Of all the games I checked out at E3, perhaps of all the games I’ve played ever, Heroes of Ruin by far wins the award for having the worst name. It just sounds dumb, and I can’t really wrap my head around what it’s supposed to mean. Nevertheless, I’d taken an early interest in the game upon learning about its focus on multiplayer cooperative adventuring. If the only real bad thing I can say about the game is that its name sucks, that’s not such a big deal after all.

Where to begin? Heroes of Ruin is an action-RPG being developed by n-Space Inc, and published by Square Enix for the Nintendo 3DS. I was told by the Square Enix representative that it’s being developed particularly with focus on a western audience, and I do get that impression from its theme and style. There is a large focus on exploration and building up stats and equipment. But since it features largely action gameplay, it’s a game I can get behind.

Naturally, you have your classes and customization. There are four available, including one that wields pistols and the typical spell caster. I chose to play as the Vindicator class since it was an enormous lion-man with a sword, and that was just awesome (it also made me think of Mega Man somehow). I didn’t bother to mess around with the character customization, but it seems mostly for aesthetic purposes. If you want to be a Vindicator I think you’re always going to be a lion-man.

Getting down to the gameplay, it reminded me a bit of the Torchlight demo I played some months back, or perhaps any other Diablo-clone. The beauty here is, because it has action controls I can actually play it and feel like a part of what’s going on. I’m not just clicking on things, which is why I could never get into games like Diablo. Thus combat is pretty hack-and-slash, at least for the character I was using. Different attacks are assigned to the various buttons, and you can reassign them as you learn new attacks. These skills are developed through the typical skill tree setup that expands as you level up. There’s also plenty of loot to come across, and the game promises to have thousands of items to find, albeit many are class specific. One thing I really liked was that simply standing on an item gave a quick graphic telling you if it was better or worse than what you already equipped.

Outside of the hub city, areas are dynamically generated and appear different each time you come out. The representative did not want to refer to it as randomly generated, which gives an implication of being put together without consideration. I am guessing there are basic kind of structures the game uses to develop area layouts, which helps make sure it doesn’t generate anything nonsensical. Nevertheless, it’ll be like a new world every time you go out to adventure, though a map does fill out as you explore, and I presume remains until your finish your objectives and return. This setup definitely sounds like a great step for keeping the game fresh feeling after continuous playing.

What really makes Heroes of Ruin beat the pants off of a game like Torchlight, in my opinion, is its cooperative multiplayer of up to four players per instance. Supported both through local and online, you can play with pretty much anyone from around the world. Players can drop in and out as they please without interrupting the ongoing adventure. You can also voice chat with people in real time, trade items and form alliances (so you can bet Team WingDamagia is going to be getting in on some monster stomping). Additionally, new content is planned to be added over SpotPass, including new challenges sent every day.

Outside of its awful name, there is one other thing that bugged me about Heroes of Ruin, and that’s how utterly generic it looks. I know I’m usually the one who doesn’t give a flip about graphics, and I’m not saying the game looks ugly. It just doesn’t seem to have its own unique style and charm, and the designs of characters and enemies look like they could come from any typical fantasy-themed media. Nothing really stands out.

Despite those small qualms, however, Heroes of Ruin is definitely shaping up to be a fun and depth-filled game. It was one of the few instances where I gave praise to the representative on hand and told him the development is really on the right track. Heroes of Ruin is set to come out in early 2012, and if you plan on having a Nintendo 3DS by then it’s a game I would recommend keeping an eye on.

Tags: 3DS, action rpg, E3 2011, hands-on impressions, Heroes of Ruin, n-Space, preview, Square Enix

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