HERO DEFENSE

About

HERO DEFENSE is a single player and multiplayer role playing game. It was developed by Happy Tuesday and was released on May 31, 2016. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Hero Defense is a fantasy tower defense game where players summon heroes and build defenses to protect their kingdom from invading hordes. Players can upgrade heroes and towers, collect loot, and complete quests to unlock new content. With various game modes, including a story-driven campaign and survival mode, Hero Defense offers a challenging and engaging experience for strategy fans.

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66%

Audience ScoreBased on 482 reviews

graphics78 positive mentions

grinding104 negative mentions

Innovative take on tower defense with movable heroes instead of static towers, adding a fresh gameplay dynamic.
Well-designed graphics and sound, creating an engaging atmosphere that enhances the overall experience.
Deep customization options through skill trees and runes, allowing players to tailor their heroes to their preferred playstyle.

Significant grinding required to progress, leading to repetitive gameplay and a feeling of being forced to replay levels.
Poorly optimized performance with frequent bugs and stuttering, making the game frustrating to play at times.
Limited enemy variety and a short campaign length, which may leave players feeling unsatisfied after completing the game.

graphics
126 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
62%
33%
5%
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their cartoony and aesthetically pleasing style, with many reviewers noting the vibrant art and smooth performance on various hardware. However, some players reported graphical glitches and optimization issues that detracted from the experience, leading to stuttering gameplay. Overall, while the visuals are considered attractive and well-designed, the inconsistent performance and minor bugs have left some players frustrated.
- “Great graphics that aren't a drain on my old PC and fun to play.”
- “Graphics are solid, sound is fantastic, gameplay is incredibly addictive, voice acting is humorous, but effective.”
- “Beautiful graphics and a good storyline to accompany novel tower defense play.”
- “It has horrible graphics, and the game stutters on an RTX 2080 with i7-9700.”
- “Overall the graphics are okay-ish but overall dark and unremarkable.”
- “Small graphical errors which should have been caught before release such as mob walking animations do not sync up with the speed at which they walk, bolts from the vampire hunter are fired from his feet instead of the crossbow, text on some runes go beyond the text box.”
story
122 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
63%
11%
The game's story is generally considered basic and cliched, lacking depth and complexity, which some players find disappointing for a tower defense title. While there are enjoyable character interactions and a quirky narrative, many reviewers feel that the story does not significantly enhance the gameplay experience and is often overshadowed by repetitive mechanics. Overall, the story is seen as a minor aspect of the game, with some players appreciating its simplicity while others criticize its lack of substance.
- “I enjoyed the art style and story of the game, and there's a good amount of replayability and challenge to be had.”
- “Great game, nice story with good characters.”
- “Beautiful graphics and a good storyline to accompany novel tower defense play.”
- “Story of the game is cliched and basic, no points for that.”
- “This might be fun for a few hours but it becomes a chore when you need resources only to advance in the story, which is by the way not worth mentioning.”
- “But after you bear the 'story' (and it's pretty easily done) there really is no point in continuing to play the game.”
grinding
106 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2%
98%
The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being excessive and tedious, requiring players to repeatedly farm levels for resources and upgrades, which can detract from the overall enjoyment. While some players find the grind manageable or even enjoyable at times, many agree that it becomes overly repetitive and feels unrewarding, especially for those aiming for 100% completion. The game's design emphasizes grinding as a core mechanic, leading to frustration for those who prefer a more balanced experience.
- “That said, it's a fun distraction, but grindy as hell, which will probably keep most people from bothering with each difficulty tier on every map, never mind the absurd lengths required to get achievements.”
- “The grinding just doesn't feel that rewarding very often in this game.”
- “All of this adds up to an absolute ridiculous amount of farming maps over and over and over again and not giving you anything new to do.”
gameplay
104 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
50%
10%
The gameplay of the game is a blend of traditional tower defense mechanics with innovative features like movable hero units and strategic placement, which adds depth and challenge. However, players have reported significant technical issues, including stuttering and control problems, that detract from the overall experience. While the graphics and voice acting are praised, the repetitive nature of gameplay and frequent interruptions from messages have led to mixed feelings among users.
- “I really like the mechanics and strategy, as it gives you more of a challenge where in most tower defense games, instead of endlessly buying as many towers as you want, you have to actually strategize where you want to place your heroes on the map.”
- “The gameplay is solid and kind of a mash-up of different genres while still relating strongly to a normal tower defense game.”
- “Hero defense has nice graphics, smooth gameplay, and sets itself apart by allowing you to customize your hero 'towers' with runes, as well as the skill tree.”
- “Sooo many messages to click away... like every freaking 10 seconds... like shut up game... I lasted less than 1 hour before giving up... fine have text but don't make it interrupt our gameplay.”
- “Well, the game drops to about 0.1fps for 30-60 seconds at a time when doing the following: loading any level, dropping any character (which you have to do at most 5 times during gameplay), powering up a character (you get to do this a lot), finishing any level, picking up money, any transition.”
- “The videos and screenshots on the store page fail to represent how slow and repetitive gameplay is.”
replayability
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
54%
13%
Replayability in the game is mixed; while some players appreciate the challenge of locked difficulties and the potential for replay value, others criticize the removal of key features like the endless mode, which significantly diminishes replayability. Additionally, issues such as grinding and imbalanced rewards from bonus maps further impact the overall experience, leading to a consensus that replayability is limited and could be improved.
