Hero’s Hour demo hands-on preview

Have you ever wanted to wage a war on the backs of heroes? Rally your armies for the vaguely unifying cause of “this guy seems cool and wants to hire us?” Then Hero’s Hour might be the sort of game you’ve been looking for – read on in our Hero’s Hour demo hands-on preview.

Players take on the role of heroes aligned with one of many factions and are plopped down in a suitably thematic environment to build a home base and scourge monsters from your mines and forests. But other players are in the same situation, and everyone is vying for control of the map.

Hero’s Hour
Developer: Benjamin “ThingOnItsOwn” Hauer
Publishers: Goblinz Publishing, Maple Whispering Limited
Platform: Windows PC (Previewed)
Release Date: March 1, 2022
Players: At least up to 5
Price: Unlisted

Hero’s Hour is a combination of RTS and strategic adventure game. Most of the game will be spend exploring and fighting monsters, but also managing resources, claiming territory, and also managing multiple heroes at once.

Players will lay claim to cities and build up these cities to provide them with passive benefits and also recruitable units. You’ll need a myriad of resources ranging from the basics like gold and wood, to niche items like mercury, sulphur, and crystals.

Now if the basics of the game sound familiar to you, then you’ve probably played the 1997 game Lords of Magic or a game from the Heroes of Might & Magic series. To that I say: it’s pretty much like that.

But in defense of Hero’s Hour a game like that hasn’t been done in a while and with the benefit of hindsight this new game seems largely free of easily exploitable mechanics or glitches unlike its predecessors.

Fights are largely uninvolved, there are rudimentary commands you can make to reposition units and tell them to attack or defend. However the game’s tutorial says it best and advises you that in most cases you won’t need to mess with these much.

What is in the player’s control though, is the use of spells. Hero units can learn spells that can sway a fight with their clever or timely usage.

Heal your units to keep them going, or maybe summon expendable monsters to disrupt your foe’s backline. Hero’s Hour promises over 80 spells to turn the tide of battle.

The largely passive battles are redeemed by at least being fun to watch. Not in a spectator sport sort of way, but more like watching an ant-farm.

Ultimately, Hero’s Hour is the perfect game for fans of retro strategy games and brings the golden days of the Heroes of Might & Magic franchise to players who might be intimidated by it.

Hero’s Hour is launching on March 1st for Windows PC (via Steam, GOG, and Itch.io).