Online gameplay – particularly of the co-operative variety – isn’t something that the 3DS is well known for. Yes, we’ve seen Mario Kart 7, fighting games such as Street Fighter and Dead or Alive and a handful of other games feature the ability to play online with, though mostly against, other players, but Heroes of Ruin is the first game on the handheld to do co-op play almost perfectly.

[boxout]Heroes, then, is an isometric action-orientated role-playing game (a dungeon crawler, if you will) that’s surprisingly good, despite a very generic name, plot and setting. Online co-operative gameplay is integrated seamlessly into the game (though the option to play alone isn’t out of reach), allowing you to play with up to three other players.

The four players present in any online game will be a mix of the four main characters – essentially the four classes – that you’re able to choose from at the start of your adventure. You have a choice between the Vindicator, a bulky lion-man who acts as a healer and protector, defeating foes with his giant sword; the Gunslinger, a more human character who uses a set of dual handguns to smite foes from afar; the Alchitect, a female of Elven descent, focused on spells and magic; and the Savage, a Barbarian hulk with brutal attacks and strategy.

[videoyoutube]All of these characters are customisable. It’s very limited, mind: you’re only able to change their hair style, skin tone and basic appearance. Different armour and weapons comes later – usually as a reward for completing a quest.

You’ll be offered these quests before you enter a new area. Each area is opened by following the main questline, though there are many sidequests, given to you by certain NPCs in the hub world – the Nexus – which can be just as fun as the main ones. As well as NPCs, the Nexus features shops, where you’ll be able to sell your loot or use the gold you’ve been rewarded with, and gateways to all of the dungeons in the game.

There is an array of quests per dungeon and although many are simple fetch/collect missions, or boss fights, they all have unique twists and manage to stay fun as you progress through the game. Rewards from completing quests can vary – you’re always guaranteed XP to level up your character and either some gold or a new item, be that a piece of armour or a new weapon.Whilst there’s plenty of these items to collect in the game, they are all limited aesthetically, and weapons often look very similar.

As well as all of the quests, there are constantly updated online daily and weekly challenges, which give you XP as well as Valor. Valor can be used at a specialist shop to purchase Relics – essentially a more powerful or valuable variant of an item.

Weapons and other items increase different stats, depending on how powerful they are and their speciality, and are locked to certain classes and levels. Levelling up brings additional statistical bonuses; you’re able to spend points on the main stats – Might, Vigor and Soul – which in turn affect all of your character’s other stats such as attack power, health and energy. Fortunately, if you pick up a weapon that just isn’t right for you, you’re able to trade items via the StreetPass Heroes Network, or at any time in an online game, which can be very useful if you both have an item suited to each other’s class.

Combat in Heroes of Ruin, which is at its core hack’n’slash, flows very smoothly, with extremely responsive controls and streamlined combos making for an enjoyable experience. Each character has a basic attack, a charge attack, the ability to block and dodge along with several special attacks. These special attacks are unlocked progressively as your character levels up – there are even a few skill trees with different abilities for each character, making for quite a deep system.

[drop]Heroes of Ruin is almost completely voice acted in cutscenes, with snippets of dialogue from characters in-game, which is very pleasing to see from a handheld title. The music, too, is wonderfully epic and fits right in with the fantasy setting.

Heroes’ main failure, however, lies with its setting and narrative, both of which are rather generic in terms of dungeon crawlers, though there are some genuinely refreshing inclusions such as shark pirates along with a lot of other strange creatures. n-Space have crafted a good mythos from scratch, however, even if it is very much in-line with other fantasy settings.

There are a few other problems, too; large parts of the environment in each themed section are often re-used and it’s very noticeable, despite the attempts to hide it with different camera angles. There are certain environmental glitches too, where the surfaces don’t load and characters become stuck. And, unfortunately, the puzzle elements of the game are few and far between and often rather easy.

Visually, it’s nothing amazing. Though some of the animations are decent (which is one of the factors contributing to the smooth combat), textures are flat and it hardly pushes the 3DS to its limit. It’s odd, then, that the game’s framerate suffers noticeably when the 3D slider is turned up, though there aren’t too many brilliant 3D effects anyway.

Heroes should be inherently utterly repetitive and banal, but it’s oddly exciting to play and very compelling. Don’t expect much when you’re done, though; you’re able to replay as a different character or revisit dungeons to complete online challenges and find loot, but there isn’t a lot of replay value.

Pros:

• Unmatched online functionality on the 3DS.
• A good, though limited, mix of classes and characters to choose from.
• Brilliant, compelling dungeon crawling gameplay.
• Great, traditional levelling, quest and upgrade systems.
• A fluid and fun combat system.

Cons:

• Visuals are sub-standard.
• Sections of environments are lazily re-used.
• The fantasy plot and setting aren’t anything special.

Heroes of Ruin is, to put it simply, quite a fun game. It’s hardly the most complex RPG, but there is a good amount of content to keep any player happy. The online features surpass those of any other game on the console, but other points of the game feel incomplete. Put those few issues aside, though, and you have a very competent handheld dungeon crawler that’s definitely worth some of your time.

Score: 7/10