In HOARD, you play the greedy dragon who ruthlessly pillages the countryside to increase your shiny stash of gold.
Burn the villages! Kidnap the princesses! Demand tribute! All that good stuff. At it’s heart this is an arcade game – the controls are simple as are the goals. All that remains is to hone your skills to be the biggest baddest dragon around. You can play this dragon game single player or multiplayer, but there are no campaigns, no story mode and no real persistence. You simply choose a map and game mode and wreak havoc.
You start off each HOARD match as your typical fire-breathing dragon. The countryside develops around you – crops grow, towns expand, trade blossoms and castles are built. You can burn it all. The things you destroy are worth gold, but you have to carry it back to your lair to increase your score. At certain time intervals your score multiplier will go up, maxing out at x3. As your score increases, you’re able to upgrade your dragon with more speed, more damage, more carrying capacity, or more armor. Choose wisely, your play depends on it.
There are lots of arcade like events as you build your hoard. When towns grow, they hire archers for protection and there is a chance of thieves trying to steal your gold. As castles expand, princesses spawn with knights to protect them. Kidnap them anyway and demand ransom! There’s also deadly wizard’s towers with valuable gems, powerful giants and oh ya, other dragons vying for control. If your health is knocked down to 0 you’ll drop everything, your score multiplier will be reset AND you’ll have to return to your lair to heal. Yeah it sucks. Basic strategy boils down to whether to burn something now, or let it develop into something worth more gold… and then burn it. One cool feature is if you do enough damage to a town it will send you tribute to leave it alone.
I thought some elements of HOARD were not well balanced, such as the wizard towers knocking your dragon out of the sky in 1 or 2 quick shots. I hated those things. Oh and if you’re too far away from your lair you won’t see any thieves stealing your gold and resetting your score multiplier, which is a big deal. All the maps seem the same, and the sound effects are rather poor. At least the matches are rather quick.
If you like arcade games and/or the idea of being a greedy dragon then maybe this game is for you.