Heroes of Honor review: real-time strategy and city management

There are many strategy games with city management systems in them, but Heroes of Honor may just trump them all. Developed and published by Singapore-based Nonstop Games, Heroes of Honor lets you play a hero character, build up your own city, and duke it out with other players – all in real time.

At first glance

Heroes of Honor has a cartoony art style more suited for a casual game than a competitive strategy game where you have to destroy other people’s bases. Its color palette is bright and inviting, and the character and building designs are stylized and almost cute. The art style is a preview of the casual, accessible gameplay to come.

Once you pick one of three heroes, Heroes of Honor runs you through a comprehensive city-building tutorial. It speeds you through the basics with free upgrades and shakes your hand off as quickly as it first held it. While you have a continued guide in the form of quests that you can complete for rewards, you’re also set loose to wreak havoc in the world, because you now have control of your hero.

As the game’s name suggests, the hero is the focus of the game. It doesn’t just let you travel the world and conquer other bases; it’s also a way for you to stock up on the gold and wood needed to fortify your base. More heroes can be hired from the Encampment building, with eight heroes of every faction, making there a total of 24 heroes in the game. However only three heroes show up at any one time, and players can own a maximum of six.

The game world is broken up into different areas, each assigned to players of different levels. Beginner players can only remain in the starting area, while higher-levelled ones progress beyond into the next. Each area is populated with NPC demons and demon bases, areas that you can loot, and real users. If you’re worried about getting decimated the minute you step out, you needn’t be because new players are protected for their first few days in-game with an impenetrable shield.

I must add that Heroes of Honor reminds me a lot of the WarCraft real-time strategy games. There’s a hero, and then there are troops which you must train, unit by unit, before you can utilize them. And of course, there are structures you must build, workers (or peons) who chop at the trees in a very nostalgia-inducing manner, and dens (or farms!) for your workers. The art style and design of the game add to that feel. Ahh, the nostalgia!

What real-time battles mean

In Heroes of Honor, movement and battles cannot be restricted by energy systems because you don’t have time for that. Your hero traverses the map and battles in real-time as well. Movement is measured in seconds, not energy. There’s always something for you to do, be it smash up an NPC demon base or loot some ruins – unless you’ve run out of troops and have to wait for them. All it takes is time.

Fights between players happen when someone else is also at his phone at the same time. Engaging an NPC takes just three seconds to prepare for, while a battle against another player needs 30 seconds of prep before you start.

Battles in Heroes of Honor don’t actually showcase much animation. Your troops are pit against each other in melee and ranged phases, and do more or less damage depending on the number of units you have in your command as well as which buff you selected at the start of battle. Success sees you rewarded with gold and wood; failure against NPC demons just has you stepping back, while a loss in battle against a human player kills your hero and starts a revive timer.