New release: Heroes of a Broken Land

Andrew Ellem reports that the much anticipated first-person dungeon delver / fantasy strategy hybrid Heroes of a Broken Land (previously covered here) has been released.

The premise:

The World has been Broken and only the surviving Wizards can restore it.  Frozen in crystal form, they cannot act alone.  The Wizards must recruit the Heroes of the land and assemble parties of adventurers to restore each Fragment of the Broken Land.  Explore each Fragment, build your town, form alliances and delve numerous dungeons in your quest to rebuild the World.

In terms of mechanics, this game is something like a cross between Master of Magic and Wizardry (or, somewhat less radically, Heroes of Might and Magic and Might and Magic). You play as a wizard who can manage towns, recruit heroes and form parties, then send them out across the world map to explore various dungeons, accomplish objectives and level up. (You’ll also want to keep some parties close to your towns to prevent roaming monsters from sacking them.) The dungeon delving portion puts you in direct control of the party, pushing through procedurally generated labyrinths in first person turn-based fashion.

I checked out an alpha build of the game way back in August 2013; Ellem has been working on improving it consistently since then, and I must say that it’s looking considerably spiffier in its new launch trailer:

Here is the game’s final feature list:

• Control one of 6 Wizards, each with their own unique power
• Construct your town,  equip your heroes, upgrade buildings and ally with other towns to recruit more heroes
• Each game is procedurally generated and highly customizable, create anything from tiny fragments to enormous worlds
• Recruit from numerous Heroes, each unique with 15 classes and races to choose from
• Command up to 6 parties of 6 heroes each, even explore multi-party dungeons

You can snag Heroes of a Broken Land for $14.99 direct from the developer, from GamersGate or from Desura; it is also on Steam Greenlight, where it awaits upvotes to allow it entry onto Steam. HoaBL is available for Windows, Mac and Linux; there is also a free demo available if you want to try before you buy (Windows / Mac / Linux / Linux 64-bit / Browser).