The. most glaring issue with this game is Ludia’s badly done ‘free to play’ model which embraces P2W. Ignoring this flaw, the game itself is utterly lacking — the strategic aspect is mostly leveling up gear and heroes, but the minor strategic aspect in choosing which item and which hero is so far less than what could have been if there had been a more open inventory system.
You as a player get to choose your party (4 from available 8 heroes at the game release) and select which items of gear per hero — weapon, armor, shield, wondrous item, boots, and helm. But all equipment is specific to that hero without trading or swapping. Then pay to level it up, level your hero up, repeat.
Another key lacking of the game — possibly second worst — is each level is a bunch of smaller levels, each requiring a load time, and all very similar (unless you encounter a boss). At first, all opponents drop like flies after 1 hit and do minimal damage . But at a certain point (lvl 3 or 4), suddenly level 8 opponents show up and destroy your team with the same ease. The game offers you a chance to go VIP and get access to restricted amazing loot for $20 monthly (?!?), or to begin the long dull grind ... which is what seems to be the entire game.
If there were a true ‘Diablo-like’ element to the loot, or some real strategic element like Magic:TG or a real RPG, we might have something to work with here. But again, from my perspective, the in-app market is primary and the actual game secondary. And the game is not very fun.
What’s most surprising to me was that the game doesn’t actually seem to use ANY D&D rules or tactics whatsoever, as if ignoring that the source material is itself a strategic RPG?! There are no skills used outside of combat, combat seems like what might have been an ‘autocombat’ in most modern games (ie pick from 4 options with timers or move to a new location on board), villains are an endless horde of identical grunts without any unique characteristics, and on and on.
The game does use D&D monsters, classes, and some background lore, sort of. But this turns out to be such a missed opportunity to fully embrace the RPG.
Graphics:4 , gameplay: 2, replayability: 1
Overall: 2
Recommendation is to AVOID.
