Unreal Heroes Demo

Multiplayer games have to feature engaging gameplay mechanics and encourage replayability, because people get bored rather quickly if they are forced to do the same thing over and over again. Plenty of maps, multiple game modes and great mechanics are the perfect ingredients in such cases, but it’s quite difficult to get the right mixture and please everyone in the process.

Unreal Heroes is a 2D shooter that provides you with a few different game modes, a handful of maps and some platformer elements that are not very well integrated at this point. In fact, very few things work as intended at the moment, which is why it might be a tad difficult to keep playing for more than a few minutes. On the other hand, the game is still in early alpha, so things might change in the future.

To begin with, you can choose from multiple game modes, such as capture the flag, deathmatch and zombie waves, the latter of which is actually a co-op mode. None of these are particularly fun, on the other hand, mainly because the core mechanics are very unpolished. Movement is slow and awkward, and so is the shooting, not to mention the fact that the platformer elements keep you from concentrating on the action sometimes.

You use the mouse to aim and shoot, which is fairly straightforward, but things change when you also have to tackle trampolines, ramps, and various other environmental obstacles. The controls can also be a bit too slow sometimes, which is not ideal in a shooter that technically encourages fast reflexes and good hand-to-eye coordination.

Lastly, the game uses Unreal Engine 4, but don’t expect incredible graphics, because the 2D environments are very basic. In fact, very little effort went into them, because it feels like you are going past the same backgrounds over and over again. There’s no variation in the platforming sections either, except for the occasional jump you are forced to make in order to reach a power-up.

All things considered, Unreal Heroes is either original nor engaging enough to keep you playing for too long. Hence, the annoying controls, repetitive level design and lack of a proper challenge make the game difficult to love.