Does anybody remember Order & Chaos Online? It was the first and only Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) for Windows Phone with Xbox support. Although beloved by RPG fans, publisher Gameloft basically abandoned the Windows Phone version of Order & Chaos Online. With no content updates or bug fixes, and compatibility issues making it unplayable on the Nokia Lumia 1520, the game never got the chance to thrive like it should have.
One year later, Order & Chaos is back! Sort of. Gameloft has just released Heroes of Order & Chaos for Windows Phones (with 1 GB of RAM) and Windows 8 and RT. Heroes is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) spin-off of the main game. Since the PC hit League of Legends is not available on mobile devices, Heroes of Order & Chaos is truly the next best thing. And it's free to play, with cloud save support. Head past the break for our hands on video and first impressions!
Learning to battle
Heroes of Order & Chaos begins with an exciting fully voice-acted tutorial. Players must first select from one of three Heroes. Unlike Order & Chaos Online, you won't be customizing the character's appearance or class. But you'll eventually build up a whole team of characters, so your first Hero is really just meant to get you started.
Having chosen a Hero, you'll enter a village that is being attacked by monsters. The first order of business is helping the town guard fend off the monsters at the gate. Next you'll have to rescue a couple of nearby companions from another batch of monsters. Your team can then destroy a couple of control towers, battle a dragon, and wipe out the remaining invaders.
Although Heroes of Order & Chaos is a deep and complex game, the basics of combat are easy to grasp. You can control your hero's movement either with a virtual analog stick or by tapping anywhere on the screen. At the right, you'll find buttons for attacks, switch target, and skills. Tapping the minimap at the top corner of the screen will expand it, at which point you can tap anywhere on the map to view it and/or select a destination for your hero.
Your hero and his or her teammates will battle weak enemy NPCs, stronger enemy heroes, and extra tough enemy boss monsters. And you'll probably die a lot, in which case you have to wait a while to respawn and join the fray. Games can go on for quite a while, so don't start a match unless you're ready to stick with it until the end.
Cross platform battles
Windows 8 version
Although it does offer single-player battles, Heroes of Order & Chaos requires an online connection to play. You can log in with either your existing Gameloft account or Facebook. The game doesn't seem to save your Facebook login information, so the Gameloft account is definitely the way to go. And since characters and profiles are stored on the server, you can use the same account on both Windows Phone and Windows 8. Don't you wish we could've done that with Order & Chaos Online?
The Windows Phone version of Heroes of Order & Chaos seems to be suffering some server issues at the moment. I tried repeatedly to play a single-player match and the server just kept failing. Yet I managed to start a match on the first try on Windows 8… Is anyone else having the same issue on the phone game?
Server issues aside, Heroes of Order & Chaos is off to a great start on Windows Phone. It offers over 40 Heroes to choose from (only some of which are free at any given time), solo, co-op, and PvP modes, and an endless array of loot to buy with the spoils of your battles. If you've been looking for a serious online game for your phone and tablet or PC, look no further. Let's just hope Gameloft keeps the Windows versions up to date!
- Heroes of Order & Chaos – Windows Phone 8 (1 GB or more of RAM) – 659 MB – Free – Store Link
- Heroes of Order & Chaos – Windows 8 and RT – 691 MB – Free – Store Link
Thanks to Amit Nahar and Mohamed Ashid for the tip!
