As the only surviving members of an elite special forces unit, it is up to you to find the secret underground lab. Go the mission alone or fight side-by-side with your fellow comrade. More than ever, your military training, weapons handling and quick mobility will be the deciding factor in this do or die mission. Reveal the truth about the classified weapons program.
In Assault Heroes, a top-down shooter, you primarily control the MK1, a futuristic ATV vehicle armed with a minigun, flak cannon and flame thrower with unlimited ammo. Your goal is to destroy various types of enemies as well as occasional out-of-this-world bosses. Enemies range from infantry units to heavily armored vehicles on land, water in the air. You'll collect upgrades for each of your three weapons and pickups such as grenades, nukes and homing missiles to upgrade your vehicle's firepower. You can also (and sometimes must) leave your vehicle to take on enemies on foot. In that case, you only have a basic machine gun, but can also throw grenades and even detonate nukes. Damage to your vehicle or foot soldier is auto-repaired over time or can be instantly repaired by picking up repair/health pick-ups which occasionally appear.
The game consists of five Zones, each with multiple Areas (check-points). The first four zones each have an optional underground bunker which can only be explored on foot and yield an extra life if you manage to complete it. In Zone 3 of the game, which takes entirely place on the water (except for its underground bunker), you'll control the GRV1, the MK1's speedboat equivalent, as well as a jet ski as an alternative for going on foot. You can play the game solo or partner up with a friend to play as two heroes together.
Main Menu
When starting the game, you'll first see the main menu.
Play: Start a new game, selecting the difficulty and starting point. The harder the difficulty, the more damage hits will cause and the longer it will take to recover health. You can start the game at any of the 17 areas, but will always begin with zero points and basic weapons without upgrades and minimal amount of grenades and nukes. So, if you go for a high score, it is best to start from the beginning.
Online Multiplayer: Assault Heroes could be played online though GameSpy, but not any more since the GameSpy servers were taken down some years ago.
Leaderboards: Check out your top scores for each of the three difficulty levels of the game.
Medals: Check out which of the 12 medals you've earned, and see what you need to achieve to earn the remaining ones. More details below.
Help and Options: Get game play information and change the game's settings. More details below.
Quit: Leave the game.
Help and Options
How to Play: See information regarding weaponry, power-ups and combos.
Controls: View and edit the bindings for the controllers (for the PC release, keyboard and mouse for player 1 and gamepad for player 2), or set them back to the default settings.
Settings: Set the volume for the sound effects and music volume.
Advanced Options: Set the game's language, screen resolution, display mode (full screen or windowed) and level of detail.
Credits: play the game credits (also shown when completing the game).
Game screen
The game uses a birds eye view, both in the open world and in underground bunkers. In the top-left corner of the screen you'll see your current score, your selected main weapon and its upgrade status (maximum three), the number of available grenades and nukes. When scoring combos, they'll temporarily be displayed and act as score multipliers.
At the bottom left of the screen you can see your health status, as well as the number of extra lives you have. If you play cooperatively then the second player's data will be displayed on the right side of the screen.
Controlling your vehicle and character
Action
XBox360
PC: keyboard + mouse
Move
Left Analog Stick or D-pad
WASD
Aim
Left Analog Stick
Mouse
Fire
Left Analog Stick
Left mouse button
Grenade
Right trigger
Right mouse button
Nuke
Left trigger
Spacebar
Show Boss Weakness
A button
T key
Cycle Weapons
Left and right bumpers
1, 2, 3 keys
Menu/pause
Start
Esc
Weapons and power-ups
While being in the vehicle, the player has access to 3 main upgradable weapons, each with unlimited ammunition: the minigun, the flak cannon and the flamethrower. Each of these weapons have 2 upgrades, affecting the firing rate, damage caused and adding homing ammunition.
The minigun
The minigun is a good all-round weapon. It has a far range and very high firing rate, but it is not very effective against enemies with heavy armor.
The Flak cannon
The flak cannon is perfect for bigger targets. What it lacks in firing speed, it makes up in the damage it causes, easily taking out medium-sized targets with a single shot. Heavier targets can be taken out with 1 to 3 shots, depending how upgraded the flak cannon is. It is also the best weapon to take down game bosses, piece by piece. The flak cannon also has a very long range. It is not very effective against infantry because of its low firing rate, although the after-explosions of an upgraded flak cannon can take out several infantry units in a single shot.
The flamethrower
The flame thrower has a short range and temporarily hampers when overused. While this sounds like a mediocre weapon, a fully upgraded flamethrower is very powerfull, taking out both infantry and medium sized targets with ease. It is particularly usefull to take out swarms of enemies, surrounding you.
Homing missiles add-on
This power-up adds homing missiles to any of the 3 main weapons. It has a very slow firing rate and doesn't fly fast either - often you'll kill the enemy even before the missile hits. It adds a bit of firing power when your main weapon hasn't upgraded yet but you'll barely notice it's there.
