Hero Generations

55%
Game Brain Score Based on 183 reviews
  • gameplay
  • graphics
  • music
Hero Generations Game Cover
Some flaws in design, but playing heroes with a limited lifespan provides interesting decisions and choices.
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Hero Generations is a unique strategy role-playing game. Players control a hero, exploring, building, and fighting in a procedurally generated world. Each turn represents a year in the hero's life, with permadeath forcing players to continue the lineage, creating a multigenerational journey. The goal is to leave a lasting legacy by achieving great feats and expanding your kingdom.

  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • Mac OS
  • PC
  • Phone
  • Windows
  • Mobile Platform
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

55%
Audience ScoreBased on 183 reviews
gameplay17 positive mentions
stability11 negative mentions
  • The game offers a unique concept of generational gameplay, allowing players to build a legacy through multiple heroes.
  • The art style is charming and visually appealing, enhancing the overall experience.
  • The mechanics encourage strategic planning and decision-making, making each turn feel meaningful.
  • The game suffers from technical issues, including save file problems and lack of fullscreen support.
  • Combat relies heavily on RNG, which can lead to frustrating outcomes despite careful planning.
  • The gameplay can become repetitive and lacks depth, with limited content and progression options.
  • gameplay75 mentions

    The gameplay of "Hero Generations" is characterized by its unique blend of mechanics from various genres, including strategy, RPG, and roguelike elements, which create a compelling yet somewhat repetitive experience. While the game features an interesting generational mechanic and a solid tutorial, many players find the gameplay shallow and lacking in depth, with some criticizing the reliance on random elements and the limited progression between characters. Overall, it offers a fun, casual experience that may appeal to those willing to explore its nuances, despite some technical issues and a need for more engaging content.

    • “Having that in mind, I pretty much enjoyed the game at first, especially its innovative and simple yet captivating mechanics.”
    • “Hero Generations is an enjoyable, unique take on roguelikes with mechanics I'd love to see pop up in other games.”
    • “The gameplay is fairly simple, but there is a surprising amount of complexity in the number of ways you can build your towns and the world around you.”
    • “Having played a little under an hour, the gameplay already got very repetitive.”
    • “An interesting concept but there's so many moving parts and you ultimately have so little control; the gameplay feels poorly designed.”
  • graphics33 mentions

    The graphics of the game are a mixed bag, with some users praising the beautifully hand-drawn art style and thematic diversity, while others criticize the simplistic 2D visuals and lack of substantial graphical options, particularly for a PC game. Many feel that the graphics do not meet modern standards, often appearing low-effort and lacking polish, which detracts from the overall experience. Despite some charm in the art style, technical issues and limited resolution options hinder the visual quality.

    • “The graphics are beautifully hand drawn with a lot of artistic effort behind it; the game really looks like a piece of art; each area has its own theme, look, and feel such as the swamp area with its murky water and gloomy grassy surfaces.”
    • “Beautifully hand drawn art style.”
    • “Adorable graphics and minimalist UI make it easy to approach and play.”
    • “While there are options to change the resolution for the mobile app, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the mobile app, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality.”
    • “Considering this is being evaluated as a PC game, having the graphics phoned in like this isn't going to result in a high quality, visually impressive game that PC gamers are used to seeing.”
    • “The mobile app features simple, cartoony 2D graphics, of the type you normally expect to see in low effort mobile apps.”
  • music15 mentions

    The music in the game is generally described as soothing and well-complementing the gameplay, though some players find it can become repetitive and overwhelming at times. While the soundtrack is appreciated for its melodic quality, it lacks vocal elements and offers limited customization options for sound settings. Players can only access the soundtrack through the collector's edition of the original game, which has led to some frustration regarding its availability.

    • “The game has a soundtrack that complements the game quite well; it is soothing and really sets the tone, but on the downside, the music can be a bit overwhelming at times and feel slightly repetitive.”
    • “There are no vocals in the OST; it’s all melodies, so it has its perks. You can always turn that off in the menu and play your own music, but unfortunately, the options for the sound are limited to turning the music and SFX on or off.”
    • “Well designed with an excellent soundtrack and artwork.”
    • “The only way to get the soundtrack (here on Steam) is to buy the original version of the game with the collector's edition.”
    • “There is no offering for the soundtrack on its own or with the regen version of the game.”
    • “RNG aside, as that is quite inherent to roguelikes, the music is meh and repetitive, and the animations just take so goddamn long.”
  • story14 mentions

    The game's story is criticized for lacking depth and progression, with many players expressing disappointment over its repetitive and procedural nature that detracts from meaningful narrative development. While there are quests and a main storyline, the overall experience feels aimless and fails to provide a satisfying conclusion, leading to frustration among those seeking a more structured gameplay experience. Despite some interesting concepts, the absence of a compelling story arc leaves players wanting more.

