Heroes Wanted Review: An unforgiving gem that somehow leaves you wanting more
Heroes Wanted is a surprisingly complex deck-building rogue-like, which hides its intricacies behind a simple system of elements, randomised card collection, and cute artwork. I had a fun time playing this game, although there were several parts that really frustrated the heck out of me. That being said, Heroes Wanted is still in early access, so I look forward to seeing what the finished product looks like!
A fine addition to the deck-building genre
Growing up, I played a lot of Pokemon cards and Magic The Gathering, so I have a soft spot for deck-building games. The format is so flexible in how it be used to explore different game systems and world settings. Some other deck-builders that have been especially fun for me have been Griftlands, and Inscryption, which I wrote a review for some time back. When I saw Heroes Wanted pop up on my Steam recommended, I knew I had to give it a shot! Plus, the artwork was cute. It had to be one of those casual card-battling kind of games, amirite?
No, I wasn’t. It’s hard. But man, has it been a rollercoaster so far!
Dive right into the action: good or bad?
After selecting your character (there’s only one option available when you start), you go into a cutscene, and then jump straight into gameplay. I noticed there wasn’t a tutorial, and assumed that I would learn as I go. The first few battles were rather easy, and let me get the hang of the combat system, the elements, and the different kinds of cards that were at my disposal. The basic system isn’t hard to get.
Eventually, I noticed that there was this “flag” icon at the right corner of some cards, and there were different effects that were being triggered. There were also items that talked about a “retreat” skill. Eager to find out more, I noticed that there was an optional guidebook so I thought I could learn more there. To my dismay, the guidebook only had content for many of the mechanics that I had figured out by myself already.
That being said, I feel like the guidebook explanations were very clear. I appreciated that it was optional, and I didn’t have to go through an annoying compulsory tutorial. The videos used as examples were very easy to understand. I just wished that it actually contained the content that I needed. Maybe this will be a future addition by the game devs.
Randomised cards and items result in different play styles
The base deck that you start off with is the same each time, which more or less guarantees that your first few battles will go roughly the same way. However, as you collect more cards along the way, you are the one who has to adapt the cards that you have. Are you going to lean more into a defensive playthrough, with monks and paladins, or maybe have fun poisoning enemies with gangs of witches? You need to have a good understanding of how each card works and their different play mechanisms to be successful, and can’t really specialise in a certain playstyle.
Besides cards, you also have access to different artifacts that provide different kinds of bonuses. This adds yet another layer of randomisation to the gameplay. Unlike cards, where for most of the draws you would have been able to choose between multiple cards, most artifacts just drop in your lap without any choice required by you. How do you evolve your playstyle to account for both your card selections and your artifacts?
The majority of your card choices are generally element-agnostic. A knight is knight, regardless of what element it is. At some points, you get the chance to draw special cards, which are unique to the element. These cards are powerful, and also provide some story flavour and variety. Otherwise, the gameplay doesn't really lean into the storyline at all! It’s nice to get a special Undine, or a dwarf that can hit 4 times, when the rest of the story is kind of static. The choice of which element your special card will be has a heavy influence on your playstyle for that run.
Unforgiving difficulty can feel frustrating
For a short game, the difficulty across levels scales up pretty rapidly. I found myself struggling when I got to a new level. I also found bosses ridiculously hard, and kept on trying and trying and trying again! I made it a personal mission to at least try and get past the second stage boss, which could hit me with a whole 142 points of damage! It was only after many tries that I could finally beat it, only to realise that the third stage had jumped up yet another level in difficulty.
Additionally, each run is completely self-contained. This means that no matter how far you get in a single run, you’ll have to start from scratch when your character dies. Nothing carries over, and there isn’t any kind of overarching leveling system, where you gain experience from each run, to make the next run easier. This can make it feel like you’re hitting a wall when you’re stuck. It’s also hard to exactly create a strategy to get past hard bosses because your card and artefact collection is randomised.
Because each run is self-contained, and you would likely have put in a lot of work to get to where you are, it also disincentives you from trying out different mechanics. How likely are you to try and adjust your playstyle for that run, when every single action you take is so important to the outcome of that whole run? Because some new mechanics are only discovered further on in the run, this means that players can only experiment with something new if they are willing to risk screwing up their whole run and starting from scratch yet again. Granted, each run isn't that long, and you should be more willing to let go of what you’ve done. But it was so hard to get to where you were already!
Heroes Forward is a fun gem that needs a bit more polishing
Despite the challenges I faced playing this game, I still enjoyed it immensely and could see other players enjoying it as well. I look forward to seeing how this game evolves through Early Access. It isn’t often that I play indie games by Asian game developers, so I’m super excited to see how Heroes Wanted grows.
