Customer Reviews

Heroes Chronicles: Masters of the Elements

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This game is really fun. I was a little disappointed when I got it, because I thought it was the one with the new graphics AND freegame play, but turns out I picked the wrong one.

It's still fun all the same though. Though you CAN'T pick your castles, or your heroes, and if one of your particular heroes dies you get a game over, but it's okay.

It gives you a lot of challenging scenerios, and I still haven't beaten the game yet. It's hours and hours of gameplay, so don't take all the negatives I've said without realizing it's a great game overall.

Part strategy, part adventure, Heroes Chronicles: Masters of the Elements follows the adventures of Tarnum, a barbarian lord leading a group of wizards against the Elemental Lords who have returned after ten thousand years to wreak havoc upon the world. Players build up heroes, have them go on quests, recruit armies of fantastic monsters, and build up their castles and territories as they attempt to turn the tide against the invading army.

This is not a human-centered universe, as golems, gremlins, gargoyles and genies constitute most of the troops. Magical items can be bought and found, spells learned and traded, and a theme of elemental magic pervades throughout the adventure. Because it tries to be both a strategic simulation and an adventure, the game succeeds only marginally. The main quest revolves around Tarnum - if he dies, the game ends. Strangely enough, the game also ends if he retreats. In fact, retreating seems to be as bad as death with the heroes disappearing and returning to the tavern only to be recruited and built up again.

When moving from scenario to scenario, Tarnum does not carry over any troops, unlike other adventurers in the game. The effect is to discourage use of the hero at all (just keep him alive), an aspect that doesn't make much sense. Additionally, because each town must have its goods and gold collected, other adventurers become mere errand-boys or girls whose sole purpose is to ferry goods to and from the kingdom's resources, certainly not very heroic.

Several poorly written conversations, which are supposed to advance the plot, are interspersed throughout the game. Unfortunately, they rarely serve their purpose and have little relevance to actual gameplay, quickly degenerating into annoying distractions. Available quests for each hero are not really quests at all but simply involve actions such as moving to a specific location where he or she benefits. This aspect gives the player a board game like experience by requiring the movement of playing pieces to each quest location as quickly as possible. The text descriptions rapidly become irrelevant, as each benefit, at its core, becomes "+1 Knowledge," "+2 Defense" and so forth.

Strategy is fairly straightforward - upon defeating an anti-hero, Tarnum is usually guaranteed a victory simply through attrition. Thus, Heroes Chronicles: Masters of the Elements suffers from severe one-sided triumphs or downfalls that is so prevalent in many strategy games of this type. Combat quickly becomes tedious, especially when fighting a multitude of the same monsters over and over. After fighting them long enough, strategies become obvious and there's rarely any surprise to be had except against rival heroes.

The buildings, monsters and spell effects are not particularly spectacular but are adequate. The various monsters seem to have drawn their inspiration from other sources: the Nagas look like the Marilith demons from Dungeons and Dragons and the gremlins look like Night Goblin Fanatics from Warhammer. Otherwise, the creatures are innovative and unique in appearance and abilities and heroes have distinctive portraits that give them personality.

Combat is fairly two-dimensional but effective in portraying conflicts. The overland terrain is a bit small and has a cartoon-like quality but not enough to detract from the game. Various animations play depending on the outcome of a battle but most repeat endlessly and become very annoying. The best animations are seen when a hero retreats - knights drop their weapons and run full tilt off the screen.

When troops die, each has its own particular death sequence (e.g., when genies die, they leave behind lamps). Refreshingly, the corpses stay on the screen. To drive home the horror that is defeat, an animation plays of an executioner with an axe that slashes a guillotine's rope, beheading Tarnum. It's not quite clear why an executioner needs a big axe to slash a guillotine - it seems a bit like overkill but maybe that's the point. Despite its inadequacies, Heroes Chronicles: Masters of the Elements can provide entertaining, if somewhat tedious, sessions of conquest.

If you like heroes of might an magic 3
You like this even more!
also try Warlods of the wastelands!

Well, ths could have been a great deal of fun - but it is not! The idea of making a campaign, where you are to travel through the elemental planes was obvious after the modifications of the Shadow of Death edition, and I was very excited when I saw this. Unfortunately, these scenarios are so easy that you could probably walk through it all in an afternoon - if you wanted. You get all the good spells in the first scenarios, and the enemy never gets an army big or good enough to make up for your tremendous advantages. And so, all it ends up to in the final scenario is getting past 'lots' of level 7 creatures to crush the enemy. The game is full of 'funny' remarks, that are only anoying, and the attempt to make the characters come to life has totally failed.

Deffenitely NOT worth the money!

I never liked the Heroes campaigns but this *quintet* (see below) of games bridge the gap between single scenarios and long campaigns. Good, immersive plot and some interesting challenges.

Note to other Heroes Chronicles gamers: If you were not already aware, there is a "fifth" chronicle (The World Tree) available from the 3DO website for free if you have already purchased two of the four chronicles.

If this is it for the chronicles though, I wish there was a conclusion. Otherwise, keep them coming!