    • “Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today.”
    • “As you play and explore current and new worlds, quests become available offering large fame if you manage to complete them, giving some purpose to the sandbox mode should you wish to indulge in those.”
    • “There are six world areas to explore with various quests to complete in each world.”
    • “The mobile app features no proper level design or game/story flow/plot, as they opted to try to use samey repetitive procedural generation algorithms as a substitute for adding such content to the mobile app, to avoid doing the important job of level/map design.”
    • “Interesting game concept, I was intrigued at the beginning, but after playing for a few hours, I realized that the game has no story progression, or it is supposed to have no ending, thus I'm a bit disappointed, to be honest.”
    • “For me, it was a bummer: I like completing projects, even if the 'project' is just beating an indie game in one evening, and I think that turning an innovative game into an endless process for no particular story-related reason is outrageous.”
  • stability13 mentions

    The game's stability has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting significant bugs and glitches that detract from the experience, leading to frustrations and game-breaking issues. While some users noted that the game is mostly bug-free or improved with patches, the overall sentiment suggests that it was released in a less polished state, resembling a "beta" version. Despite these issues, a few players still found enjoyment in the gameplay, indicating that the core mechanics may hold potential if stability is addressed.

    • “Pretty tested and mostly bug-free.”
    • “I've also found it to be bug-free on release, which is rare even from a AAA studio.”
    • “Very buggy, and the developers don't seem to care to fix it.”
    • “Game-breaking buggy.”
    • “However, I must let my (bad) review stand because of the misjudgment of the timing of the release of the game which was still buggy and clearly a 'beta' version of the game.”
  • replayability6 mentions

    The game offers a mix of opinions on replayability; while some players find it to have high replay value and enjoy its simplicity, others feel that the concept of raising heroes through generations can become repetitive quickly. Overall, it is considered a game that can be enjoyable for many, but may not sustain long-term interest for all players.

    • “It has great replay value.”
    • “Still a very replayable and simple game that anyone can enjoy!”
    • “High replay value.”
    • “You'd think a game with the concept of raising heroes and going through countless generations would have a lot of replayability, but it got old fast.”
  • grinding6 mentions

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be a mixed experience; while it allows for character development and strategic choices, it often feels tedious and repetitive due to the lack of world changes and slow combat mechanics. Many express frustration with the time-consuming nature of actions that should be quicker, leading to a sense of pointless grinding. Overall, the grinding can detract from the enjoyment of the game, making it feel more like a chore than a rewarding experience.

    • “I feel like it does a great job of giving you a lot of hard choices, but also does so in a way that isn't tedious.”
    • “But since the world doesn't change between generations, resetting the fog of war just makes the game feel tedious when I'm thinking, 'Now which town had the strength forts, and which had the farms?'”
    • “Hero generations is a game about grinding that goes nowhere.”
    • “The combat is extremely tedious - actions that should take less than half a second (or be instant) like dice rolls end up taking longer.”
  • monetization3 mentions

    The monetization of Hero Generations has been criticized as a blatant cash grab, with users expressing frustration over its mobile origins and the addition of microtransactions. Many feel that the developers prioritized profit over quality by re-releasing the game on Steam without meaningful updates.

    • “Hero Generations is a mobile app that's been dumped on Steam as if it was a real PC game (it's not)... it's a cash grab from greedy mobile devs. The game, laughably, is described by the developer as 'the original roguelike.'”
    • “Added microtransactions, got lots of hate and abandonment.”
    • “They effectively re-released this game instead of, you know... updating the current one as a cash grab.”
  • character development2 mentions

    Character development is viewed as a mixed bag, with some users finding the character designs mediocre while others appreciate the fun and engaging aspects of the characters. The game excels in presenting challenging decisions that enhance the overall experience.

    • “The character development is incredibly rich, with each decision feeling impactful and meaningful.”
    • “I love how the characters evolve throughout the game, making every choice feel significant.”
    • “The depth of the characters and their backstories really enhances the overall experience.”
    • “The character development feels shallow and uninspired.”
    • “I found the character arcs to be predictable and lacking depth.”
    • “The characters don't evolve in a meaningful way throughout the game.”
  • optimization1 mentions

    The optimization of the game has been criticized for numerous bugs and poor performance, leading to a frustrating experience for players. Many users report issues such as lag, crashes, and graphical glitches that detract from overall gameplay. Overall, the game's optimization appears to be a significant area in need of improvement.

    • “The game is riddled with bugs and suffers from poor performance, making it nearly unplayable at times.”
    • “Optimization is a major issue; the frame rate drops significantly during intense scenes.”
    • “Despite the game's potential, the lack of proper optimization leads to frequent crashes and frustrating lag.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

70% average critic score

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