A great start, but some odd design choices. – Hero Mages Review

I'm glad I purchased this game, as I'd like to see more from this obviously talented developer. A LOT of Hero Mages is done extremely well. The graphics are crisp, the UI is beautiful, and things like the game log and line of sight are done better than in some AAA titles. The strategy on hand is good, if not particularly deep. The ability to have multiple offline and online games going at once is fantastic, and I wish more games included this. Some negatives for this title: 1. Don't let the description fool you into thinking you are getting a campaign. The six missions are just a tutorial. The first three missions barely even let you do anything. The final three are fine (with some interesting choices that can even change the way the tutorial plays out!) but amount to maybe 15-20 minutes of gaming. This is a big negative, and almost strikes me as false advertising. A real campaign would be most welcome here. 2. Around half of the champions cannot be selected for games. They are only available during the very short tutorial missions. This seems silly, as more choices equals more strategy. 3. This most definitely has NOTHING to do with a CCG. The spells could (at a STRETCH) be called cards, but there is nothing collectible about them, and you cannot do ANYTHING with them before a game (no deckbuilding for example). 4. You track so many different statistics, and yet when it comes time to choose our champions, we must go to a WEB PAGE to see their health, attack, defense, and abilities? No No NO. Put this info where it belongs. 5. The lobby system is neat, but Game Center integration would be better (with leaderboards and achievements). Don't let this stop you from picking this one up. With a few patches, this will be great!
Review by Lil Pips on Hero Mages.