Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes Review
If you’re familiar with the Might & Magic series, you may be a little surprised by Clash of Heroes. While the game retains its fantasy setting and some RPG elements, the core of the game is a strategy puzzle game, where you form attacks by joining together rows of colored units. The resulting gameplay is both unique and entertaining, with a wide variety of possibilities on the battlefield. Though the other aspects of the game are fairly bare-boned, battles are clever and addictive, even when your luck fails.
As the game begins, the five protagonists, along with their parents, are meeting to discuss the keeping and protection of the Blade of Binding, a powerful artifact that grants its wielder control over demons. When demons attack in an attempt to steal the Blade, the five young heroes are separated, cast through portals to different parts of Ashan, and there the adventure begins. Each seeks to reunite with the others, as well as pursue the demons responsible for the attack and recover the Blade. With five different perspectives, you get a nicely rounded understanding of the conflict that the demons have bred, though much of the story feels clichéd or typical of a fantasy game. Most of the characters are fairly flat or, when they are faced with a difficult choices, quickly act in the expected manner. While the game builds up a fairly complete narrative, the ending is rushed and fizzles out quickly, ultimately leaving an average plot wrapped up tightly.
Their lives thrown into chaos, each character seeks to return to order.
The gameplay is rather complex to explain, but it is essentially a mix of puzzle, strategy, and RPG gameplay. You play as the hero, and your troops are arranged on a grid-based battlefield on the bottom of the screen–your enemy’s army encompasses the top screen. To attack, you arrange your units so that three of the same unit type and color are lined up vertically, and after a charge time ranging from one to six turns, they will attack the top screen, defeating your opponents’ troops while trying to reach the enemy himself at the very top of the screen. Conversely, if you arrange your units horizontally, they form a wall, defending you from incoming attacks. The system is not dissimilar to puzzle games like Bejeweled, but there are only three colors here, and you do not switch units but add/delete them. It’s a complicated system but the game does a great job of easing you into the experience so that each aspect of combat gradually becomes clearer.
On each turn, you have a limited number of moves–three, to be exact. However, you can earn bonus moves by creating attacks or walls by deleting a unit rather than adding one. This is a crucial strategic point–it allows you to quickly form attacks while retaining your precious few moves. There are plenty of other strategic aspects that can give you an advantage in battle: attack links, fusions, timing your attacks to hit concurrently or divided between turns, etc. Furthermore, each unit has different abilities/charge times, and there are five different army types you will use throughout the game. Knowing how to use each unit efficiently is crucial, as is knowing your enemy’s units. Needless to say, this is a big undertaking for relatively simple puzzle-based gameplay, but it’s also a lot of fun, addicting, and challenging once you are immersed in the game. Forming powerful attacks is terribly satisfying, as much as watching your opponent mass his forces is nerve-wrecking.
Champion units plow through enemy lines.
Each army type includes three base units as well as five higher powered units, either elite or champion units. These troops generally have longer charge times than the basic units, but they also have stronger attacks and bonus effects, such as freezing enemy units or causing a poison effect. These units are incredibly valuable and are really the key to victory, but beware; unlike basic units, if these troops die in combat, they are gone forever. You can buy more with gold and resources won from battle, but you’ll still want to keep an eye on them and protect them, especially the ridiculously powerful champion units. You can only bring in two elite or champion units in each battle, so planning before a fight is invaluable. You can also plan outside of battle by choosing what artifact to equip. Each artifact has different effects, such as boosting your hero’s max health, and deciding which to use, especially during difficult battles, can be vital.
The RPG aspect of the game involves raising the level of your hero and your units. High level units have higher attack power and defense, while high leveled heroes have higher health, stronger wall formations, and can bring more units into battle at once. While these advantages are important, there are level caps; units can only reach level five, while heroes are limited to level ten. As a result, the RPG aspect is helpful but less important than your strategy and ability to read the battlefield–you can’t power-level your way through this game. Unfortunately, another large aspect of the game is luck. Depending on how your units fall on the battlefield (each battle starts with random formations), you can be at a great advantage or great disadvantage right from the opening turn. You can flee from battle in hopes of a better map, but this tactic costs you gold and resources. For all your planning and level raising, simple luck can often ruin you straight from the beginning of the match.
Bosses provide smaller targets, and move around the battlefield. Forethought is key.
The game sounds convoluted but it works wonderfully in practice. Each piece of the gameplay falls together to make a great, unique game that tests your strategy skills in and out of battle. Furthermore, the game won’t let you slide by with only barely understanding the gameplay; the difficulty ramps up significantly, with boss fights being especially challenging. In these fights, you have to hit a specific target rather than simply attacking anywhere on the enemy field. Planning ahead is vital in these battles, as targets move while also sending devastating attacks your way. Many of them are frustratingly difficult; oftentimes the enemy is very highly powered, and if luck is against you, it’ll be try, try again for you. Again, luck can play a big part here, as either your saving or losing grace.
Clash of Heroes offers both stylus controls and standard button controls, and while both are viable control schemes, the buttons are generally faster and easier. The stylus controls require a little more patience to manipulate, but for quickly arranging your troops, the buttons are more efficient. Since there’s nothing fancy about the controls in battle or outside of battle, it’s easy to quickly pick up how to play the game. There is not much to say about the graphics and sound, either; the game uses 2D images and sprites, but nothing especially flashy or note-worthy. Similarly, the music is not exactly memorable–it’s mostly background noise as you plot out your next attack.
Explore the overworld between battles to complete sidequests or buy new units.
In addition to completing the campaign–which lasts around twenty five hours if you pursue a lot of side quests and try to reach the maximum levels–the game also has a quick play option if you just want to jump quickly into a fight. You can change the settings to increase or decrease the challenge, and generally cater the battle to your specifications. Additionally, you can hook up with friends on local multiplayer for friendly fights. They’re not the greatest incentives to continue playing the game for weeks and weeks, but the main game is quite substantial in and of itself, giving you plenty of options to duel and practice your fighting prowess.
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is not your typical puzzle game experience, but it’s well worth the excursion. The story and presentation are minimal, but the gameplay is a beautiful mix of strategy, puzzle, RPG, and difficulty. Strategy fans will no doubt appreciate the various aspects each battle holds, and the interface is simple and familiar enough that it should catch the attention of puzzle fans. If you’re looking for a good challenge for your strategic muscles, Clash of Heroes is the game for you.
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