It's just a flesh wound!
Warlords: Heroes is a side-scrolling Beat 'em Up from Ben Olding Games, a Spinoff of Warlords: Call to Arms, an Adobe Flash RTS by the same person. The player takes control of Ellder, a Night Elf Whirler; Aldon, Prince of the Men of the West (Swordsman), or Toldor, an Orc Longswordsman.Playing each character constitutes an "Episode", and while each Episode does not necessarily have to be played in order, all three must be completed before you can go on to Episode Four and complete the story. The game also includes a Survival mode and a Gladiator mode, in which you must face, in sequence, a number of powerful opponents.
The game is available with all of its features at Kongregate
. Fans of Ben Olding might notice the similarity between Warlords: Heroes and an older game of his called "Achilles" or even the Dragon Fist series. They all use the same engine.
Tropes that appear in this game:
- Admiring the Abomination: Toldor actually respects the Demon's strength love for violence, though not their penchant for torture.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Demons. You don't want to be taken alive by them.
- Annoying Arrows: Arrows do such minimal damage that it is possible to be a veritable pincushion before they kill you. And buying the Mithril Vest makes you invulnerable to arrows entirely. You'll still have to watch out for mages and axe throwers though. This is particularly notable against the Elite Ranger, whose sword skills aren't that good compared to most bosses and ends up as little more than a pinata.
- Anti-Villain Protagonist: Toldor has Revenge as a motivation to go after Ellder but the game makes it clear that the High Elves he's attacking and terrorizing are not possessed.
- BFS: Toldor's weapon is the slow, but long and powerful, "longsword". Watch the heads fly.
- Big Damn Heroes: Aldon jumps out and blocks Toldor's surprise attack on Ellder. Once he has the Orc at swordpoint, the three finally meet and explain their situations to each other before teaming up.
- Black Magic: The sorcerer Ellder fights at the end of his Episode successfully summons a tremendous Demon. He fights by raining fireballs from the sky and hurling them at one's face.
- Blood Knight: Toldor's final boss is a Giant Troll. Why? Because he wanted to find one to kill.
- Boss Rush: Gladiator mode pits the player against bosses and elite units (who typically take at least one life to take down in Story mode) with only one life (but refilling health between fights). Survive as long as you can.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: Ellder's first boss is a possessed Wood Elf Elite Ranger, who rapidly fires arrows while moving back. He pulls a sword and starts swiping if you get too close to him.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Ellder and Aldon, in their respective journeys, must face possessed Elites from that region's warriors as their first major fight. Aldon faces an Elite Halberdier from his own people, while Ellder faces a possessed Wood-Elf Royal Guard.
- Combat Pragmatist: All 3 heroes (and some bosses) can Kick to momentarily stun enemies and force them back a bit, useful for interrupting attacks, setting up your own, or keeping some distance between if your weapon is long-ranged. Most enemies are fairly stupid but one thing they gleefuly do is gang up on you, averting Mook Chivalry.
- Competitive Balance: Halberdiers, with their Halberds, can deal hefty damage from a long distance, but they are slow.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu. One badass (plus accompanying Cannon Fodder) versus dozens of Mooks. Do the math.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: The giant Troll and Demon bosses have so much health that it takes quite a while to bring them down.
- Double Weapon: Ellder wields a double-ended glaive.
- The Dreaded: The eponymous Demons are feared for their wanton cruelty and infamous torture-for-the-sake-of-torture methods.
- Dual Wielding: The Wood Elf king totes two swords. He fights by windmilling like a veritable maniac.
- Elite Mooks: More powerful versions of the basic mooks will appear, with more resistance to attacks and more moves than "poke in face with spear".
- Fantastic Racism: Toldor (and the Orcs of the South in general) hate the Orcs of the North in general for betraying them in a past conflict and letting many of them get wiped out.
- It seems that the Human Alliance and the Men of the West aren't too fond of each other either, seeing how Aldon (a prince) was imprisoned for years without even his family being informed that he's alive.
- Averted by Ellder (a High Elf), who doesn't seem to bear any racism towards the Wood Elves and is shocked to see possessed ones attack him. The Wood Elf King is likewise relieved to see Ellder there and joins him on his quest.
- Fragile Speedster: Ellder is less durable than the other two heroes and his individual hits deal less damage. He makes up for this with the best mobility and making lots of attacks.
- Final Battle: Aldon, Ellder, and Toldor join forces to surmount a massive horde of undead and slay a giant Demon.
- Guest Fighter: One of the ingame cheats replaces your player character with Achilles.
- Guest-Star Party Member: The Wood Elf King signs on with Ellder once you save him from his possessed people. After seeing him fight, you'll probably start wondering why he even needed saving in the first place.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Can be Averted if one purchases a helmet. Smart idea, since the head is particularly prone to getting chopped off.
- Hero Antagonist: The non-possessed Mooks of each zone are of questionable innocence, but the High Elves that Tolldor attacks stand out as acting purely in self-defense against a rampaging Orc.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: Ellder and Toldor can parry almost any damage, even magic blasts and arrows, with their weapons.
- Improbable Weapon User / Impossibly Cool Weapon: The final boss, a tremendous demon, wields a giant hatchet and... some kind of Halberd-Sword hybrid, where the axe end is attached to the blade end of the sword.
- Jack of All Stats: Aldon has good defensive moves, allowing him to move in and out of range without actually taking damage, whilst poking his foes in the soft bits. Generally considered a balance between Ellder and Aldon.
- Lightning Bruiser: Despite being The Big Guy, Toldor attacks a lot faster than most opponents and will make mincemeat out of almost anything one on one, especially with his range.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The only way Aldon survives getting in range to use his one-handed sword is using his buckler. The other two do just fine without one by blocking anything and everything with their weapon.
- Mook Horror Show: Dozens of enemies will be hacked and stabbed to pieces by the end of each level.
- Obvious Rule Patch: Kicks were patched to no longer do Scratch Damage since, as the author noted, people were brainlessly (but tediously) kicking bosses to death using something he called "the Russian Squat-Kick method".
- Off with His Head!: Typically, killing an opponent with a head attack will send his head flying great distances with an accompanying blood geyser.
- Three Man Army, or Less: By the end of each Episode, Ellder, Aldon, and Toldor as well as any henchmen they have taken with them will have massacred in excess of a hundred people, usually much more.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Toldor. He admires the Demons for their fighting prowess, he considers the stealthy elves weak cowards, and his final boss is a giant Troll. Why? Because he specifically sought out a giant Troll.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Aldon goes on one against the Human Alliance once he breaks out of prison. Toldor is on a steady one as he hunts down Ellder for killing his brother.
- Second-Person Narration
- Spam Attack: How to kill people with Ellder: attack a lot.
- Teleport Spam: The sorcerer fights by spamming teleports and fireballs.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Episode 4 is nothing but Ellder, Toldor, and Aldon chopping a horde of undead to pieces. What makes this different? Many of the undead are wielding special and deadly weapons previously unseen, the level is extremely long, and there's a gigantic demonic being at the end of the trail.
- What Measure Is a Mook?: In Ellder's first stage, you find yourself facing easily dispatched Orc Bandits. Fast-forward to Episode 3, where you find out that Toldor's reason for hunting Ellder is that one of those Bandits was his brother.
