Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition PS4 review. Originally released on the Nintendo DS handheld all the way back in 2009, it’s certainly fair to say that Clash of Heroes is very much a unique quantity amongst the series at large to say the least. That said, if you’ve had precisely zero exposure to the sprawling Might & Magic RPG series don’t worry – Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition is largely a self contained venture that puts a spin on the series usually deep strategy beats to fashion some engaging (and bite-sized) puzzle match style gameplay.
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition PS4 Review
An Engaging Match Puzzler With A Light RPG Coating
To be clear, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is a puzzler first and an RPG as a distant second. The plot, such as it is, onto which its compelling puzzler gameplay hangs, is emaciated and uninteresting – spinning a shop-worn yarn about demonic forces attacking elves, an alliance between races and heroes that will rise to see off said threat. Equally uninteresting is the dialogue, which aside from being as utterly flair free as you might expect, only finds its mediocrity challenged by the NPCs who simply keep spouting the same lines at you over and over. So yeah, the plot and quality of writing in Clash of Heroes isn’t exactly of the quality that will prompt you to be emotionally invested in the plight of its protagonists.
To overly focus on Clash of Heroes story and characters overly harshly however, would feel both churlish and disingenuous, not least because as I’ve alluded to, the real bounty of Clash of Heroes offering lay in its compelling deep puzzle solving shenanigans rather than anything else. Within its surprisingly chunky single-player campaign – which clocks in at a fairly generous 20 hours plus – Clash of Heroes presents players with two very different modes of play. The first, has you controlling an avatar of your current hero as you move from node to node on a world map, talking to NPCs, taking on side quests and replenishing your supplies. The second, as you’ve probably already inferred, tasks you with the business of vanquishing foes in quick fashion and it’s here that Clash of Heroes shines.
Battles in Clash of Heroes unfurl in turn-based fashion, providing a top-down view of grid that has been split in half across the middle, with the player’s forces marshalled in the bottom half and the enemy legions assembled in the top half. The goal here isn’t to deplete the number of your foes to zero, but instead attack their northern most boundary, while defending your southern boundary, and reduce their overall HP to nil. Essentially what this means is that your units are performing one of two roles – they’re either attacking the boundary by carving through enemy troops, or they’re fortifying a defensive line to dull or completely negate the enemy’s attack.
The way in which you form an attack or a defence is blissfully straightforward, too. An attack can be formed by lining three units of the same type and colour behind each other in a column, while a defensive bulwark can be formed by quite simply lining up three units, again of the same type and colour, horizontally. The trick to all of this of course, is that not only do you begin each battle with a randomised selection of units, but you are only permitted to either move a unit from the bottom of any column to another, or, erase a unit from any point in the column, causing the order of that column to reshuffle more favourably in the process.
Though just that dynamic alone permits a substantial amount of tactical latitude, Clash of Heroes takes things further with different unit types that keep things appropriately spicy and varied. From the attack bears that do tremendous damage, but which take longer to strike through to special elite units, such as the deer that can leap over opposing troops to strike the boundary, there’s no shortage of unit types and tactics that can be employed to see you on the way to victory.
Arguably, the crux of success in Clash of Heroes is predicated around the linking mechanic which allows you to combine formations into more potent versions of themselves. By creating these ‘linking combos’, through queueing up attack formations of the same type and colour next to each other, you can devastate the opposition extremely quickly – and there’s great satisfaction in doing so, too. Making things more sophisticated yet still are the heroes that sit at the head of each army. Much more than just a face, each hero has their own ability that can be used during battle once it has been built up via attacking the enemy and being attacked in turn.
While Clash of Heroes Nintendo DS origins might be to the detriment of its technical presentation – to be clear the game looks fine in a top-down retro sense, but does little else to impress – it also means that because Clash of Heroes was originally designed to be played on the move, with play sessions coming at irregular intervals and for short amount of times, Clash of Heroes can be quite simply picked up and played for just a few minutes at a time; allowing players to still accomplish a great deal in the process.
Speaking of accomplishments, there is a palpable sense of progression in Clash of Heroes – in spite of its uninteresting narrative. In addition to a standard levelling up mechanism which lends improved attack, defence and HP reserves to your heroes (which in turn translate to the resilience of your boundary), you can also collect various artefacts and other such loot that can provide additional stat buffs and other such positive effects that can help to turn the tide of battle.
Beyond its single-player campaign, Clash of Heroes also stuffs in a whole heap of multiplayer content for armchair fantasy generals to sink their teeth into as well. With 1vs1 and 2vs2 game modes that can be played offline and online, in addition to all of the DLC content ever released for the game, Clash of Heroes certainly has legs once the credits have rolled on its single-player campaign, that’s for sure.
Though its credentials as an RPG are both thin and largely uninspiring, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition nonetheless comfortably cements itself as an engaging puzzler with an enticing progression hook. Don’t let its humble Nintendo DS origins fool you, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition is a whole heap of fun and is immensely respectful of your time.
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition is out now on PS4.
Review code kindly provided by PR.