No Heroes Here

Genre: Platformer / Tower Defense / Party Game

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local, Online)

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Review:

No Heroes Here, released in 2017 on PC and ported to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2018, is a Platformer Tower Defense game with strong Party Game elements with a focus on co-op play. In this game’s medieval fantasy setting, players take the role of various other characters left to defend the kingdom after the king and the brave hero are both defeated in battle – the princess, the court jester, and so on. Together, they must work to defend the kingdom’s castles by hurriedly crafting the ammunition for the castles’ cannons and firing them at invading forces.

In some ways, this results in gameplay that’s a bit similar to games like Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, where you and any friends joining you are scrambling around within a larger structure working to ensure the structure is operating properly. Unlike other Tower Defense games, you’re not worried about placement so much as you are ensuring that the right cannons get the proper ammunition in a reasonable amount of time.

To break this down, just firing a single cannonball means taking ore to a furnace for smelting, then to a workshop to be shaped into a ball, then to the cannon, while also getting sulfur and bringing it to a workshop to turn into gunpowder, then bringing the gunpowder to the aforementioned cannon. After firing the cannon, the process must be repeated again, in addition to cleaning the now-used cannon.

Players must manage these processes for multiple cannons covering different areas outside the castle being attacked by different enemies, and the process can be complicated by the layout of the castle – maybe the ore and furnace aren’t near each other, or are even separated by a one-way conveyor belt. Players need to manage their time and tasks to ensure that each step of the process gets done.

This makes No Heroes Here a solid co-op game where players can manage different parts of the process, even tossing needed components back and forth to each other in some areas, though it also has the downside of making single-player gameplay drag a bit, even with players swapping back and forth between multiple characters.

The presentation here is good, using 2D pixel art visuals backed by a pretty decent soundtrack that fits the game’s fantasy setting. There’s also some amusing moments as the game doesn’t take its fantasy setting too seriously.

In the end, No Heroes Here is a solid co-op game, but a not-so-great single-player experience. However, if co-op is what you’re looking for, this game offers a unique spin on Tower Defense that’s well worth playing, even if it’s pretty task-intensive.

tl;dr – No Heroes Here is a Platformer Tower Defense game with strong Party Game elements with a focus on co-op as you and your friends work to defend a castle by crafting the ammunition needed to supply the cannons defending the structure. The co-op play here is solid, but the single-player play really leaves something to be desired. So long as it’s the co-op you’re looking for, I think you’ll be satisfied.

Grade: B-

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