- “Ok so far it's okay, it has replay value and I like how the difficulties are locked and that you have to build yourself up.”
- “The harder levels add a lot of replayability, however.”
- “I enjoyed the art style and story of the game and there's a good amount of replayability and challenge to be had.”
- “Obviously I felt compelled to purchase it at 90% off, but I would have skipped on the game knowing important replayability/endgame features are disabled.”
- “Dev's forum page is broken; unlikely they will see this, but I will give the game a positive review when it's more playable. I'm having a ton of issues with lag and freezing as my time in the game progresses. The game starts out smooth and great and just gets worse and worse until it is almost unplayable after about 10 minutes.”
- “[*] Bonus map (after defeating 'count') rewards way too much gold, decreases replay value of other maps, and massively decreases the time needed to level up buildings and heroes.”
music
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
55%
31%
14%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players praising its loveliness and ability to stick in one's head, while others find it repetitive and uninspired. Overall, the soundtrack complements the game's atmosphere but lacks variety, leading to an average rating of around 6/10. The art style is often highlighted as a strong point alongside the music.
- “The soundtrack will get stuck in your head.”
- “Music is lovely, so is the artwork.”
- “Imaging which is excellent and the music is very impressive, the entire board in the second world does not want to get out of the game; this gorgeous and spirited experience.”
- “It's basically just the same taunting haunted music the whole game.”
- “Music fits the mood but is uninspired.”
- “Music: 6/10”
optimization
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
37%
27%
The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting significant performance issues such as stuttering and lag, particularly on mobile devices. Despite some users noting smooth performance and balanced gameplay, the overall consensus highlights a lack of updates to address these optimization problems, making the game unplayable for some.
- “Optimized skills for what I want to do (farm gold)”
- “Overall this feels like a well balanced, well optimized game.”
- “- runs smoothly”
- “There were seemingly no performance updates or changes to the asset loading made since release.”
- “The game is sluggish at times; it's badly optimized.”
- “It's really a shame it's not optimized and lags when loading in each level and some hero summons.”
monetization
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
66%
17%
The monetization aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the absence of microtransactions, while others criticize the inclusion of a paywall for character enhancements through gems after purchasing the game. Many feel that this approach is unethical, as it creates an imbalance based on players' financial investment rather than skill. Overall, the monetization strategy has led to disappointment among those who expected a more equitable system in a paid game.
- “I am rescinding the bit about the microtransactions, because of this I would highly recommend the game. Aside from the gems aspect, everything else (while maybe being a tad unbalanced and encountering some quirks with the tutorial) the game wasn't bad and I could see myself enjoying this.”
- “To add to this, there are no microtransactions in this game whatsoever, but perhaps gems wasn't the best choice.”
- “I'm not some guy who doesn't support developers at all; I understand there are costs for server maintenance, etc. However, there are better types of microtransactions to add to your game to generate revenue. Allowing players to gain an advantage over one another based on who has the bigger pocketbook, in my eyes, is extremely unethical.”
- “I've come to expect gear-enhancing microtransactions from free games, or even cosmetic microtransactions from purchased games; however, when a game that you purchased supports gear-enhancing microtransactions, it feels like a betrayal.”
- “I'm not someone who doesn't support developers at all; I understand there are costs for server maintenance, etc. However, there are better types of microtransactions to add to your game to generate revenue. Allowing players to gain an advantage over one another based on who has the bigger pocketbook is, in my eyes, extremely unethical. To be honest, I'm a tad shocked that nobody else who has reviewed the product has taken issue with this.”
- “Thankfully, none of that free-to-play or monetization is actually in the game, but with it removed, you can see how shallow this game really is.”
stability
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game exhibits significant stability issues, with frequent graphical glitches and regular freezing, even on high-end PCs. While the main campaign is mostly stable, the additional levels are plagued with bugs, making the overall experience frustrating for many players. Overall, the game is described as extremely buggy, leading to a recommendation against purchase.
- “Somewhat entertaining, but very buggy and it's not going to get any better.”
- “However, the last level freezes up when playing.”
- “At this point in time, the game hangs/freezes for a short time regularly on very good PCs.”
character development
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
16%
17%
Character development in the game is noted to be somewhat lacking, as resources appear to have been allocated more towards voice acting and game mechanics. However, players do find the character designs appealing and mention that the campaign features interesting character development, particularly towards the end during a challenging mission.
- “The character designs are great.”
- “The campaign of this game has interesting character development in the end, especially when you defend Jack's father on insane difficulty in the castle map.”
- “The character development really shines through in the campaign's conclusion.”
- “I felt the budget went less for character development and more into the voice acting and game mechanics.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is highlighted by its quirky storyline and effective voice acting, which adds a humorous touch to the experience. While the campaigns are relatively short, players still find the humor enjoyable and engaging throughout their gameplay.
- “The storyline is quite funny and quirky at times, but sadly the campaigns didn't last me more than around 11 hours of game time. However, I still thoroughly enjoyed playing each map!”
- “Voice acting is humorous, but effective.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere is consistently praised as awesome, complemented by impressive graphics that enhance the overall experience.
- “The atmosphere is awesome and so are the graphics!”