Loot Heroes is a dungeon crawler, and right off the bat I was fairly impressed by the wealth of characters to choose from. Rather than the typical 3-4 class selection that's typical for the genre, you have a more free-form selection of more unique characters with individual perks, such as extra health regeneration, rage bonuses, or being able to raise the dead to fight alongside you. It means that you have quite a bit of control over how you want to play the game.
It also has a very high replay value with that feature, because some characters are only unlocked after completing certain in-game achievements, with one of them being beating the campaign. So, if you love the game, you can play through it dozens of times and have very different experiences.
Unfortunately, I was not at all a fan of the controls.With no ability to alter the controls, the main mouse button essentially functions as the game's "DO" button. It's how you attack. It's how you open chests. It's how you attack. I like when games give an option for simple, straightforward controls, but this goes way too far and does nothing to placate the other side.
"Oh, now I have a bow! I guess that'll change the strategy of the game. Oh wait..."
This wouldn't be a huge deal, depending on how you want to play the game. But consider a ranger, someone who is designed to have low health, high damage, and is supposed to be nimble on his feet. You can't really move and attack in any reasonable fashion if it's all the same freaking button. It just doesn't work. So there's no finesse. It's just clunky and frustrating. And the game has numerous bows that you can use as ranged weapons. But for the life of me, I can't decide how that's possible a better solution than the sword hack-n-slack method.
Another very frustrating feature of the game is the save/load function. It has several slots, presumably so you can keep multiple different heroes saved at one time, which is a nice thought. But with not explanation or warning, the save file seems to only load the beginning of the level you saved on. In other words, if you battle all the way to the boss, and you decide "I'll do the rest after I eat dinner" and close your tab, then you have to do the whole floor over. And the game is only made up of 10 floors. They aren't super long, but it would still be nice to know what was coming. The save dialogue says "You'll lose any unsaved progress." It does not mention that inter-level saves are completely discounted.
They all look so angry...
The loot system was a mixed bag for me. I loved the fact that they gave you DPS (damage per second) and the special attributes in bold print was a nice touch. Also, the fact that you could instantly sell items is a pretty nice feature when there are no ways to increase your inventory size. However, there is definitely some magic to needing to find stores to sell equipment. It helps keep the loot system involved with the strategy of the game. Here, it's the rudimentary "if it's worse, throw it away for 10 gold." But my main complaint about it was that there was nothing useful to buy. You have little kiosks to buy 2 potions, either to increase health or mana, and then you could buy a random weapon for an obscenely high price. It was terribly balanced and completely frustrating. The dropped loot and chest placements were plentiful, but the store aspect was abysmal.
Overall, I think if you can get past the all one button control scheme, I think the game is worth a playthrough or two. But if you're like me, and you can't stand the controls, I'd recommend other dungeon crawlers like Arkandian Crusade.
Scorecard:
Category
|
Score
|
Time Value
|
5
|
Money Value
|
10
|
Originality
|
7
|
Ryplayability
|
2
|
Fulfillment
|
5
|
Final Score
|
5.8
|
Let me know what you think of Loot Heroes!
Until next time,
Ryan
Pictures courtesy of Kongregate
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