• Hero Academy 2 in development with BonusXP

    Dean
    20 Mar 2017
    8549

    Hero Academy fans rejoice! The turn based tactics game which proved very popular when it launched in early 2012 is set to get its sequel! The original marked Robot Entertainment’s first mobile game and was not only a hit with players but proved critically successful too, winning the “Best Mobile Game” at the DICE 2013 awards. It will soon be time to return to the Academy with Hero Academy 2 which is being developed by BonusXP.

    Bonus who?

    You might be wondering who these folks at BonusXP are and you might be interested to know that the studio shares alot in common with Robot Entertainment. BonusXP was founded by Dave Pottinger, John Evanson and Jason Sallenbach who have all helmed from Ensemble Studios. The studio is based in Texas along with Robot Entertainment. BonusXP also has legendary game designer Bruce Shelley on board. This commonality and highly trusted studio staffers makes BonusXP a great partner to deliver Hero Academy 2 whilst Robot continues to work on Orcs Must Die! Unchained.

    What’s new

    Hero Academy was a great formula and its looking like Hero Academy 2 will retain the core gameplay but will be taking it to the next level. The most notable change is that Hero Academy 2 will be using real-time matches. This means there will be no more long waits for players to make their moves. Instead players will be making moves there and then, this should greatly speed up the pace of games.

    It also appears there is a new card collecting mechanic with players choosing the cards to bring into battle. This should mean more diverse matches with wider ranges of strategies. Mechanic improvements like this should really take the game to the next level of additional depth. The visuals have been given an overhaul too. According to the official website:

    Hero Academy 2 builds on the original’s amazing tactical gameplay. We’ve added exciting new characters to the familiar fan favorites, all done in full-3d environments. Matches are real-time now. You can also customize your teams by collecting cards and building your own decks.

    The game will be coming to both iOS and Android and will be launching some time in 2017. Get excited with the brand new teaser trailer below!

    Trailer

  1. I was really excited when I heard about this, but I’m a little more worried after hearing the details. I really don’t like how Robot Entertainment seems to be embracing the freenium model, both with this and OMDU. I think that sort of payment model is almost invariably to a game’s detriment.

    I’m also very sceptical about the move away the asynchronous gameplay, which was one of the defining features of HA1. I sometimes spent ages planning the best possible move I could think of, and that added a lot of strategic depth that I worry will be lost in HA2.

    I also worry about the balance problems associated with making your own deck – it’ll be hard to get right, but could be pulled off. The original was very well balanced except for Shaolin, but this feels harder to pull off. Hopefully Robot can though.

    So, cautiously optimistic, but there’s a few areas for concern here I think.

  2. I was also excited at first…. but the gameplay previews I can see on youtube look aweful !! I hope its not a situation where a newbie playing against a level 7 wizard has no chance. Also, will HA2 have TF2 still? Hoping I’m wrong, and this isn’t gonna suck.

  3. Been playing about 2 weeks. This game is going to live or die on the ability of Robot Entertainment to keep the card pool updated.

    What I mean by that is that it takes skilled played VERY little time to figure out the best deck, then just play that forever.

    Living Card Games like Netrunner, or L5R thrive because the card pool constantly changes, making the meta dynamic. If Robot can keep the card pool fresh/rotating/updating, they could hae areal winner here. If not? Well, once I’ve ‘solved’ the game, I’ll probably move on. Lack of card/updates WILL hurt this game.

  4. Pingback: Actual-Time Technique Battler 'Hero Academy 2' is Now Accessible Worldwide - Viral Games

  5. Pingback: Real-Time Strategy Battler 'Hero Academy 2' is Now Available Worldwide - Counter Earth

2 Trackbacks

Leave a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>