Has Been Heroes

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Critics Recommend

Average Score

Total Reviews: 32

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Critics Recommend

Critic Reviews: 32

Critics Consensus

# Reviews: 32

A summary of the critical opinion for this game will be provided after release or a minimum of 15 reviews have been aggregated.

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Critic Reviews for Has Been Heroes

Reviews

High Score - 86/100

Low Score - 30/100

James O'Connor (GameSpot)

5/10

“This roguelike’s cool combat system is held back by a terrible structure.”

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Nick Gillham (God is a Geek)

4/10

“Hard and unforgiving, Has Been Heroes has the potential to create the videogame equivalent of Jack Torrance in anyone who plays it.”

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Ken Talbot (Push Square)

6/10

“Has-Been Heroes is as tough as nails and built for people that like to lose over and over again. The combat offers an interesting twist on a familiar mechanic, but never really evolves beyond that initial learning process. Some of the whimsy present in the Trine series has been carried over here, but not enough to balance out the punishing difficulty.”

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Read the Reviews (32 total)

Outlet	Author	Score	Date	Quote	Read
CGMagazine	Elias Blondeau	7.6 / 10	04-13-2017	Has-Been Heroes, best enjoyed in short bursts, is a clever take on roguelikes and a strong argument for the Switch’s easy portability.	Read review
Cubed3	Nikola Suprak	8 / 10	10-04-2017	Has-Been Heroes delivers an excellent challenge for the player and provides the perfect blend of tension and enjoyment. The combat mechanic definitely manages to be both welcoming for newer players, while still providing scope for tactical and strategic decisions through the use of spells, combined with good lane placement. There is not a lot of focus given to creating an epic memorable quest, and sometimes luck plays too big a part in victory	Read review
Daily Dot	AJ Moser	3.5 / 5 stars	03-27-2017	Has-Been Heroes is a challenging and charming indie adventure	Read review
Destructoid	Jed Whitaker	4.5 / 10	03-24-2017	As a console game, I can’t recommend it, but if you’re the type of person who plays your Nintendo Switch on the go, it at least is something you can pick up and play for a bit without much thought. Has-Been Heroes would benefit greatly with touchscreen controls on a mobile device, as the gameplay seems tailor made for it, but alas it doesn’t support the Switch’s touch capabilities and isn’t available on phones. But hey, at least it features HD Rumble, which is easily the most over-hyped and overrated feature of the Switch, so there is that.	Read review
EGM	Emma Schaefer	4 / 10	03-28-2017	A heavy dose of randomness coupled with a lack of permanent progression makes Has-Been Heroes a chore to keep playing. Though there’s a good strategy idea buried in its multi-lane gameplay, the high-risk, no-reward setup isn’t satisfying enough to make up for its otherwise mediocre aspects. Coupled with repetitive enemies, forgettable assets, and bizarre controls, Has-Been Heroes is a game that can go right back into retirement.	Read review
Gamefa	Aria Moghadam	6 / 10	02-28-2019	Has Been Heroes had the potential to be a very good game, but some gameplay issues and weak narrative, don’t let this game to break the walls of mediocrity. Combats are hard and based on luck more than anything else. Has Been Heroes is a fun game to play in its genre, but you must deal with its problems too.	Read review
GameMAG	xtr	6 / 10	04-23-2017	The world of Has-Been Heroes is too frustrating due to the same type of enemies, random difficulty level and lack of motivation to run it more than once a week. The only exception is the version for the Nintendo Switch, which can be good for short sessions in buses, subways and trains, replacing no less monotonous games for tablets and mobile phones.	Read review
GameSkinny	David Fisher	8 / 10	03-28-2017	Like its titular characters, Has-Been Heroes may look like nothing new, but has a charm and unique style of gameplay that should not be overlooked	Read review
