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If you’re eagerly awaiting the release of Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2, you might want to give this game a look. Dungeons & Dragons Heroes takes the basic hack and slash combat style and brings XBox owners an enjoyable gaming experience.
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150 years ago, the powerful wizard Kaedin opened four portals, each leading to a different plane of existence. He harnessed the power of these planes and created four gems that held their power. He then created a fifth gem and entrusted it to a beholder who guards it to this day. With the power of the five gems at his command, Kaedin covered the land of Baele in darkness. Until one day four brave heroes stepped fourth and opposed the evil wizard. A fierce battle ensued, and somehow the four heroes managed to defeat Kaedin… but with the last of his power he cast a great spell that killed them all.
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Kaedin’s reign had ended, and the heroes were given proper burial. Years later, a group of clerics seeking to claim Kaedin’s power for themselves resurrected the evil wizard, and Baele is once again threatened. Four heroes must once again step forth and defeat the evil wizard or the land of Baele is doomed!
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You have four different heroes you can play as during your adventure each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The fighter is a master of melee combat, the wizard can cast powerful magic, the Rogue is a great archer, and the cleric is a master of healing. Each character has a variety of weapons and equipment they can wield, and all sorts of different abilities they can learn as you gain experience. When leveling up your HP and MP increase with each level and ever few levels you can upgrade one of your stats (dexterity, strength, etc.). You also are awarded points with each level which you can distribute to your abilities to learn them or power them up. Each character also has a special weapon that they can power up throughout the game by collecting soul shards. Enemies drop all sorts of goodies, from money to items, and you can buy even more goodies at shops. There’s plenty in this game to explore and seek out, which adds to replay value.
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The gameplay is pretty basic hack and slash stuff like you’ve seen before. The controls work nicely, though, and you can set everything to hot keys, from using potions to magic attacks. This makes the gameplay pretty simple and you don’t have to worry about searching throughout a bunch of menus while you’re trying to slay some monsters. Should you decide to go through your menus to switch spells, the game doesn’t stop. Instead it goes into super slow motion, which keeps any friends you’re playing with from having to sit and watch you scroll through all of your magic.
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One area where Dungeons & Dragons Heroes really shines over Dark Alliance is the fact that you can play with up to four players instead of two. The more players the better the gaming experience will likely be. Competing to see who can get the most kills, gold and cool weapons adds a new dimension of fun to the game that you just don’t get playing alone. Plus, isn’t it usually more fun to have somebody else around?
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Anyone who’s ever played a game similar to this will know that this type of gameplay can be a little dull after a few hours. Multiplayer helps out a lot, though, and I’m sure you’ll have a great time with this game if you enjoyed Dark Alliance. It is a fairly short game, though, and although there’s reason for replay, you probably won’t get as much time out of this game as other recent RPGs.
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The camera is fully rotatable and allows for the gamer to zoom in and out, so you can get the exact view you want. The game features some really nice effects too, like enemies pumped full of arrows and realistic fire and water. The frame rate drops during some of the larger battles, which can really be a pain. The music works pretty well, but it’s pretty hard to hear at times over the gigantic battles. Aside from that you get the basic growls of monsters and clashing of swords type noises. Neither the graphics or sound will amaze you, but they’re both adequate.
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When it’s all said and done, Dungeons and Dragons Heroes is a fun game and a blast to play if you’ve got some friends. The hacking and slashing can get a little repetitive after a few hours, but the abilities and equipment variety help to spice things up a bit. If you’ve got an XBox, give this game a look.
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