For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Heroes Crew: Strategy Defense from developers Aloha Factory on my iPhone 14 Pro.
i've always been interested in Tower Defense games, i've uploaded a video of the Square Enix PS3 Tower Defense game Crystal Defenders https://youtu.be/CPxDtTKcWJY. but when these games get difficult it often feels like we're unable to make a change and we're stuck with the choices we made earlier on. Heroes Crew: Strategy Defense is great because we have the ability to change things.
Actually there's more to playing Heroes Crew: Strategy Defense that makes it a great game. it has one of the better tutorials i've played recently across any of the playlists i record for. the game doesn't try to add a story in, to then forget about it, the game is simply tower defense. so the game starting with a tutorial makes sense and this tutorial has 4 different sections to help with most aspects of the game. i'll say there's still room for improvement, but for the most part the tutorial is very useful. what surprised me a lot, is that the tutorial isn't over. when the game lets you take on the first section by yourself and you eventually loose, the game will then present you with a screen titled "Clear Guide" which will offer more hints and tricks for your next run.
In this video, i completed the tutorial and then did 2 runs. after the second, i leveled up the area i was in. it's not just the location that levels up, each of the characters i use can also be leveled up, as can items. so they go into the next run stronger, and in that run you're able to combine 3 one star characters to make 1 two star character. the challenge is making use of the character limit. you need stronger rarer characters, long rang and short range characters, and characters that can use magic.
The tag line for Heroes Crew: Strategy Defense in the App store is "Pure Strategy, No RNG, No Luck" and managing how many characters on the field is part of this. The more important aspect of this is placement of these characters. once they've been put down, they can be moved again. a circle is laid out showing their area of attack. game over is when time runs out, there's a time limit to take out the boss. so moving characters around to keep attacking the boss is critical.
But as well as leveling up characters, getting a balance of different characters, and moving around characters, there's another thing to consider, Mythic Heroes. these are much stronger than your own characters, and can also be upgraded in the home area outside of battles. but to summon them you need a certain number of select characters. In the first run, i didn't summon a mythic character but in the second i did and it was very noticeable how much stronger they were and how useful they were when it came to bosses. you can hear in that second run how i try to level up my characters to 3 stars, get a balance, and summon the mythic. but whilst it may sound complicated, i felt that i could do it and i did.
Heroes Crew: Strategy Defense is one of the better Tower Defense games i've ever played and it's one of the most accessible free to play mobile games i've played. i highly recommend people trying it, whether you're into tower defense or not.
Version 1.2.27 Played.
