Hero's Hour - Review

Table of Contents

What is Hero’s Hour about?

Hero’s Hour is an Hommage to Heroes of Might and Magic but as an Auto-Battler 😉 I played HOMM3 for hours with a friend and it was great! So with Hero’s Hour you choose a faction, build up your city, recruit units and go conquer the world with your heroes. Battles will happen automatically. You can still order a bit and cast magic. Just played a small test to check it out, now I already have 3 runs done. It is that good!

How to play Hero’s Hour?

Maps and Factions

So at each start you have to choose a map you would like to play. Until starting to write this review I only played on tiny maps. They took me about 1-2h to finish. So beware that larger maps can take a long time, but hey they are even more fun to explore 😀

So now we have map, next let’s choose one of the many factions:

Order

Your classic medieval human faction with knights. Order Heroes can either give:

Rallying to boost units close to the hero
Blessing to buff units after casting a spell

Highest type unit is The Idol which get’s created by sacrificing a unit and two artifacts. It can resurrect and tank.

Pillar

Medieval but eastern style with tigers and tea. Pillar Heroes can either give:

Union to boost the hero and maybe safe a near unit from dying
Balance a 5 cost spell to cast an area to safe from death

Highest type unit is either:

Tiger of War a powerful jumping tank
Serpent of Gods a spell casting dragon

Arcane

Sworn to the power of magic and constructs. Arcane Heroes can either give:

Alchemy to gain Ore after each battle. This can be used in the Aether Forge
Aethermancy like Alchemy but with a special ressource

Highest type unit is either:

Thundergod a lighting throwing Archer
Liongod a powerful charging Melee unit

Wild

The elves would like to live in these forests. Wild Heroes can either give:

Wild Communion to get a special spell to summon animals onto the field
Lifespark to heal nearby units and summon animals on casting spells.

Highest type unit is the Grove Soul a slow but sturdy tree.

Tide

Islanders who want to be not disturbed. Tide Heroes can either give:

Siren Song to charm some enemy units
Conflux to summon Elementals when casting a spell

Highest type unit is the Phoenix which can summon little helpers and resurrect once a battle.

Pyre

Let us worship the demons of fire. Pyre Heroes can either give:

Firegating which let’s you teleport your own units across the field
Firetrapping that teleport enemy units

Highest type unit is Pride a devil from hell who can teleport himself and resurrect once a battle.

Lament

Sunlight is bad, let us live underground. Lament Heroes can either give:

Shadowcloning to duplicate the hero and some units
Shadowcasting to duplicate some enemy units and let them fight for you

Highest type unit is the Aspect of Shadow which can Shadowclone and tank for you.

Horde

For the Horde! Horde Heroes can either give:

Might to strengthen up your hero
Ardour to also strengthen up your hero

Highest type unit is the Cyclops which will smash everything with his big club.

Enclave

Old lizards on the rise. Enclave Heroes can either give:

Hunting to exchange battle trophies for beasts
Taming to tame creatures

Highest type unit is the Apex a big Dinosaur who will charge into enemy lines.

Earthen

Dwarves, Beer and Dragons go hand in hand. Earthen Heroes can either give:

Soul of the Earth to collect souls of dead Dwarves to be turned into Rock Elementals
Grudge to turn dead dwarven Souls into Vengeful Spirits

Highest type unit is the Cave Regent a Yeti wo likes to throw and smash.

Delirium

Lovecraft fans beware, the end is near and we are going to bring it. Delirium Heroes can either give:

Speaker to spread fear and get more health
Watcher to get a special spell to spread madness

Highest type unit is the Prince who will take a deep look at the enemy.

Decay

Death is the Power of the Undead. Decay Heroes can either give:

Bane to spread the Curse of Undead. More Undead for the King.
Malediction to cast the Curse as Spell.

Highest type unit is the either:

Lifebane a Abyss Night to struck fear into enemies
Thanatos a Bone Dragon of Death

As you can see there are so many factions to explore. We are going through different maps and factions on our YouTube playthrough. So if you want to see them played for real, come and check em out.

The City

The city is where you can build structures to unlock units or city buildings. It will be your main source of income and strength. There are mostly two ways of playing:

Either you focus on more gold. So that you have more income for the later game
You focus on getting units out and start conquering

Either of these ways are fine to focus on. But make sure to build once a turn. A turn without build is mostly a lost turn. But don’t rage if it happens, because it will happen 😁

Battle and Conquer

Since this is an auto-battler you do not get to directly control the fight. You can order to attack a specific position or defend it. You can decide which units to field and cast very useful spells. If you have more units that you can field at the start of the battle, then you will be able to reinforce as soon as you lost some of units and a timer has run out. So a doom stack hero will be quite powerful.

After a successful battle you might have opened up structures on the world map. So just walk into resources, chests, artifacts and locations to get them. You can hover over these to get a deeper explanation for each item and structure ingame.

Multiplayer!

Of course there is a Multiplayer Mode! You can go Hotseat on a single PC and just switch through the players. Or you can go and invite a friend through Steam Remote Play and have a Hotseat Session over the web. It is going to be such a time sink for me, but it will be great!

Steam Workshop / Mods

Oh yes my friends, no more waiting for DLC! You can just install or create a mod and get new factions, maps, spells and units. It is glorious! You should definitely check that out and see if there is something for you. Here are two examples for you:

Tohou Mod – Gensokyo Faction from Cattiv0:

Touhou Mod! Adds the Gensokyo faction with 6 heroes, 9 units, unique projectiles, interesting mechanics, and 41 (yes, 41) artifacts. Should be reasonably balanced, with units being worse than average but with powerful abilities. Also adds a maximum rarity doughnut trinket. I don’t own anything.
by Cattiv0

Honey Faction from Lyolf and AnthonyRose:

Prepare for the war and be ready to retaliate as Honey. Their focus is heavily swinged towards support and in a lesser extent swarming.
**Currently contains:
The 9 factions units and their upgrades
The 6 faction heroes
A neutral support unit
by Lyolf and AnthonyRose

My Conclusion

Since this was a quite long review, it was also one of the best games I played in a while. I wanna play more and maybe even play with the community. Playthroughs are definitely coming for YouTube so stay tuned. If you like City Builders or Turn-Based Strategy Games then you will love this too!

Where to buy?

If you like this you might like

As said in the conclusions, if you like this, then you definitely like turn-based strategy or games from Goblinz Publishing. So how about checking out these:

Also, if you have any other recommendations of a game you’d like me to play, feel free to leave a comment here, or on my YouTube channel.

YouTube

If you want to relax in your own timely manner then come watch me on YouTube:

If you want to read more about Hero’s Hour here is a list of interesting articles:

YouTube Releases