasn’t as good as I remember. Terrible? No, not at all. Just not great.
Then comes along the latest game from n-Space, Heroes of Ruin. I remember playing it at E3 last year and not being terribly impressed, but when I got back from L.A. it seemed like people were raving about it left and right, saying it was going to be the 3DS’s Diablo, or a true game for those that have been waiting on that old Gauntlet DS game that got cancelled. But is it?
Sort of.
To get it out of the way: If you liked Gauntlet, you will love Heroes of Ruin. You can stop reading this review right now and buy it with ease, because you’re getting mostly the same experience here as you got back in the day with Gauntlet. For those that are still on the fence because they were iffy about Gauntlet or never played it? Here’s what I say:
Heroes of Ruin is best played with friends over-wifi/wirelessly, worst played with other folks online (because communication is somewhat difficult), and medium-ly played solo. That is to say, if you have friends that are in prime condition for multiplayer games on 3DS, this is a great one to go with. The basic concept of crawling through dungeons, fighting enemies, using spells, gathering equipment, and completing quests is one that some people love and some people hate. I happen to dislike it for the most part, but toss some friends in there and- like any game, good or bad- it becomes wonderful.
Locally with three friends is the best way to play this game.
Me? I played most of the game solo, and despite what a lot of people are saying I really enjoyed it. Gameplay-wise it’s great, there are a lot of quests- new ones every day for the next year in fact!- and it’s really addicting. If you’re concerned that it’s clunkily built, you may rest those fears. As far as design quality it’s very difficult to complain.
It is, unfortunately, very EASY to complain about the charm- or rather, the complete and utter lack thereof. See, every great game has two things: Impressive technical aspects (gameplay, content amount, length, etc) and impressive “emotional” aspects (story, music, unique characters, humor, etc). Games can be good if they have just technicalities (say, Call of Duty or New Super Mario Bros.) or just charm (Fragile Dreams, No More Heroes), but without both it’s hard to call a game “great” objectively.
Heroes of Ruin excels at the technicalities, but falls very short with the charm. There is nothing to laugh at, nothing terribly memorable, and no goofy inexplicables. The locations- while occasionally really nice looking- are pretty same-y, and if you asked me while playing whether I was in part 1 of the forest area or part 4, I probably couldn’t tell you. The glimpses of inspiration and depth are few and far between, but they are there, and if a sequel to this game is ever produced I’d hope they’d take a few of these aspects and blow them up a bit more.
The final boss, without spoiling anything too vital, is mostly boring. There is, however, a portion where he flings you up into the air and you skydive back down while avoiding his attacks. That was wonderfully refreshing. Other parts I loved? Puzzles that appeared mostly later in the game offered a very nice break from the monotonous gameplay. This was great. I wanted more of this type of thing and I wanted it to be more polished, as opposed to having most of the dungeons be “Explore the map and hack n slash your way through”. Some people can really get into that sort of thing, but I think objectively it’s considered a negative trait. More Zelda and less Diablo would be appreciated, if that makes sense.
Something else I would have liked to see is humor. The story itself is straightforward and dare-I-say-it “bland”, but if they would have had a sidequest with a guy asking you to find his lost toupée in a dangerous dungeon, or someone saying that their dog was lost and would only come out if you ran in circles for ten minutes? Stupid silly memorable laughable stuff like that is what makes games like Zelda awesome and charming, and you can do it without interrupting the main quest too. If I was to offer any piece of advice to n-Space, it would be that.
A few other minor things that bugged me: Load times were too long too often, the frame rate occasionally dropped while in the main hub town of all places, and many sidequests just sort of fall into your lap while you’re going through dungeons. They aren’t really “work”; it’s just sort of stuff you complete without thinking.
All of that out of the way? It’s a good game. It’s not a great game unfortunately, but from a technical, tangible standpoint it’s really really good. Online play is seamless, easy-to-use, and all of the features advertised work without a hitch. It’s a bit difficult to communicate with voice-chat simply given the architecture of the 3DS (hence why I said you’re better off playing with friends locally), but that’s sort of applicable to all online games. Doesn’t make it good, but it makes it excusable.
I’m okay with this game. I’ll continue to play it and enjoy it, but it will always feel as though it’s missing something.
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Overview:
Remarkably well-designed, Heroes of Ruin excels in terms of the amount of content offered and the quality of its gameplay, but it sorely lacks in terms of… uh.. memorable-ness? You know, stuff that makes you laugh or unexplainable stuff you want to tell your friends about.
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Buy Heroes of Ruin if you enjoy games like…
Gauntlet, Diablo, God of War
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Heroes of Ruin is better than…
Gauntlet
but worse than…
Diablo, I think. But I haven’t played a lot of Diablo. I guess I’m just sort of assuming.
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Worth $40?
Yes, if you’re into this sort of thing.
Game Quick-Notes:
Name: Heroes of Ruin
Genre: Dungeon Crawler, Adventure, Action-RPG, Fantasy
System: 3DS
Developer: n-Space
Publisher: Square Enix
Players: 1-4, wireless or online
Length: About 7 hours for the main quest, much more with side-quests and daily challenges
