Heroes: With Fire and Sword: Review

When I first took up King: The MMORPG in 2014, this was one of the launch versions very similar to Ragnarok: Path of Heroes "blanks" with a minimum of capabilities. With a wry grin on my face, I managed to reach level thirty, having accumulated in my head a whole list of proposals to the developers. Interestingly, periodically crashing European servers, the English language and clumsy gameplay did not prevent one from getting carried away by the process – the game required too few actions, offering in return a well-thought-out universe and a very flexible “leveling up” system.

Rebirth

More than a year has passed since the Beijing company Borette reappeared on the horizon with the same project, only improved, corrected and reborn as a mobile MMORPG localized into Russian "Heroes: By Fire and Sword". If any of you participated in MBT, then you have probably already met a Stopgame berserker riding a tiger with an amphibious pet. Subscribe in the comments. So, since then the world King changed. The rebirth of “Kandar” into “Kardalat” is accompanied by transformations in everything – from geography to the hero’s equipment, from the interface to the quest system. And people who are passionate about online games come from Borette even managed to win several awards in China.

Don’t believe associations with "Heroes of Might and Magic" – there is nothing in common with them. Before us is a true MMORPG with PvP (4×4) and cooperation of up to ten people per “dungeon”, as well as huge event battles 100×100 (and this is not a typo!). Real players are running around Kardalat locations here and there. They communicate with each other, unite in guilds, ask to participate in “raids”, and so on. You should fight with one of them in the arena in order to find out your abilities and test your opponent’s strength. In the future, you can invite your opponent to your legion (at high levels) and go on a joint campaign to destroy “mobs”.

Cardalath’s game
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The world here has five continents (one of them is divided into two islands). We have to explore the lands from the Burnt Plain with the Flame City to the southern and northern islands of the Twins, from the Middle Land with the Ruins of the City of Light to the Sacred Forest… But the locations are not limited to land only – battles often occur at sea, with boarding and captain’s skirmishes. Yo-ho-ho!

All these spaces have been torn apart by civil strife, demons from the other world and the protracted enmity of two factions – the Flaming Empire and the Union of Glory – for more than five centuries. We have to choose our side. At the moment, the empire dominates the main server and continues to grow. Do you want to challenge her followers or join the strongest?? You should also decide on your class: warrior, hunter, mage or priest? The first two are very popular and are quickly “pumped up”. Proper use of the magician’s skills will allow you to achieve almost better results. And priests are suitable for those who purchase at auctions – the prices for their equipment are among the lowest. In addition, at the twentieth level it is proposed to open a subclass, and at the fiftieth – a second one.

Lots of activities

Up to level eighty, the plot is designed to complete quests; only sometimes we are distracted from them in order to “pump ourselves up”. Then additional entertainment comes into play "Heroes" in the Abode – a special territory where we sow a real vegetable garden, explore, rob caravans, trade… And there are also tournaments held there, by participating in which you can exchange artifacts or try your luck at roulette. There is even a quiz with questions (in the style of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?") in Russian, completely adequate and completely passable. There, in the Abode, daily tasks are distributed. The rest of the time we will travel and explore the lands, stumble upon interesting things, kill endless enemies and use social functions.

The “pumping” process itself does not require significant effort. A good option is to set up automatic combat and turn it on periodically. It is not necessary to travel between locations on foot – if you “tap” on a task, the character will get to the goal on his own. In the meantime, it would be useful to sort your inventory, set up your skills, improve your mount (strengthens the main character’s characteristics) and choose a pet (a kind of assistant in attacks). Until about the fiftieth level, you will be guided almost by the hand through all the fascinating features "Heroes", just like the year before, without demanding anything serious in return. Difficulties may arise if you want to engage only in the story branch without completing additional tasks and communicating with other players. Then you will have to use the “donation”. In a full playthrough, I even gave up the privileges of a developer account, developing my character from scratch.

In general, this is the first online race in my memory on a tablet, where absolutely nothing irritates. Probably, analogies with the initial versions still on European servers make it difficult to criticize the evolved project. It’s even hard to find fault with the localization – although you probably also noticed unsightly word hyphenation in the dialogues in the screenshots. But there are no errors, everything is clear and accessible. The interface is informative, clear and ergonomic. Take even a simple thing – a sword. It can be improved from scratch by “sharpening” (special stones) and inlaid with jewelry (with magic). Or steal the souls of enemies (with a long “tap”) and hit the remaining ones with a dragon’s roar… However, try it yourself. Fortunately, the game has already been released from OBT in the final version on Android.

Pros: variety of locations and enemies; detailed map; large-scale action with real players; detailed plot with logical quests and moderate text load; constant motivation to return (events, promotions, awards); mini-games; good soundtrack; extremely competent localization.
Cons: You quickly get bored with additional “collect-bring-give-talk” quests; at later levels there is nothing for a loner to do, and the plot is built around monotonous tasks; Character animation looks poor compared to good graphics.