Heroes of Valor
Preview
A new generation of heroes on the battlefield...
by Dan Lenois
previewed on PC
Glory, honor, epic killstreaks...
Heroes of Valor, developed by Fancy Cat Interactive and published by Iceberg Interactive, presents a fresh new approach to a long-familiar formula. Players will go toe-to-toe in fierce team-based combat, completing objective-based game modes while simultaneously proving themselves an absolute menace on the battlefield.
Players can choose one of three playable roles: Trooper, Heavy, and Recon. Each role has its own specific loadout and cooldown abilities which define their own unique purpose on the battlefield. Troopers act as both midrange fighters and medics, healing themselves and everyone near them with their healing ability cooldown, and also can use their alternate cooldown to fire incendiary bullets to light up unfortunate enemies. Heavies run in with bazookas and sawed-off shotguns, and can increase their weapon efficiency and grant allies energy shields with their cooldown. Recon units can snipe from long range and sneak around the battlefield using their invisibility cooldown.
Bikes, tanks, planes, Oh my!
As with any Battlefield-inspired game, vehicles are a core part of the immersion experience, and as a result, players will have their own expectations for how everything ought to look and feel, and they lend themselves well to some truly hilarious moments. During one of my matches, as I ran to the plane to try areal dogfighting for the first time, I saw an enemy fighter soar down from the sky, opening fire relentlessly upon the immobile plane I was about to step into. Seemingly not discouraged by the total lack of effect that their rain of automatic fire had on its implacable foe, the enemy fighter veered out of the sky and tried the mechanical equivalent of a WWE bodyslam, crashing headlong into said plane. One plane blew up instantly; one plane remained standing impassively.
Riding a motorcycle does sometimes feel a little floaty in-game. Turns are often quite wide and the bike overall doesn't retain that same level of responsiveness as its real life counterpart. While a conveniently quick way to get from place to place, it might be better just to walk.
Tanks are quite the blast to play. Decent at incurring heavy explosive splash damage against both individual enemies and whole groups, a tank can make for a powerful ally or opposition, depending on which side you're on. However, again, you never truly can say you've experienced a game like this the way it was meant to be played until you finally engage in a 1v1 tank battle, shooting at one another from hundreds of meters away, neither side allowed to move an inch while you fire, reload, and fire again, because the tank commander code of honor insists the first to try to dodge an incoming shot will be deemed an honorless coward. A commander goes down with his tank...
Overall:
Heroes of Valor offers a lot of potential. However, it is too soon to tell whether it has the ability to go the distance once it launches into early access later this year. Its limited content offering hinders replayability, and players will notice a number of minor technical issues such as hit registration inconsistencies, minor frame drops during high-intensity battles, etc. Worth a free playtest, but worth long-term investment? Players will have to wait and see...
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