Mark tries to juggle strategy with slaughter in muddled hybrid Heroes and Castles 2, and ends up being murdered by a skeleton. Sigh - Fridays, eh?!
Description
To your left, lumbering Giants smash into hordes of skeleton warriors. To your right, Knights cut through lines of Goblins with their lances. Behind you atop your castle walls, Dwarf Riflemen unleash a salvo of musket fire into the incoming Orcs. The enemy has only one intent: to destroy your castle, and you, hero, are its only hope!
-----FEATURES-----
CASTLE DEFENSE, STRATEGY, AND ACTION-RPG GAMEPLAY!
Take to the battlefield in an immersive 3rd person perspective, summon entire armies to fight beside you, and defend your castle to the death! Fight in the middle of a huge battle that you control!
CUSTOMIZE YOUR HEROES!
Choose one of three races, level up, learn new skills and abilities across 9 classes, forge weapons, armor, and shields, and destroy your enemies!
SUMMON HUGE ARMIES TO FIGHT BESIDE YOU!
Summon Dwarfs, Elves, Archers, Pikemen, Giants, Knights, Catapults, Mages and much more to aid you in your defense. Watch them battle the enemy right beside you in massive, epic battles!
BUILD AND UPGRADE YOUR CASTLE!
Build Towers, upgrade your castle walls, and defend! Conquer new lands and build outposts to secure them.
EPIC SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN!
Defend your castle through 30 waves, all while taking control of an enormous map by capturing and defending new outposts. Ultimately lay waste to the enemy castle in a final, glorious siege battle!
COOPERATIVE MULTIPLAYER!
Team up with a random ally or one of your friends and compete in the GameCenter leader boards!
PVP COMPETITIVE MULTIPLAYER!
Battle against other players - defend your castle and destroy theirs!
TONS OF ENEMIES TO BATTLE!
Fight against dozens of enemies on screen at once, from hordes of the Undead, to Orcs, Goblins, Ghouls, Spiders, Trolls, Catapults, Mummies, and more!
ADVANCED GRAPHICS AND TONS OF FEATURES!
Incredible mobile graphics and lighting, fight with dozens of units on screen at once, hi-resolution assets for top of the line devices, iCloud saving, MiFi controller support, and more!
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Search for Heroes & Castles 2 on Youtube for awesome gameplay footage!
Follow us on Twitter @FoursakenMedia or like us on Facebook for more Heroes & Castles 2 news!
What's New in Version 1.3.9
• Fixed a bug where characters appeared all white in menu screens
• Fixed a crash when changing shadow setting
Comments
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well i haven't played h&c 2, but this is exactly what I thought of the first one, I like strategy games and I like action games but yeah, kinda so-so in both categories. I think it would be more fun without the hero and 3rd person element.. if you really needed the first person element let me fire a stationary crossbow like in total war and then be done with it.
I would disagree with this review to an extent...
If you're "randomly sending out troops and wailing on a spongy skeleton in some vain attempt to win", you haven't looked into the strategy aspect, you're panicking, or you're not playing very well... I've gone a long way in the game thus far, making it (so far) to Wave 14 in the main castle/story and conquering a good bit of the lands with primarily using Shield Knights, Blunderbuss (Dwarves), Human/Elven Archers, Elven Hunters, Pikemen, and Captains. It's kind of the standard mix of units from the first game, but I may find myself throwing out a lot more of varying units pretty soon. There have been times, as well, where I came close to defeat but, with sending out the right units and attacking the right enemies on my end, turned the tide of battle and overcame the enemy (and had a huge sigh of relief afterwards).Additionally, units you send out, if you read their description before sending them or choosing who to send, often tell you what kind of enemy they're good against, or who they'll target as a priority. So, it's not as if you're on your own expected to learn to swim by being thrown in a pool. Lol.
Each baddie has a counter/unit weakness. It's not impossible to remember, it's just a matter, like with any game, trial and error and repetition = memorization. Plus, if you're stuck on a Wave, the Scribe in the main castle has the "Beastiary", which details each enemy you've encountered thus far and what to counter them with, for reference.
This isn't particularly a game made for a casual player; if you've played the original Heroes and Castles, the steep difficulty curve (which thankfully isn't in THIS game) says that clearly. You're required to take the fight to the enemy personally while also ocassionally looking around the battlefield to see just what you're up against and, from there, send out the appropriate troops (personally, I've found Shield Knights to be the most effective unit universally) if you need the assistance (Though, sending out Bannermen is always a must). There's also the aspect of Research that does help a lot in battle, as well as the crafting system via the Blacksmith which can sometimes give you extremely good gear which just helps your character that much more. Plus there's the skill trees you can invest into each time you level up and the various weapons you can equip for different setups of enemies (I would suggest using a bow or gun for Seige missions, since you can send out troops to occupy the enemy while you pummel their fortress from a distance).
For a strategist and action fan like myself, and for many others (according to several App Store reviews made thus far), this is the perfect game and one that keeps me/us involved and on our toes, which is what you'd want from a strategy game. Sure, your units may not be able to be commanded to exactly what target you want, but that's where you come in; if you see an enemy slipping by, you get the satisfaction of going over and wailing on them in a "Haha! Not this time, skellyman! Good try, though!" fashion, as I actually have. :P
Heroes and Castles 2 is a game that I forsee (just like its predecessor a couple of years ago) staying on my iPad for a very long time. At least for me, it's exactly the kind of game I want to play, and enjoy playing; it's a hybrid worth loving, in my opinion. c:
You see, it's thoughtful and articulate comments like this that I love AppSpy readers for. You make some good points, and I'm sure Mark would be glad you're enjoying the game - even if he wasn't a fan himself. We always say "games are for everyone", and everyone likes different kinds of games, so if you're getting a kick out of it, I think that's awesome! :D