Universal Heroes Call (by Defiant Development) [Universal]

Maybe I am just being too idealistic. It's just sad that there's some developers that still make a living selling games at a reasonable price and still manage to get some income (radiangames comes to mind).

Then there's complete opposite ends of the spectrum. People losing tons of money being forced to sell their apps for $.99 and never getting enough attention to make it big.

And there's the freemiums. Those that get downloads simply because they are free but people are suckered into maybe upwards of $100.00 in IAPs by time all is said and done. To me, it's greed. But, unfortunately, maybe a necessary evil in the App Store economy.

Just wishful thinking that there could be a happy medium.

Off to play some more of this good game...then wait an hour to play it again.

 

after reading the dev comment about this game, I'm glad that I was right to just delete this game because this game really isn't my kind of game (freemium)..

really looking forward for your next premium action RPG morganj

 

We don't mind that at all - we spent a lot of time making sure the play-over-time experience was as good as possible. We've put a bunch of work into the way our notification system works (which I think is pretty cool, btw) and making the levels bite sized enough but rich enough for progress. That's some of what I was referring to earlier in the thread - we're unapologetically a freemium game, but we've worked to make sure that we do as well as possible with that.

The longer you play, the more likely you are to still be around when we bring out our next update. If you're still around then, and you've had a good time, you might consider picking up a new character and playing through again.

Even if you never spend a cent, making the game experience good for players like yourself is a plus for us, because you tell friends, keep aware of what we're doing, and maybe even pick up a character with gems you've picked up while grinding on a half-price weekend or send a tweet or post to a thread. All good. Also because some of the players who do pay are players like you - so we can't make it just bad for people who don't want to play (nor would we).

As for no-wait timer, I honestly can't say it'll never come. It's definitely not part of the work we're doing at the moment, so it's a while off even if we were to do it.

Overall, there are not a lot of other games that work the way we do (there are other games with timers, sure - but not narrative action RPG's with the sorts of focus we have) - so we know going in and going forward that it's a learning experience. We learn as much from the comments here as we do from the way users interact with the game - but on day 1 I'm not willing to make any promises or flat-out refusals of features because that would be silly - we don't know enough. I can say we're working to make the best freemium game we can, and this is our starting point - it's going to be a long road before we see what the end point is.

Gladius_rex : Good feedback. We'll see what we can manage in terms of smoothing out the experience in the first few updates.

 

Great job Defiant loving the game

I think people should move on and respect a company's decision to apply any business model they choose and you either get into it or you don't.

If not find another game.

If digging it then talk about the game.

I'm digging it myself

 

I think people should feel equally free to talk about the game whether they like it or not.

 

I find it annoying when game threads end up being a discussion about the pro and cons of freemium as opposed to talking about the game itself. I understand it is a part of the game but maybe there should be separate threads for freemium discussion/business model and gameplay?

 

special effects are marvelous in this game!

 

I didn't realise how insidious the IAP's were in this game, the longer you play the longer you wait in between missions. It's gonna end up being pay as you play if you don't wanna end up waiting a week to play your next mission. I was really enjoying this but it's time to give in and delete this greed machine.

 

The wait times do gradually increase as you level up but their absolute maximum is eight hours. This is an amount of time we feel will fit in well with peoples work or school days, you play in the morning and evenings.

Each time you get 10-15 mins of action RPG along little segment of the story and some awesome loot.

 

I don't think anyone is talking about the pros and cons of freemium per se. It would still be freemium if they had a one-time unlock to turn off delays, as opposed to a pay-as-you-go model. The discussion is more about the unfriendliness of this particular freemium implementation.

But the main solution to the "problem" you cite is, if you want there to be more discussion of the gameplay, then start posting more about the gameplay.

 

Sorry but 10-15 mins of action then an 8 hour wait for another 10-15 doesn't make for very absorbing game play. Once again I'll have to pay if I want to play.

 

Deleted

I'm certainly not the type of gamer they're aiming at. Thats why I deleted it. And in reverse of what I wrote yesterday I rate one star for that IAP bullshit. They don't want my money, at least not the way I intend to pay for games.

Thats an important part of this thread btw. Its about gameplay AND IAP because one is connected to the other, see.

 

Me neither but that's fine. Different strokes for different folks. We've got Infinity Blade Dungeons on the way.

 

Ok, so I apologise for those previous two posts a couple of pages back I guess I was trying to make a point and did it really badly for which I apologise. Didn't mean to offend anyone. Long time lover and lurker of Toucharcade so that was a really poor way to kick things off. Sorry.

So, gameplay:

I am really enjoying the tap during swing to apply a combo mechanic, I think this really plays to the strengths of the touch devices. It gives you a good, tactile connection to your character during combat.

I'm also really liking the tap to move where you want to go mechanic, as opposed to a virtual d-pad. I really have no issues with virtual controls if implemented well, but for this sort of RPG I think the method in Heroes Call works really well. I loved it back in the day on Underworlds, and here also. It is easier and more relaxing then having to constantly handle a d-pad.

The graphics are really crisp and easy on the eye, right down to the water features in tunnels, and on the iPad3 this game really shines as far as looks go.

On my iPhone 4 the buttons for selling an item/equipping/appraising are a little too small and I've made mistakes hitting the wrong ones when they are close together, but no dramas in that regard on the iPad.

I find the weapon/gold/gem/scroll drops are plentiful and varied at this early stage of the game although I haven't gone far yet so it remains to see how they pan out further on, and I don't find the wait mechanic a big issue personally as it splits the game into bite size chunks which seem to suit the iDevices. I don't tend to have multiple hour long gaming sessions on them so not an issue for me, and I would see myself buying a bag of gems or something at some point if nothing else but to support the developer, although I wouldn't want to get too sucked into a feeling of "subscribe to play" type deal. Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

All up I'm stoked to have this game on my iPad and plan to fire up the recliner later and a quiet scotch and see what else it has to offer.

Good job Defiant.

 

I can live with the wait times. My biggest problems with the game:

1 - No level variery. It all looks way too samey. Some rooms and corridors looks exactly the same.
2 - Equipment doesn't change your character. Kind of a big deal in a 2012 looting RPG with a 3D engine.
3 - Narrative is increadibly cheap looking and poorly written.

Other than that, the game controls well and looks good. At the very least it makes me very excited for Infinity Blade Dungeons.

 

Tip: Auction

Presently, I am a level 8 character. As a tip, a quick way to get gold and some pretty cool equipment is through The Auction. This is one room and they throw everything at you. If you survive, you get mucho dinero, and some pretty cool equipment. Also, the equipment increases with your leveling, even for the same area, which is a nice touch.

Try the Auction. It is very cool.

For the developers, I just wanted to give some positive feedback. Also, the pay model does not always work well. As an example, when people purchased Infinity Blade II, the game had many flaws, and people were upset that they spent over five bucks on a game filled with errors. Also, as Heroes Call reminds me of Diablo, has anyone played Diablo III? What a horrific game, and that cost 60 bucks.

I think the devs for Heroes Call released an awesome game. For anyone who thinks the game is too easy, what I will say is that the more you play, the harder it gets. And you are going to need better equipment which you can get by playing already completed quests.

Just my two cents,
Frisbee10461

 

So this game is awesome but Diablo III is horrific?

Welps, ok then.

 

I think what he meant was "terrific"

 

Regardless of the debate over IAPs, I am truly impressed by the game itself. And congrats to the devs, got a 4.5/5 over on 148apps.