When Nintendo said that they would be pushing online experiences on the DS, it didn’t quite pan out how we had hoped. Minimal support from Nintendo and a network that relied on friend codes and tedious connection walls kept us from going online all that much. When they said the same thing about the 3DS, we were skeptical at best.
We’re happy to report that we were wrong, since (for the most part) the 3DS has an actual gosh-darn online network. It’s not as robust as Xbox Live or PSN, but it’s certainly better than anything Nintendo has done to date. Enter Heroes of Ruin, a dungeon-crawling action RPG in the vein of Diablo and Torchlight that is as fully online enabled as one could imagine from a portable, far outpacing anything else that connects the 3DS to the web.
Though in our time with the demo at PAX East only two of us connected to play, up to 4 people can play online together via online or locally. The local connection was extremely smooth and issueless, and though I was communicating with the developer sitting next to me I was assured that voice chat would be available via microphone or headset. Communicating with audible words is important to the experience, as letting teammates know what strategies to employ on the fly can’t be done by text chat; the fast-paced tempo of the game — enemies attacking frequently, items dropping often, healing and spells — requires quick reactions that would otherwise leave a player open for attack or damage.
HoR takes place in randomly-generated dungeons with several branching paths, huge locales, and plenty of enemies to battle. A map on the lower screen points to the goal to keep us from getting lost along the way. Our demo took place in a smaller cave, but one that was packed with as much variety as possible to show us the features of the game. Even then, I found myself straying away from the goal if I caught the glint of a glowing item or the shuffle of an unsuspecting enemy in the distance.
Ruin is as much about exploration as it is the final goal, offering up several sidequests in addition to the main mission of each zone. The sidequests are attained in one central hub early in the level, and are specific to that zone. Leaving the dungeon loses the missions that aren’t attained yet, but even those are randomized each time. The OCD in me prolonged our demo as I tried to attain all of the items and complete the quests.
The level design seemed fairly straightforward, and finding our way to the end meant simply staying on the main path. The constant randomization and the level of power of the 3DS meant that the visuals weren’t as beautiful as we’ve seen from other handheld games that are more linear. Things seemed dark and grainy at times, and the 3D didn’t really have much of an effect since the viewpoint of the game was from overhead. There were instances where while I was battling enemies and had no idea where the attacks were coming from.
Midway through our demo my character gained a level, which is really where the depth and promise of the game came through. Each of the four classes has three skill trees, and players can either add skills or improve the ones they currently have. I chose to play as the Vindicator, improving my attack power for the upcoming boss battle. The boss, a witch that could attack with magic and possess other enemies during the battle, had an impressive array of attacks that consistently overpowered and killed off our characters. Thankfully, with the drop-in/drop-out design of the game we were able to whittle away at her health bar, but not before the battle became a bit tedious and felt drawn out. Ruin modifies the difficulty of the game on the fly, so when both of us were alive the boss was much more difficult than if playing solo.
Our mission lasted around 15 minutes, and the developers told me that this was fairly normal for the levels. It makes for a great, quick adventure when connecting with friends online, and has me wishing for the ability to play on a train or in a car with 3G access. The sessions are short and fulfilling enough that any prolonged period of time might seem a little repetitive.
Heroes of Ruin reminds me of some of the Crystal Chronicles games for the DS, with ample character customization and leveling and a straightforward gameplay mechanic mixed with dungeon-crawling and loot. It comes at a time when Diablo III and Torchlight II are launching, but is the first of its kind for the 3DS. It may be great for a quick playthrough, but it’s yet to be seen what amount of content and enjoyment prolonged sessions will give us.
Heroes of Ruin launches this July exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS.
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