Game Review: Fight monsters and ghosts in Tomb Heroes!
As a long time Tomb Raider fan, there was no way I would remain indifferent to a game that resembles my favorite franchise, but does so in a funnier, less stressful and cuter way. ZPLAY this time brings us a whole new game called Tomb Heroes and promises the players lots of shooting against monsters and lots of jumping around in ancient tombs all around the globe. The premise is interesting, the setting mysterious and the characters lovable; but let’s takes a look and see how it scores in the other departments.
Gameplay
Tomb Heroes’ main character is a girl named Laura (nod to Lara perhaps?) and she is a badass. She can shoot against any approaching enemy be it a human or, more often than not, a monster and even take care of them by jumping and crushing them. All that is done with your help of course and with a rather easy control system. As the player you must tap left or right depending on where the enemy is coming from to shoot them. Sounds way too easy to be true, right? Yes, you guessed correctly, there’s more to that. By shooting, your character takes steps back. Each shooting equals one jump on the opposite side. That means that if an enemy is coming from the other side you’ll be dead meat, unless of course you use this same disadvantage as your strength. And what do I mean by that? Earlier we mentioned that your character can crush enemies and they achieve that with a single jump on top of them. So all it takes is a tap at the right moment and you can take out two birds with one stone.
Depending on their type, enemies will require two or more shots to de destroyed. You will come across mummies (on the first tomb which is in Egypt. In each Tomb different creatures will appear to match the setting), cowboys that also shoot at you so remember to jump to avoid bullets, Vikings that can only be defeated with your guns because their horned helmet will mean instant death for you if you try to crush them, ninjas, vampires, huge spiders and even drills that come your way. Basically, there will be hardly any calm moments for you while playing. A thief will appear from time to time and you need to make sure you destroy him if you want to collect the diamonds he stole and are the game’s currency, necessary for unlocking characters and more.
The game wouldn’t be completed without power ups to make the game fairer. Power us appear randomly in your screen in the form of floating boxes and you need to jump to activate them but keep in mind you need to do it in time or they will disappear. These power ups can make you invincible by being protected inside a golden sphere, or transform you into a bunny and more that you will discover while playing.
After losing, the game offers you a revive by watching an ad or by spending diamonds (I don’t recommend the 2nd option because diamonds are hard to collect) but after using it twice it’s game over and you’ll have to start over. By achieving a new high score or after defeating a large number of enemies, you will notice an ad icon with a small diamond on it at the top left of your screen. By tapping on it you will watch an ad and be rewarded a large number of diamonds for doing so. I found this very helpful and generous as it made it easier for me to unlock new characters than simply waiting for the thief to show up.
What I found rather harsh are the requirements for unlocking new tombs, e.g. to have 5 characters unlocked, or having a high score over 100. I’m all for challenges but I wish it was a bit easier to open new worlds.
In-app Purchases
The game’s shop offers a variety of diamond bundles with varying prices and content ranging from $ 0.99 for +400 diamonds and reaching up to $ 9.99 for +12000 diamonds. Also with any purchase all the ads are permanently removed. The game is built in such a way though, that purchasing diamonds via IAPs is optional. You can collect plenty simply by improving as a player.
Graphics & Sounds
The character designs in Tomb Heroes are absolutely adorable regardless of them being part of the good or the bad guys. There is a lot of imagination thrown in creating the settings and characters and the variety in colors is also something that doesn’t go unnoticed. The BG music is fitting and creates a feeling of mystery.
Conclusion
Tomb Heroes is a game that will surprise you pleasantly with its gameplay and you’ll be addicted before realizing it. It has a good balance between fun and difficulty, the controls are intuitive and the rules simple. It is perfect for the casual player but it will take lots of practice to enter new Tombs. All in all it is worth giving it a try and judge its qualities for yourselves! Let us know your thoughts and impressions in the comments below.
Download Tomb Heroes for iOS devices here.
Tomb Heroes screenshots (above) and trailer (below)
