The designers of D&D Heroes were faced with a formidable challenge in making a multiplayer action RPG -- it's not all that fun to stop the action every few minutes so that you or your buddies can flip through menu screens swapping weapons, readying potions and the like. Of course, those menus are still there along with another cool feature -- spells and special attacks are assigned to buttons using the right trigger, which slows down, but doesn't stop the action on the screen. But, the net result of favoring action over character building is that the game is balanced almost to a fault. You'll rarely feel an immediate need to swap out weapons or armor after a good find, because the levels are so evenly paced that almost none of the challenges seem insurmountable. Leveling up happens at a pace almost ideally suited to the challenges that lie immediately ahead. And, with "raise dead hero" amulets for sale or available as treasure throughout most of the levels, there's rarely any need to panic and run for the potions if your character gets caught in an old-fashioned yuan-ti brawl.