GameSpot	James O’Connor	5 / 10	04-04-2017	This roguelike’s cool combat system is held back by a terrible structure.	Read review
GBAtemp	Tom Bond	6 / 10	03-31-2017	Overall, Has Been Heroes is…ok. If the RNG was fixed up a bit and the difficulty curve was altered so you’re gradually introduced to the game, it would be a pretty good rogue-like. As it is now, it’s simply too frustrated and luck-based to be up there with other great rogue-likes like Rogue Legacy or Darkest Dungeon.	Read review
Geeks Under Grace	Joe Morgan	6.5 / 10	03-27-2017	Has Been Heroes is a fun yet flawed rogue-like. The steady flow of unlockable content and frantic strategy are engaging, but the brutal boss encounters that often rely on luck from pickups can be infuriating.	Read review
God is a Geek	Nick Gillham	4 / 10	04-13-2017	Hard and unforgiving, Has Been Heroes has the potential to create the videogame equivalent of Jack Torrance in anyone who plays it.	Read review
Hardcore Gamer	Jason Bohn	3 / 5 stars	03-30-2017	Despite all of these complaints, Has-Been Heroes isn’t a terrible time.	Read review
IGN	Leif Johnson	6.1 / 10	03-24-2017	There are some good ideas in Has Been Heroes, such as the way it uses multi-lane battlefields to make us use strategies that involve switching between the strengths of three different heroes to achieve victory. It’s a recipe for fun that manages to last for a while. Eventually, though, the heavy emphasis on the luck of level generation, the frustrations of enemy repetition, the poor tutorial, and the tendency to overrun you with tough enemies spoil the whole. Hard games are great, but there are limits.	Read review
Metro GameCentral	GameCentral	3 / 10	04-03-2017	A tedious trawl through the worst aspects of roguelikes, turn-based strategy, and bad interface design. Only somehow less fun than that sounds.	Read review
Nerd Much?	Bobby Bernstein	8.3 / 10	03-27-2017	I’m not sure if the game would work as well for such an extended period of time if I were tethered to an Xbox One or my PC to play, but the Nintendo Switch appears to provide for the best gameplay experience.	Read review
New Game Network	Stephen LaGioia	65 / 100	04-17-2017	Has-Been Heroes is a solid tower defense experience that borrows attributes from Plants vs Zombies, while putting its own twist on the formula. Plenty of repetition and frustration	Read review
Nintendo Enthusiast	Jason Lepine	8 / 10	04-10-2017	The roguelike genre is a game genre I’ve never bothered to explore. There was just never a game that caught my eye. Admittedly, Has-Been Heroes was no exception. The trailers didn’t stir much interest in me and my initial demo of the game turned me off even more because of a control scheme I felt was confusing at the time. Now, with over 10 hours of gameplay under my belt I have to admit that Has-Been Heroes has become one of my most recommended titles for the Switch.	Read review
Nintendo Life	Ron DelVillano	5 / 10	04-04-2017	Has-Been Heroes is a game that is full of great ideas but gets dragged down by poor execution. The way it combines RPG and roguelike elements with basic tower defense gameplay has so much potential that it unfortunately can’t live up to in the face of imbalanced difficulty curves and unwieldy controls. It feels much more like a proof of concept that, with time and updates, could some day lead to a great adventure.	Read review
NintendoWorldReport	Justin Nation	8.5 / 10	03-29-2017	Maybe I’m just a “kick me while I’m down and I’ll still get up” kind of guy but the best compliment I can pay Has-Been Heroes is that it scratches an itch I never even knew I had, and I don’t come along games like that often enough. Depending on where you are on the challenge-loving scale will likely determine where you’ll stand, individual results will likely vary.	Read review
Player.One	Phillip Martinez	4 / 10	03-24-2017	Overall, Has-Been Heroes is a very enjoyable experience, despite the difficulty level. While I wouldn’t recommend this game for younger gamers as they will probably get too frustrated, this is definitely something players with patience can really sink hours and hours into.	Read review
