Heroes of History: A race in time

With ‘Heroes of History: Epic Empire’, Game On’s coverage of strategy-based worldbuilding games continues, as titles from the genre seem to be launching all around us.

Hyderabad: With ‘Heroes of History: Epic Empire’, Game On’s coverage of strategy-based worldbuilding games continues, as titles from the genre seem to be launching all around us. ‘Heroes of History’ does most things that are expected from the genre – it involves building structures, levelling them up, exploring the map, and conquering new territories by constructing military structures to raise an army.

However, just when you think the game is offering an experience similar to ‘Age of Empires’, you realise that its combat isn’t dependent on the usual accumulation of army units but rather on the heroes who have chosen to collaborate with you.

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Set in the imaginary continent of Panganea, the game begins with Albert Einstein welcoming you and requesting that you lead a prehistoric village into the Stone Age, and then requests you to continue your progress until you reach the modern age. However, this is a world where time travel is rampant, as Einstein has invented a time machine that allows you to summon some of the greatest leaders from human history to fight for you.

As you try to collect a range of world leaders, the game blends history and fantasy wonderfully by offering each leader unique abilities in combat. I especially enjoyed the attention to detail given to some of these abilities. Each of these abilities impacts the battlefield in interesting ways, ensuring that combat is rarely boring.

The game’s larger narrative pits Albert Einstein against his contemporary, Nikola Tesla, as Tesla attempts to craft his own time machine. The strength of ‘Heroes of History’ lies in its ability to balance various game modes – from worldbuilding and resource gathering to a detailed campaign mode where you collect stars by conquering new territories.

Additionally, there’s a set of combat challenges where you fight Tesla’s robots to ‘ascend’ your heroes, and an alliance/guild system that unlocks once you enter the Bronze Age, allowing for coop play. As you steadily progress across these game modes, you’ll appreciate how seamlessly the game’s interface allows you to multitask between them.

However, despite its wonderful premise and extremely engaging mechanics not all is perfect with ‘Heroes of History’. The game relies on an energy mechanic, where combat costs energy, and this energy is always limited, pushing players toward either spending real-world money or watching ads to replenish it. This mechanic feels reminiscent of free-to-play (f2p) games from the early to mid-2010s.

It was disappointing to encounter these monetisation tactics, especially considering InnoGames’ strong legacy with the genre. Despite its few drawbacks and archaic limited energy system, ‘Heroes of History’ offers a great gaming experience and, in many ways, lays down the gauntlet for ‘Age of Empires Mobile’, launching later this month.