Medieval
Heroes by Arcona
Magi, Price: $15
Reviewed April 2003
Drawing from the rich battle history of
medieval times in Central Europe, Medieval Heroes takes you
to the 14th century where central Europe was divided into
provinces and controlled by the local noble lords. Developed
by the Russian team Arcona Magi, Medieval Heroes inherits
its game play from the traditional turn-based strategy genre
and throws in some real time fighting.
You will play as one of the noble lords
of France, Germany or the Slavs, and your hero’s skills
balance between Tactics and Covert Operations. The Tactics
influence the attacking force and Covert Opts influence the
success rate of scout and robbery operations. In the beginning
of the game, you are given an army with certain number of
knights, archers and swordsmen as well as your own castle.
Your goal is to unite the independent provinces and attack
and occupy the enemy territory. Players on the map will take
turns to move to a new province, attack their enemy province
or recruit additional army members. Once you control a province,
you will enjoy the taxes and army power they possess. You
can then use the money and new army to either guard your
current territory or attack new territory.
There are two views in the game play, the
map view and the battle view. The game play in the map view
is very much like the traditional turn-based strategy games
while the battle view adds some real time elements. During
the battle, you can move your army anywhere on the map and
attack any enemy units. This breaks some of the limitations
of a chessboard turn-based battle system, and gives you the
freedom to fight each battle with a different strategy depending
on the number of army units you and your enemies bring to
the field. You can also send in scouts or spies before you
attack an enemy province to learn about the defending forces.
To attack the enemy’s home base with castle, you can
even use a trebuchet to knock down the walls and towers before
the army moves in.
The graphics in this game look surprisingly
good. In the map view, you will see different colors representing
the legion of the provinces. When you click on a province,
you will find some basic information. The battle screen
looks pretty simple. The fighting units look more like
icons rather than images resembling the real troops. Each
type of combat unit moves as one regardless of how many
people are in that unit. You can see their life bars on
top of each member and a crosshair on enemy units when
you direct your troops to attack that unit. You will find
the recruiting army, transferring forces between guarding
and attacking as well as laying out the battle formation
extremely easy. There is also a battle-training mode to
help you learn attacking and defending.
The game does not support any sound and
currently runs on Palm OS 3.5 or higher devices with 8-bit
or 16-bit color display. A hi-res version will come out in
May, we are told.
While the turn-based world map domination
game play isn’t new, adding some real time fighting
is a refreshing twist. Even though the game does not offer
any flashy 3D graphics, it does have a very friendly user
interface and quite addictive game play. As the game developers
view the Middle Ages as an era of mystery, valiant heroes
and incredible glory, you can join in and learn the rich
history as you plow through the land and claim your domination!
Playing Hint and Tips
Try all three lords and all heroes at all
three-difficulty levels. You will see different results in
battles and cover operations. Don’t leave your territory
unguarded, or you'll either get cut off from your castle
or playing seesaw with your enemies. |
