Just a week after the official trailer for Heroes of Order & Chaos was posted online, Gameloft has begun giving journalists hands-on impressions at the Gamescom 2012 show in Cologne Germany. From all reports Heroes of Order & Chaos (HOAC) is Gameloft’s take on Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) which is the most popular MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game on the PC. MOBA games are a sub genre of the real-time strategy game that combines the fast paced overhead RTS style (think Starcraft) with the RPG stylings you see in Order & Chaos Online or World of Warcraft. Games are time limited and players go head to head pushing their way down a series of tracks to ultimately destroy the other players base.
In the case of Heroes of Order & Chaos (HOAC) you are destroying the enemy’s crystal, which is protected by a series of towers and enemy heroes. Each player controls one of 30 characters, which each have their on skills and upgrades. As you make your way through one of three “jungle” routes to the enemy base you are constantly killing enemies to help you level up and gain access to those skills and better equipment.
From the limited play time people have had with the game it is clear that just like Order & Chaos Online before it, Heroes will provide a very similar experience to DOTA with just enough complexity and details left out to make it playable on a touch device. The controls appear to be a refinement of the systems used in older iOS real-time strategy games, which is a virtual joystick system combined with a tap-to-move system. Players can use both at the same time, which has proven to be the best way to play these style of games on mobile
Many of the characters are coming straight out of Order & Chaos Online expect many of your favorite faces from throughout O&C to appear in this game. Journalists are only given the chance to play the fire mage, but all the class/combinations will be represented.
Pricing wise the game is going to be free to play, but costly to buy characters just like its MOBA counterparts on the PC. Heroes will let you play as one of six characters free for a week at a time, but once that week is over you must pay to use those six or move on to the new free set.
All and all people really seem to love Gamelofts’ entree into the MOBA world. It will be interesting to see what people think of this genre on iOS when it comes out later this year. Let us know in the comments what you think. Gallery of screenshots below.
