Shadow Heroes: Vengeance In Flames
Episode 1 of the 5 part series.
Discover the mystery of a broken land.
Shadow Heroes is an episodic fast paced strategy tug of war game that can be played alone or with players from around the world. Manage your troops as they charge head first into battle using weapons, magic and tactics. Hire new units and customize their load-outs with items you have collected over time. Upgrade your items using components left over after battles to make them stronger and give yourself an edge in combat. Can you find the enemy’s weak spot and exploit it? Are you able to react accordingly to counter your opponent’s strategy?
Game Modes
In Shadow Heroes, you play through a series of battles that escalate quickly and vary depending on your choices. Based on the game mode, you will have different objectives.
- Assault – Standard game mode, eliminate an objective to win.
- Timed Assault – Eliminate the objective within a time constraint while enemy groups await to ambush you.
- Commanders – Eliminate the enemy commanders who inspire nearby units with their powerful aura abilities.
- Onslaught – Survive against all odds versus an increasingly powerful enemy force.
Single player / Multiplayer Experience
Shadow Heroes has a Skirmish mode that allows players to familiarize themselves with Commanders and Onslaught game modes in a single player experience. In the Commanders game mode, they will fight against an AI commander with up to 5 difficulty settings, which are adjustable inside of the game settings. At the end of every match, you will gain a number of components for a victory, determined by the level of difficulty you have selected. Multiplayer matches of the Commanders mode really put your abilities to the test, as a result, each victory gives you the best rewards.
In Onslaught, players will be defending against a constant assault of enemy forces. Positioning and strategy will be key in your success. The longer your defenses last, the better the rewards you will receive. You will also have access to the powerful defensive cannons of the keep. These cannons have a 5 minute cooldown, but will severely damage incoming forces in a large area. How far will you make it?
Everything you find, craft and equip goes with you through both your single player as well as multiplayer adventures. If you’re struggling with players online, work towards better items in skirmish or campaign and vice versa.
Active / Passive Items
Shadow Heroes has two types of items in it: Active and Passive. Passive items provide bonuses to your unit’s stats and in some occasions, abilities that the AI will use automatically. Using passive items is a great way to boost the overall effectiveness of your army without adding to your workload.
Active items on the other hand only provide bonuses when you select the unit with the item and activate it. You may also mass select your units in order to activate those items for that specific group at the same time. These effects usually come with some added bonuses or additional control like being able to focus down individual targets. The down side is that they are a lot of extra work and are hard to use efficiently! If you are up for the challenge, they can really help turn the tides of a battle.
Game Discussion
Steam User 9
This is a tug of war game and then some.
With fast paced game play(sometimes overwhelmingly fast on harder dificulty), you can get matches played pretty fast making this a game you can drop in and play for short(game or two) or long perioids of time. Because the AI picks rather random unit combinations you always have a different experience.
I did get to play some pre steam versions of this game and the progress has been nothing but great. It started with only one commander(leading unit that hires all the others), minimal upgrades for units(more on this later) and some interesting gameplay.
At release this game has 3 commanders to start you out and a functional upgrade system.
When you play the game and win, you get random upgrade items(clearly better for harder levels). These upgrades are used to make your units stronger in future games. You can combine them to make even higher level upgrades for future matches. The more you play, the better you get.
The game has 5 unreleased commanders and multiple battlefields so we are sure to get more diverse games with future updates. At current I have a preference for Vania's targeted lighting attack.
As with any pre-release game you are sure to run into some bugs(I have seen nothing game breaking). The team developing this game has been very fast to fix bugs(pre early access) and take sugestions for future updates.
Steam User 6
(Note, most of my playtime is in offline mode)
Been a backer since EA. And everything about the pace of updates and the devs willingness to listen to feedback and fix things makes me excited to see the rest of what comes, hopefully soon!
Voices are excellent btw!
Steam User 1
Very fun and enjoyable game overall. Also extremely well polished, especially considering the price it's going for right now. Amazing value for money. I generally look for a game that I can pick up and play on the run, quickly, since I often dont have that much time. This does the job perfectly. I can play it for as long as I need, or just pick it up for a few minutes, play a skirmish, and work on my items.
The highlight of the game and where it shines I would say is the multiplayer, and the ease of carrying out combat. Very good replay value, with trying to get better and better items. I really like that you don't have to focus on gathering resources. Your entire focus is on your army, what the enemy has, and how to best counteract their troops. In some ways it's like a flashy game of chess, but on a much more dynamic level.
The only downside right now is that the community is still small. The more players get into it the better. I'd give it overall a 9.5/10. It sets out to achieve a specifc task, and does so perfectly. And again...I can't believe the price for such a polished overall product. Excellent.
P.S. I would say for people looking at this, that a LOT seems to have changed from early access, everything for the best. I don't know what people are saying performance wise, maybe it was less polished before. But now I'm running it on 970 GTX with an i5 4690, never dropped under max frame rate, with 100 units on screen, set on epic.
Steam User 0
An effort has certainly been made with this game but for me to get really excited it needs to get bigger and more polished.
The game is solid and actually works but the battles are not very inspiring if you are expecting the scale of some games already out there.
The music was the best aspect of the game for me at this stage but some of the art assets are also very nicely done
My video covers what to expect from the game to see if it is for you or not
I wouldn't say I don't recommend this but wouldn't say to rush out and get it right away unless you really like this type of game and want to support the devs.
For me some big things to add would be camera controls so that you feel more a part of the world and maybe the units coming in from off map rather than just appearing out of thin air
Steam User 8
Great Strategy Game, thanks to the developers and publishers!
Regards! ^^
Steam User 3
Little skeptical at first, but found the game fun. Makes you think on your toes.