Assault Heroes (Xbox Live) Review
Posted by Steve McHugh on 03.09.2007
Shoot, shoot and when you get tired shoot some more.
The best arcade games always stay true to what they are. If they try to take themselves too seriously you end up with a mess but when they embrace the fact that they are an arcade game then you can get some wonderful results. Assault Arms not only embraces the fact that it’s an isometric shooter it also cops a sly feel whilst it’s at it.
Assault Heroes is all about shooting things. Lots of things. You may think ‘oh I’ve shot lots of things before’, but if that’s the case maybe I wasn’t clear so let’s try again. LOTS OF THINGS. Yep so much stuff it needs to be in capitals. In this day and age however you can’t have all mindless violence without a story. Oh and what a story it is. The story consists of 2 paragraphs. That’s it. The basic premise is you are the last of your team after everyone else is dead so instead of running away it’s up to you to get in your car (or boat in one level or ‘zone’) and to kill everything in your way.
My favourite zone in the game...and one of the hardest
And killing stuff is easy too thanks to it using the same fantastic control system as Geometry Wars. One stick moves you around and the other stick shoots. It works very well and you always feel like you’re in control which is why playing the game is so much fun.
On top of the normal shooting controls you have the two triggers, the left one throws a grenade and the right one makes a nuclear blast. You can switch between weapons and that’s it for controls. It’s all very easy to use and it’s why the game has had so many people compare it to Geometry Wars.
Another comparison with that game is just how quickly you’ll die if you’re not careful. You can quickly become swarmed, especially when your car’s blown up and you’ve got to wait for it to appear again. In that sense this game is quite nice. When you lose your health and you’re in your car, it blows up and you’re left on foot fighting until a new car appears. These sections are incredibly tense as you will die very quickly and you’ve only got your machine gun but as they happen so often it never gets boring.
When it gets this crazy prepare to get killed. A lot
And as I said you will die a lot and sometimes it’s not a fair death. Occasionally you will find yourself getting blown up by things not on screen and that’s an incredibly unfair game mechanic that was awful ten years ago let alone today. It can happen a few times a zone and it will drive you nuts when it does.
This is also a reasonably good looking game, all of the enemies look good and everything moves at a quick pace. There are even cut scenes, now these are only of your car driving but still, it’s a cut scene. However, the zones all begin to look a bit boring after a while with only 1 of them (out of 5 and then 17 areas from those) really being very impressive to look at.
Like a lot of old school shooters this is a hard game but a short one. You can finish it through on normal in about 2 hours but then you’ll want to go back and try the harder difficulty and there’s always the superb two player mode which instead of helping one another quickly turns into a ‘get that power up before the other guy does’ type of game. On top of that there’s also the achievements, which are very well thought out and actually range from the easy (kill 85% of everything on screen) to the impossible, such as only using a certain percentage of bullets.
One man and his heavily armed killing buggy against the world
The 411
Well it’s a great game and it’s also a lot of fun. But the unfair deaths really do let this game down as without them you would always feel that much more in control. And cheap deaths are never good. The length of the game is also a problem as although you’ll replay it a fair few times you still won’t put more then about 6-8 hours into it. Then again for only 800 points this is one of the best games for XBLA. If you like shooting and want to play a new take on a classic idea then this is for you.
Graphics
8.5
Good and detailed with excellent explosions. Zones do get a bit similar after a while.
Gameplay
9.0
Mostly great but the unfair deaths really let it down. Even so its got a fantastic control system.
Sound
8.0
Nondescript background music. But it never gets annoying or in the way so that’s all it needs to be.
Lasting Appeal
7.0
2 hours to finish and you’ll play it through a few times but multiplayer will last for a fair old time.
Fun Factor
8.9
Loads of fun to play by yourself, but perfect with a friend. Fighting along side your mates and then turning on them and stealing power ups never gets old. Unless its done to you.
