Heroes Call for Android

Posted by Niksuski, on September 22nd 2012 3:12 PM (EET)

Almost everyone remembers where the mobile gaming started. Yep, it was the Snake on the most developed Nokia phones at the time. Nowadays you can find amazing 3D games for your high-end powerful handheld "console-like" devices. Some of them are paid, and some you can even get for free.

 

I stumbled upon a very common RPG fighting game, where you explore dungeons and complete quests. The thing about this game, however is, that it's free. Well, for some parts.

The game is a lot like Nox for PC, but this one is of course for your Android smartphone.

The graphics are absolutely stunning, and the Galaxy S II runs it silky smoothly. The developers have certainly seen effort into providing their users a very positive experience.

Let's see how the game begins, then. First off you need to make yourself a character. There are multiple characters where you can select from, but only one of them is free. You can unlock other characters by purchasing them on Play Store.


The freely playable character is the Blood Knight. As you gain levels, you can unlock new abilities. In the beginning, you will have one ability unlocked. A frenzy that improves your battle skills for a little while.


The UI looks brilliant, apart from the size of it. Text in some parts is way too small for a small resolution display like the one on the S2, despite the RGB matrix, the text is hard to read. Let alone a Pen-Tile matrix display. Also some buttons are very small and difficult to press, like the pause button in the middle of a game. It's a very, very small square in the up left corner, but it'll work if you aim at it long enough.

A game like this, however, requires to have a tiny UI if you wish to have a map, health and power bar, some potion shortcuts and an ability bar visible at all times.

The buttons also lack feedback. If you press a button, and it starts a new quest for example, you can't know if the game has picked up your tap, or not, until the loading screen appears. You can also find checkboxes, which are also very small and difficult to select. This reduces the experience quite a lot.



Gameplay is very easy indeed. You move around by tapping a place you want to go to, or just hold down your finger on the map, and your character moves to the direction. Sometimes though, you might find your finger blocking your view of the display.

By default, the camera distance has been set to close, and it's extremely inconvenient to play the game that way, or at least my personal opinion. Fortunately, you can change the camera distance in the game settings.

You can find barrels, chests or coffins in the environment, which you can open by naturally tapping them. If you pick up an item, a notification will pop up showing what you've found. New, uncommon and rare items require you to identify them before you can equip them. Identifying cost you a few gold, or you can identify your items at the Appraiser for free. You can find gold around the environment, so you really don't need to use the Appraiser for that.


You can equip and drop stuff by selecting the item, and tapping the appropriate button on the bottom of the UI. The inventory screen can be accessed through the circular character icon in the right top corner.


There is not much I can say that's bad in this game, apart from these details:

  • During your game, you can't save your progress. If you want to stop in the middle of a quest, you need to start from the very beginning when you continue.
  • The UI is confusing and hard to use, as if it's not built for small resolution devices

For a free game, this one definitely deserves three stars out of five.



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