Push Square	Ken Talbot	6 / 10	04-02-2017	Has-Been Heroes is as tough as nails and built for people that like to lose over and over again. The combat offers an interesting twist on a familiar mechanic, but never really evolves beyond that initial learning process. Some of the whimsy present in the Trine series has been carried over here, but not enough to balance out the punishing difficulty.	Read review
Saving Content	Scott Ellison II	2 / 5 stars	05-12-2017	Has-Been Heroes works for the Switch with its small and travel-focused design, but less so at home when there’s other stuff on this console and other consoles to play. Has-Been Heroes could really benefit from an easier difficulty, because luck is just rarely ever on your side. There’s some fun to be had, but it is far and few between each run you play. The tactics and strategy behind Has-Been Heroes is mostly satisfying, but is sadly undone by its difficulty.	Read review
SomHráč.sk	Róbert Hagan	85 / 100	04-20-2017	Has-been Heroes is an interesting entry in the roguelite genre. Easy to learn, but still rewarding. The skeleton slaying experience is harmed by some minor technical issues, though.	Read review
SpazioGames	Gianluca Arena	5.5 / 10	04-13-2017	Without narrative hooks, valuable prizes and more diverse in-game situations, Has been heroes overstays its welcome after just a couple of hours, also let down by horrible difficulty spikes and an unfairly procedurally generated maps. Try it again, Frozenbyte.	Read review
TechRaptor	Samuel Guglielmo	8.5 / 10	04-14-2017	An addictive and entertaining roguelite, Has-Been Heroes has some novel ideas that makes it an absolute blast for when you have 30 minutes to kill for another run.	Read review
The Outerhaven Productions	Aaron Sanders	2.5 / 5 stars	04-17-2017	Has-Been Heroes isn’t a bad game, but I wasn’t excited to start over after my first loss. After coming to understand the mechanics and strategy better, I am enjoying it to some degree, but I don’t feel any less frustrated every time I lose. The only thing driving me to play more is my inner completionist, but if you’re looking for a game with a compelling story and more to it than just unlocking more in-game items and spells, then this might not be the title for you.	Read review
TheSixthAxis	Dominic Leighton	5 / 10	03-28-2017	Has-Been Heroes has a genuinely inviting and involving combat system that requires real strategic thought to master. However the rest of the game just doesn’t pull together to form a cohesive whole, with brutal difficulty, frustrating permadeath and an under-utilised premise all serving to taint the end product. It does at least benefit from the Nintendo Switch’s portability, and this is where it’s at its best, but at home you’ll likely be turning it off far quicker than Frozenbyte were hoping for.	Read review
TrueAchievements	Cindy Minguez	3 / 5 stars	04-10-2017	Has-Been Heroes is an initially appealing title that quickly becomes bogged down by a lack of good instructions, too much luck-based randomness, and permadeath that never quits.	Read review
VGChartz	Evan Norris	Recommended	03-27-2017	Permanent death and randomized everything might prove too unpredictable for some. The lack of a robust story might turn off others. Players who adjust to the steep learning curve, however, will find an engaging title full of action and strategy with high replay value.	Read review
Video Chums	A.J. Maciejewski	8.6 / 10	03-27-2017	Simply put, Has-Been Heroes is one of the most engaging strategic gaming experiences on the market.	Read review

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Game Info

Game Description / Storyline:

Has-Been Heroes is a challenging, rogue-like game of strategy and action, featuring a band of heroes on a quest to escort the King’s twin princesses to the Princess Academy. The player controls three characters and must focus on combining hundreds of different spells to create devastating combo effects that can be used against enemies along the way. The rewarding, strategy game features irreverent humor, expanding world maps and increasing levels of difficulty. Players will stay focused and engaged in the gameplay as the quantity and randomness of spells and items allow for thousands of new experiences and will force the player to change their game style each time, while the specter of permadeath could cause the player to lose everything!

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