RTS Hero
Preview
A hands-on RTS that leans into simplicity
by Jordan Helsley
previewed on PC
First Impressions
Right up front, RTS Hero shows the player what it's about. A cartoony polygonal art style, large buttons, and a straightforward UI. There's no guesswork in finding what to play, whether it's the story mode, a single player match, co-op, or versus. The current demo includes two of the campaign missions, and they effectively tutorialize the game's systems and interactions in a short time, but most of the time spent in the demo is meant for single player (or Co-op, which is currently unlocked by joining the Discord) to see the freeform depth of the experience.
Before joining a match the game's various heroes offer themselves up for selection from either the humanoid or the orc-like factions, each with their own difficulty, abilities, skill upgrades, and overall playstyles, and it's more than just lip service. I played my first match as the human Archmage, a "hard" hero with the ability to switch between a half-dozen or so elements, each with their own mana pool, and perks that come with "The Kingdom" faction like faster training for units versus the "Orcish Tribes." I spent the majority of the time with the human faction, and most of what follows will be in reference to that, but there are enough differentiators to make both sides feel unique.
Island Battles
In action, the art style gets the job done much better than it might appear in the menus, and the characters mesh with the world and UI in a great way. While it's unclear if it's just a demo limitation or not, this is something of a relief because this grassy and rocky island is the only setting throughout the playtime. Again, it's not bad, but in a genre that relies on visual variety, it did start to wear on me after the fifth or sixth match. Likewise did the unit barks, which are guttural noises rather than witty quips, because there is no proper voice acting for them, or for story beats. The music and sound effects are similarly boilerplate, in their current form. A little bit of variety here would go a long way, but the smaller scope of the game makes it more understandable (more on this later).
RTS Hero takes a somewhat slower, more measured, and more concise approach to gameplay. The total unit cap is pretty small, I don't recall seeing it above 30, and even some direct control is taken completely out of the players' hands. Workers, who generally build the base and man resource gathering buildings until they're turned into fighters, are mostly autonomous while following a priority set by the player. If a new barracks is urgently needed, it requires a bit of planning, rather than selecting all the workers and hurling them in that direction. It's similar when you're in the third-person combat mode of your hero: your warriors do their best to stick with you, though that admittedly comes with some instances of wandering or lost squads. This is activated by a simple press of the tab key, and it unlocks the hero's abilities for use in combat, which are not manually present from the overview. Impressively the action combat does not feel like it overshadows the broad command, and exists more as a way to engage with battles in a more active way. It isn't some instant win way to steamroll an enemy squad, though it does feel like it will be more necessary when matching up against another player-controlled hero.
Colonize The Land
While battling the opposing forces, usually a currently unplayable third faction of crystalline monsters, favour is built up with the king at home, who will send gifts in the form of XP and resources. All of this is used to, obviously, build and maintain an army, level up the hero character, and also build a sprawling base of operations. Sprawling not because there are a ton of buildings and associated bonuses, there are actually only a handful, most of which unlock new, stronger or more specialized units, but because of the way building is gated. Each island is divided in hexagonal tiles of reasonable size, and each tile can house two buildings at most, and only one if it's a larger lumber mill or something. There's no turtling here, and planning is important. While it makes the first couple of buildings feel like they come from a script because the need to branch out is strong, getting deeper into the island and developing forward barracks for one plan of attack or another is fulfilling. Many of these hexagons between the player and the enemy will have some form of hostile wildlife which, once eradicated, will also grant a bonus chest to open. It's a neat twist on the formula that works in the beginning, but I have concerns about once players get more accustomed to it (from a PVP perspective). There's variety in these mobs, too, which means there's levels of effectiveness that come from the attacking army's makeup.
RTS Hero doesn't feel like the next gigantic RTS game, but it's also not trying to be. It feels like it's punching slightly above the initial impression with how the strategies I employed ended up working out, but it's not without concerns regarding longevity or competitiveness. Some of the decisions to gate building and army count could either work in its favour or become a pain point, but that part remains to be seen. As a single-player experience I found it to be enjoyable, and am actually looking forward to more of the campaign missions (there's 2 in the demo, and the final plan is 11) and playing around with a few more of the heroes. It has some uniqueness on its side, and that is enough for me to at least keep an eye on it.
The RTS Hero demo is currently available on Steam if you want to check it out for yourself. The developer is also running a Kickstarter campaign scheduled to complete at the end of the year, with the intent of funding the final stretch of development: to complete the campaign, etc. Among the stretch goals are things like improved music and sound effects, so that's worth keeping in mind, as well.
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