So, the current game is Heroes of Annihilated Empires. I’m going to give my best shot at doing a review of it, but as this is my first try… Go easy on me if it sucks.

Heroes of Annihilated Empires is a cross genre game, combining the realms of RTS and RPG. At least, this is what it claims to do. The rest of the “review” after the cut.
I must admit, I am a fan of small European game companies that put out games that don’t fit normal categories. A couple years ago, I became entranced with SpellForce, another RPG/RTS game from Europe. And as far as games go, these two are about on par with eachother. Good games, some great ideas, but unfortunately laden with flaws. But, on to the details!

The game follows the young hero Elhant, who is not your normal run of the mill hero. Unlike most everyone else in these gams, Elhant has quite the attitude. It was refreshing to see him berate strangers for making choices he disagreed with, watch him tell great leaders that their plans are just wrong, and mock ancient druids when they ask him to help. Overall, the characters are all quite unique and interesting. My favorite scene was when the lord that Elhant was “helping” sends him out on a mission, in hopes that he wont survive.

One of the things you will quickly notice in the game is several “similarities” to the Tolkien world. On the first level you even run across an Ent. I will admit, I don’t have a problem with that. Tolkien did it right, so it’s not a problem that people try to emulate. The issue I had with it was the voice acting. In the case of the Ent, it spoke so slowly that I litereally had read through the entire conversation, and started moving on to the next objective before he had finished saying his first couple sentances. And that wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t end up talking to them almost every level! The other voice acting was average at best, with scattered moments of crap.

But enough of the artistic elements, on to the gameplay! As far as the RPG/RTS goes, I think it does an ok job of it. Not really a great job though… When you are playing with just the hero (no gathering, building, etc) it is pretty straight forward. You are playing a single unit in a normal RTS. The controls are the exact same, but now you have a limited inventory, and spells. In my opinion, the RPG aspect was not as robust as I would have wanted. The only real character customization is your items, spells, and the ability to pick one of two upgrades offered each level. For the less avid RPG fan, that would be plenty enough. For us die hards, it is lacking.

The RTS aspect is a lot more robust, as it is really the basis of the whole engine. It has all the standards of classic RTS games, like building different buildings, troops, uprages, gathering resources etc. There were a couple new things included that I found very nice, and wish other RTS games would include. First, was the ability to set your units to build infinately. This is very nice in a game where your army can grow to up to 400 units. They tend to die off quick, so it’s nice to have them constantly getting churned out. Next, the costs of buildings increase the more of that building you have. For example, the “Elf House” produces your primary units. If you build a second one, the cost required increases signifigantly. To build a third takes a huge investment. I feel this greatly adds to the balance of the game, where you can’t just make 20 buildings pumping out units faster than they can get killed. The downside of this is that it also applies to towers. I’m not sure I agree with that, but it does make your placement of towers a lot more thought out.

A few other details, then I will let start taking comments from the class. The graphics were very pretty. I find myself mesmerized by the water reflections. Other reviewers have commented that the graphics on the units could use work, and I agree. But at the same time, they are setting it up so you can have several hundred units on the screen at the same time, so you’ll have to expect that they’re not all going to be perfectly lifelike.

Final thoughts: It’s a good game. The story is worth a play, and the game play is similar enough to everything to be easy to get into, and unique enough to be interesting. And, I love Steam. Good job guys!