A fine hybrid title that tells a captivating tale, complemented by a stellar cinematic presentation and gameplay that is challenging and rewarding, not to mention compulsively addictive in an old school dungeon-crawler kind of way.

A massive improvement on "Cossacks" and its kin, and it's a real pleasure to play. [Nov 2006, p.86]

A strangely captivating mix of real time strategy and light roleplaying. [Feb 2009]

A decent gmae that gives strategy gamers a nice twist and smoething new. Not knowing how long until the other games arrive to finish the story kind of sucks.

Heroes of Annihilated Empires is a full package that does have its short comings such as not being able to skip over some of the atrociously slow voice acting but over all is a pretty interesting mixture of the elements that make RPG and RTS games fun to play.

Like a good pie, but with crap pastry on top. This is a game weighed down by an army of faults, but it's still periodically entertaining. [Jan 2007, p.64]

Basically, if solid gameplay without much in the way of innovation is good enough for you, Heroes of Annihilated Empires is certainly worth a look.

Heroes of Annihilated Empires does the standard fantasy RTS elements just fine, but unfortunately doesn’t stand out in any particular way.

HoAE is sweet, and absorbs time reasonably pleasingly, but at no point does it ever manage to be anything accomplished. [Dec 2006, p.96]

Only terrible AI, Starforce copy protection, and a semi-rare game-crashing bug ruin Heroes' otherwise enjoyable gameplay. [Mar 2007, p.66]

A fantasy RTS/RPG hybrid that fails to do anything new or exciting. Nothing terribly bad here, but it’s just hard to work up any enthusiasm for this title.

The colorful presentational coating is tasty, but unfinished features and rotten artificial intelligence keep Heroes of Annihilated Empires from reaching its potential.

Horrible balancing in the single-player game and a decades-old multiplayer frontend further accelerate Heroes of Annihilated Empires on its quick trip to the bargain bin.

The voice acting and comic book sequences sound and look decent, although the dialogue gets cheesy and annoying. HOAE offers just enough to keep people interested, but doesn't leave a lasting impression.

Heroes fails to deliver on some promises, and games take too long, but for a certain audience, it's worth a serious look. [Mar 2007, p.62]

It's a shame that a game that gets the mix of genres so right is hampered by such a great number of issues that all result in holding it back from realising its true potential.

The starkness of the choice - RTS or RPG - is quite arresting. Sadly, it was also plainly a balancing nightmare.

But with its clumsy combat, dim AI and generic plot, HoAE fails to add anything new to the already crowded fantasy based RTS genre.

A forgettable experience all the way through. While we really like Elhant's attitude, it's the only thing that stands out as unique in this game.

Strategy gamers won’t feel the need to resurrect this annihilated empire.

Stupid A.I, lack of maps, botched multiplayer interface, and a half assed story mar an experience that had the potential to be much more fulfilling.

Unfortunately, the inability to speed up the game when you have about an hour of troop-building ahead of you, or when your hero must rely on auto-regen to heal, means that you'll be watching HoAE more than you'll be playing it. [Mar 2007, p.61]

Almost engaging. Despite dripping with cliché, the world is a fun one to visit. It would be much easier to stomach the numerous design flaws had they delivered on their promise in the storyline.