Wicked Studios' hits the system hard with impressive visuals and a deep strategy design featuring an incredibly detailed 3D engine for the top screen representation of the chess-like 2D overhead board where players do all of their tactical decision making. The team claims their engine allows for twice the polygonal detail of the usual Nintendo DS product and while IGN won't argue that claim IGN can definitely see that the game has a great look with fluid movements.
Dawn of Heroes will feature more than fifty missions of turn-based strategy where players control more than 25 different classes of war units, using the touch screen to maneuver their army of five across the playing field. Each character obviously has their own fighting and movement attributes, and players will take turns shifting positions and attacking their opponents using the different characters' strengths.
Admiring Dawn of Heroes from a distance is fairly easy, as it does some different things and carves a distinct identify out for itself. It frequently plays more like a puzzle game than a tactical game, however, with large doses of luck being required to come through some encounters. The bothersome interface aspects ensure that playing the game is more a chore than entertaining, relegating it to the status of yet another disappointing DS game.
GameDynamo says, "After a number of delays and a small but vocal community left wondering if Dawn of Heroes had become vaporware, the long-awaited strategy role-playing game (SRPG) finally surfaces on Nintendo DS. Was it worth the wait?"
CheatCC says, "All in all, Dawn of Heroes is a fun game with a lot to offer gamers on the handheld platform. Tactical RPGs aren’t abundant and ones that are both fun and have character are even less common. The game certainly isn’t perfect; combat can get repetitive at times and battles take longer than it seems they should, but it is hardly enough to distract from the overall fun factor it offers."
