Deep Realm Heroes

Like most browser games this is a quick pick up'n play game to kill a couple of minutes with. In my case I found the new Within Temptation album on Spotify and wanted to occupy myself while listening to it. Where else to go than RMN?

This was one of the first unreviewed games on the list so obviously I picked it up. Doubleplusgood points for it being so simple and short and casual. But on to an actual review -ish thing.

The game is fairly simple. Using graphics that look like something out of one of the Game Boy Final Fantasies (Legend? Adventure? Who knows what those games were called) it fits very well with the simple aestethic.

There are a number of enemies that seem to have somewhat different behaviours. The Lass is non-confrontational but hogs all the items lying around the Imp is all about the battle but runs away when it gets hurt. The Robot hogs items AND is generally evil. The Wyrm is only after your blood but seems to have a slightly harder time noticing you so if you barely see it it probably doesn't see you.

For items there are three variations. The Summoning staff summons a random creature, the Blinking Staff teleports you to a random nearby location and the Healing Potion heals you. Enemies can also use these items.

The tactical combat comes in in trying to manipulate the different enemy behaviours to attack each other rather than the player which after my first failed attempts proved to be fairly fun and engaging.

The levels are randomly generated though the levels go through a bunch of graphics to provide some variety. Occasionally when starting the game you end up with three enemies pummeling you immediately though which can be a bit hard to get through. Also by the time you've collected a bunch of items it is fairly hard to lose (unless you, like me, forget to look at your hp).

With all this said I probably recommend the game for anyone wanting to kill a couple of minutes. And once I understood the behaviours of the different enemies the game actually became more enjoyable. It would be nice to have an on-screen score and maybe the controls on-screen at all times and not only in the beginning. But apart from those minor niggles this is a fairly enjoyable average game.

(my high score wasn't higher than level 15 and 26 enemies killed though :( so if there's any secret bonuses that appear after that I didn't get to those)