HEROES CHRONICLES 1: WARLORDS OF THE WASTELAND Reviewed by Paul Hardy Game type: Resource Management/Role Playing Game Published by: 3DO Minimum Specification: Pentium 133, Windows 95, 230 Mb Hard Disk space, 32 Mb RAM, 4 speed CD-Rom, Direct 7.0a compatible sound card. Warlords of the Wasteland is the first game in 3DO's Heroes Chronicles series, and introduces us to Tarnum, the Immortal Hero. Slain in combat, Tarnum is not allowed entry into the afterlife due to being judged unworthy and so is cast back to earth to prove his worth through mighty deeds, and it is these deeds Tarnum must accomplish through the Heroes Chronicles series. Warlords of the Wasteland is chronologically the first game in the series, as it deals with Tarnum's arrival back on earth and his first great task - to unite the barbarian tribes and drive out the evil Mages who control his homeland. I have never played any of the Heroes of Might & Magic games, and as I believe the Heroes Chronicles games feature the same game engine, I could approach Warlords of the Wasteland with a totally open mind. The game is played thus - beginning with Tarnum (your first Hero) and a single settlement, you must recruit soldiers to fight for you, upgrade your troops and settlements, recruit Heroes to command your armies and complete the criteria for finishing the current level to proceed to the next. There are eight levels in Warlords of the Wasteland which must be completed in sequence, and usually to finish each one you must either take over a specific settlement or slay a particular enemy Hero. You are given mission objectives at the start of a level and may select a difficulty level for each mission before you play it; the five difficulty settings determine how many troops and how much of each resource you begin with, the frequency of resources and beneficial magical items, and the aggression/strength of enemy Heroes' armies. Each level is also introduced by a short animated sequence, all of which are of high quality, even if the narrator having a (typically) American accent takes some getting used to. Playing the game is simplicity itself, and is easy to understand. All the action is controlled basically via five different screens; The Map Screen (where your Heroes may travel and collect resources); The Settlement Screen (where buildings and troops may be purchased and upgraded with your resources); The Battle Screen (where you fight enemy Heroes' armies and attack or defend your settlements); The Spell Screen (where you may view and cast spells); and The Hero Screen (where you can view your Heroes' skills and statistics, and trade troops between nearby Heroes.) The game uses the same screens throughout all eight levels, and the gameplay is exactly the same throughout them all too. Completing each level is really nothing more than a case of stockpiling enough resources to acquire enough troops to defeat each enemy army and settlement. Yet to their credit 3DO have tried to offer a bit of variety between levels, with some settlement types (offering different troops kinds) being available on some levels but not on others. Yet nine times out of ten, the largest army on the battlefield will win, particularly if it has units able to fire missiles or cast spells to decimate enemy troops before they can enter melee range. Battles can still be very exciting though, particularly when you find yourself facing armies of "huge" monsters like Cyclops, Behemoths and Hydras. However, the game's Artificial Intelligence can sometimes be puzzling - ie: an enemy's Bowmen may fire at your 103 slow-moving Goblins because they are nearer, instead of shooting at your 546 Arch Magi which will slaughter the Bowmen with their long-range spells as soon as you are allowed to let them. (This lack of decent AI at times can even work to your advantage, and you will find yourself moving, say, 2 painfully slow Behemoths forward to soak up enemy missile attacks whilst your own Bowmen and Spellcasters decimate the enemy army from long range. In this way I found it possible to defeat armies of 1000+ soldiers while taking only a couple of casualties myself - sometimes I didn't even lose a single troop! Enemy Heroes are often not exactly the Napoleons, Alexander the Greats and Julius Caesars of the fantasy world.) No Role Playing Game would be complete without a collection of powerful spells, magical items and skills to learn and improve, and fortunately this is one of the strengths of Warlords of the Wasteland, as it has all these in abundance. Every Hero begins with at least one Skill, and will have a Speciality in one of these, giving further bonuses to the Skill's effect. Each Hero may learn up to ten different Skills from over 20 available, and skills can be gained/upgraded when the Hero advances in Level, receives specialist training or finds a place skills may be bought. Skills begin at Basic level, but can be improved to Advanced and then Expert levels, the character gaining enhanced effects with the ability the higher the Skill is progressed. Unfortunately, though, Skills cannot be "unlearned", so if a Hero gains an Experience Level and is offered a choice of one of two Skills he could do without, he must select one or the other, and is stuck with it thereafter. Yet this is only a minor gripe, and as well as Tarnum himself gains useful skills, any player should be more than happy. Tarnum keeps his Experience and Skills from one game level to the next, although all settlements, gold and troops gained in a level are not carried to the next and are lost. Tarnum's most experienced Hero ally will proceed with him to the next level too (with all Skills intact like Tarnum but no troops, settlements or gold) and from game level 3 onwards, the two most experienced Heroes progress to the next level with Tarnum, so it is worth trying to cultivate two Heroes with useful Skills and not allow additional Heroes to gain too much experience. The graphics throughout the game are crisp and well animated, and the wide array of music is by and large beautiful. The repetitive nature of the gameplay can also be overlooked due to the random assortment of magical items available and the fact you can make life very difficult for Tarnum by selecting a higher difficulty level for yourself. If Tarnum's personal army is ever vanquished on the battlefield, the game is automatically over, and you get to see the Immortal Hero lose his head - literally! I enjoyed playing Warlords of the Wasteland as it was new and fresh to me, and I will undoubtedly complete it again at a higher difficulty setting. But there are another four games in the Heroes Chronicles saga featuring Tarnum - Clash of the Dragons, Masters of the Elements, Conquest of the Underworld and The Final Chapters - and if the gameplay in these is identical to that in Warlords of the Wasteland (and I well suspect it may be) then I may find myself becoming a little bored by the saga's repetitiveness long before I reach the end of the final game, no matter how good 3DO have made the background stories to each segment of the saga. Only time will tell though, and as a newcomer to this set of games I am pleased by this initial game in the series. Indeed, I'm looking forward to sending my next Horde of Nagas against a Throng of enemy Gremlins whilst my Orc Chieftains hurl throwing axes at those attacking Gnolls. Attack, attack, attack! IN SUMMARY: A rewarding game with nice graphics and pleasing sound. The repetitiveness of the gameplay may call into question whether this game is worthy of purchase if you have already played some of the other Heroes Chronicles or Heroes of Might & Magic games, though. RATING:85% - o -