Heroes and Generals Review

There is nothing more satisfying than dropping down from the sky and landing atop a foe whom is hiding in an obscure spot or in other words; camping and then slaying him with whatever weapon you happen to have handy at the time. There are other elements of Heroes and Generals I enjoy but that is certainly the most prevalent of them all.

Heroes and Generals is a first person shooter set in the height of the second world war, where you may take the side of any three major factions; The Russians, the Germans or the Americans. Each faction has its own unique weapons and vehicles and visuals of course.

So what’s the key information about this game? Well, with the “Hero” side of the game you can play a soldier from any faction and join in a fight, once you have purchased a soldier you aren’t limited to his faction. You can play as any nation provided that you aren’t playing in the “War” gamemode where you fight battles and represent one of the general’s soldiers who owns that particular assault group. If you wish to play in the war then you can only play as one faction for that war, you may switch at the end of the war but not during. Rewards are offered for those who fight for the underdog factions which either have less generals or less heroes than the others.

Each faction shares the same roles; those being the soldier, paratrooper, tank crew, recon and pilot. Each role has its own specific features, most of them being obvious in the title with the tank crew able to spawn in tanks, the recon able to spawn with superior snipers and pilots having the ability to fly above the battlefield. Personally, I play paratrooper the most followed by tank crew, both of these roles appeal to me as I am able to adapt fairly quickly to my surroundings and often or not I will find myself facing off against a large amount of enemies all whilst sitting pretty at the top of the scoreboard! It may be worth mentioning that I only play as Germany, I find them much more enjoyable than the other factions as their tanks and guns speak to me. The Stug and king tiger just feel so enjoyable to use!

Everything can be unlocked by leveling up your character. For instance the above character is my standard soldier and was the first one I played with back in the beta. Everything you see in his inventory was unlocked with hard work and spending earned in game currency to get them. On the subject of progression, I would say its not pay to win, it’s more pay to progress at an appropriate rate. The above character, again, someone whom I have unlocked everything with without spending hard cash, to get where he is now which is barely halfway through the total unlocks of the german soldier has taken me approximately 30 hours in game.

Thirty hours of holding down the trigger and crawling my way to the top of the leaderboard, thirty hours of grabbing my balls in my hands and running towards Sherman tanks and placing the H3 anti-tank onto its arse, before quickly placing the other three down to ensure the kill; running away and turning around to see the tank become obliterated and fade into non existence. No matter what you do in Heroes and Generals, progression will always be slow and it will always be hard.

As you progress throughout the game however it does give you a great sense of achievement. As for actually playing the game? Well, a lot of people will say that certain weaponry is overpowered and for that I would have to disagree, every weapon is circumstantial. For instance, a Russian semi-auto rifle will be better at long range than an MP40 and the MP40 will be better at close range than the semi-auto rifle. Each weapon can be customised further and in great depth (from the bullet you use all the way to barrel of your gun) to compliment your play style. Personally, I take raw damage over everything else, normally I am so close to my target I don’t have to worry about aiming. Barrel pressing is the future my friends!

Also, smacking snipers over the head with a shovel instantly kills them.

So smack them like you’re playing whack-a-mole.

Gameplay is a very solid experience, whilst it may not be everyone’s cup of tea due to the limited amount of teamplay and the frequently toxic teammates who will often blame everyone else on your team for losing the match all whilst they are sitting down at the bottom of the leaderboard.

The general side of the game confuses me endlessly however and I have yet to understand it or really experience it for that matter.

Mostly because of this:

Only because of that in fact. I have to queue to deploy my assault squads into the war and often the queue is ridiculously long and I don’t really get to play much with them in a war! Most of which seemingly happens over night anyway and before long you can find that you can only deploy your assault squads at the end of the current war!