Heroes Must Die by Heroic Games takes the usual hero trope seen in video games and turns it on its head. Playing as a hero-in-training turned villain, your task is to kill all heroes before they become a threat. Filled with humor, nods towards other video games, and an easy-to-learn combat system, Heroes Must Die is fanciful break from usual video game fare.
You start off the game learning how to become a hero. Training with your friends, you go through the tutorial on how to battle. The humor starts right at the beginning of the game, with the trio breaking into a beer brewery. It continues as you switch to playing Storm, now hero-killer. Making fun of the tutorials, battling against NOM and their om-nom-nom meetings, you will be laughing as you slaughter your enemies.
The battle system is easy to learn yet challenging to execute. Using 5 moves, you slice your way through enemies and create combos. When your 5 moves are over, you switch to defense mode where you really have to pay attention. Each enemy strikes in a particular pattern, remember the patterns and dodge out of the way to stay alive. Boss battles are a bit more difficult in that the minor enemies constantly respawn, but in the end this helps increase combo damage.
The 2D graphics are reminiscent of earlier video games, but the details are quite stunning. Movement is as simple as point-and-click, though I prefer dragging Storm around the map. The story is intriguing enough to keep a player interested and moving forward. The humor, though, is what really kept me going.
If you are looking to play something different from other games and are in need of a laugh, Heroes Must Die is for you. Simple to learn, easy to play and interesting enough to stay engaged, it is an all around great package.