Grenades
Grenades are perfect to take out stationary enemy units, such as bunkers and towers. They are also great to take out stronger enemies when you're on foot, and particularly in underground zones to take out ceiling turrets and other medium-strong enemies. In each zone, the player starts off with 10 grenades, regardless how many grenades he finished the previous zone, so use them! Grenades can either just lay around in the zone or can be obtained by destroying bunkers. They come in packs of five. Grenade pick-ups also occur in the underground zones and look like a small metal ball.
Nukes
Nukes are the weapons of last resort, wiping nearly the entire screen empty with a single button press. The player starts each zone with 3 nukes. Also the foot soldier can use them. The best places to use them, would be the large rooms in underground zones, certain areas which need to be cleared in order to proceed, and during boss fights to weaken their weapons.
Repair or heal pick-up
Usually appears near heavy battle areas and fully repairs the vehicle and/or heals the foot soldier, so you don't have to wait for the health bar to fully auto-fill. The repair and heal power-up have the same effect. The difference is that the heal pick-up only appears in under ground zones and the repair pick-up only appears above ground. A foot soldier can also pick up the repair power-up with the same effect.
Extra life
These only occur at the end of each underground zone. You'll also get an extra life each time you complete a zone.
Invincibility upgrade
These temporarily render the player invincible, regardless whether he is on foot or in a vehicle. While active the player will be surrounded by a green glow.
Bonus points Yellow stars give 1000 bonus points, orange stars give 2000 and red stars give 3000.
Combos
Combos are triggered when the player kills multiple enemies in a short time span and temporarily function as score multipliers. One combo type can be increased six-fold and different combos can occur simultaneously, increasing the multiplier even more. We've triggered a chain of combos leading to a multiplier of up to fourteen.
The following combos exist in the game:
Top Gun: Kill multiple enemies in a short time with the minigun. Cannon Fodder: Kill multiple enemies in a short time with the flak cannon. Smokin': Kill multiple enemies in a short time with the flamethrower. Berserk: Kill a series of enemies without being hit. Road Kill: Run over a series of enemy soldiers. Bunker Buster: Kill multiple enemies with a grenade or nuke. Combo Master: Earn three different combos in a short time.
Medals
Medals can be achieved on any difficulty level and either in single player or cooperative mode. In order to receive the medal, the gamezone must be completed. Game points can be won for each medal the player earns. The total number of game points available is 200.
Exterminator:
Objective: Defeat the giant spider.
Hint: Hardly any explanation needed. It's the first boss you encounter in zone 1. Pretty simple to achieve.
Gamer Points: 10
Sharp Shooter:
Objective: Don't waste more than 30% of your bullets.
Hint: Use the flamethrower as much as possible and do not use the minigun. Only use the flak cannon if absolutely necessary (for boss fights). Skip the underground zone. Destroying structures with heavy armour on foot also increases accuracy. You need at least 70% accuracy.
Gamer Points: 10
Unstoppable:
Objective: Finish a zone without losing a life.
Hint: Another simple objective. Simply run through zone 1 on low difficulty level.
Gamer Points: 10
Lair Slayer:
Objective: Complete all underground zones.
Hint: This one is very tough. The player must clear all 4 underground zones in a single game and complete zone 4. When you die in a single underground zone, you must start again from the very beginning of the game. Restarting from the most recent checkpoint (by losing all your lifes) does not work. Take your time to go through these zones and take breaks to refill health when needed. Use nukes for the big rooms, particularly in the 3rd and 4th underground zones. Use grenades to take out MECHS and ceiling turrets. And beware those electric floating enemies in zone 4.
Gamer Points: 10
Annihilator:
Objective: Kill more than 85% of the total enemies in a zone.
Hint: Go through zone 1 in easy mode and make sure to clear the underground zone aswell.
Gamer Points: 10
Small Arms Expert:
Objective: Finish a zone without using grenades or nukes.
Hint: Easy one. Go through zone 1 in easy mode.
Gamer Points: 20
Twin Medal:
Objective: Finish a zone in Co-op mode.
Hint: Since there's hardly any Online gameplay going on, it's best to plug in a second controller and ask a buddy to help you achieve this on offline co-op mode.
Gamer Points: 20
Speed Freak:
Objective: Finish a zone in less than 15 minutes.
Hint: Go through zone 1 on easy difficulty and skip the underground zone.
Gamer Points: 20
Peace Maker:
Objective: Finish a zone killing less than 50% of the enemies.
Hint: This can best be done in a zone where enemies can easily be dodged and with few infantry units. Zone 3 is recommended. This medal can be also achieved by starting at any checkpoint in the zone, as long as the zone is completed. Also skip the underground zone.
Gamer Points: 20
Tricked Out:
Objective: Max out all of the vehicle power-ups.
Hint: Play through zone 1 on easy difficulty and pick up all the power-ups on the way. Make sure not to miss out on the vehicles and planes that contain power-ups aswell.
Gamer Points: 20
Survivor:
Objective: Finish a zone killing 60% of the units on foot.
Hint: This one is pretty hard to achieve. Pick a zone with lots of infantry and make sure to go through the underground zone. You can start at any checkpoint within the zone.
Gamer Points: 20
