[h1]JUST NOT GOOD[/h1]
Heroes Rise: The Hero Project is one of those games where I didn't have high expectations after the first game, but I still somehow ended up disappointed. I actually prefer the plot idea here to the one from The Prodigy - a reality show for superheroes is simply much more interesting than the generic "zero to hero" story. There are also some other cool ideas sprinkled throughout the story, but that's where the good stuff ends.
The game is simply not good on a technical level. The writing feels like a downgrade (although it's still bearable), but the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ pacing and inconsequential choices were just unforgivable. You can have the best ideas in the world, but they won't matter if you don't know how to execute them.
Unfortunately, [b]I can't recommend it[/b]. The Hero Project is basically fanfic-level interactive fiction, and I'm not even talking about high-quality fanfics. There are some good moments, but they're too few and far between.
[b]Story[/b]
The story is fairly simple. The government wants to create its own team of the best heroes, and to find the best of the best, they greenlit The Hero Project, a reality show intended to conduct a nationwide search for the right heroes for the job.
After the events of the first game, the main character is left jobless, so we decide to join the show to earn some money and fame. As usual, we quickly discover that The Hero Project is very fishy, and for the rest of the game, we're trying to figure out what's really going on behind the scenes while simultaneously trying to win the entire contest.
Honestly, I really like the idea behind the plot. Obviously, it's nothing particularly deep, but at least it's less generic than the plot of The Prodigy.
One of the biggest issues with The Hero Project is that the game often doesn't actually "show" us what's happening. We're simply told about things after the fact, and this happens infuriatingly often. For example, when you choose to spend your free time with Black Magic, the game just summarizes the whole thing in a few lines: "and they had a lot of sex."
Similarly to The Prodigy, the pacing is all over the place. We're often rushing from one action sequence to another, with very little of anything else in between. Then there's a lull where we're given useless information about the other contestants, only for the story to launch into another streak of action.
I understand that this is a story about superheroes, so it's naturally going to be full of action, but there still needs to be some balance. The best stories know when to slow down and give the reader some exposition, develop the characters, or simply let important moments breathe. The Hero Project fails to do that from the very beginning.
I also have a problem with the story being too preachy at times. It's fine if an author wants to tackle certain themes or push a particular message, but you need to be a skilled writer to pull it off. Here, it often feels very tacky and out of place, despite the good intentions behind it.
[b]Choices[/b]
If you've ever played a Telltale game, you're probably familiar with railroaded stories with "fake" choices. Heroes Rise tries to do something similar, but the difference is that Telltale, at its best, was able to make you feel like your choices were actually having an impact.
The Hero Project often doesn't even try to hide the fact that, no matter what you choose, you'll end up at the same story beat. What's worse, the choices themselves are sometimes just dumb, and you have to guess what the game wants you to do. If you misinterpret something, then good luck - there's no save system.
[b]Characters[/b]
The Hero Project introduces a lot of new characters, and because of that, it can be hard to keep track of everyone at first. You could easily cut half of them, and it would probably improve the game compared to what we got. The majority of the secondary characters are just filler, with barely any "screen time," so my brain simply started ignoring them most of the time.
Unfortunately, the characters we already know don't receive much development either. They're still as generic as before, and whatever development we do get isn't enough to make them interesting. I'd even say that some of them are straight-up worse than they were in the previous game.
Black Magic, for example, seems to be there just to be a ♥♥♥♥♥, regardless of our previous interactions. I dated her, but she still randomly decided that if I didn't vote the way she wanted, she'd end our relationship. What? The whole attempt to "force" us to vote the way she wanted felt incredibly weird and completely out of nowhere.
Jenny wasn't much better, getting angry because I wanted to vote differently - even though, in my case, my choice wouldn't have even hurt her chances of winning.
Lucky is the only new romanceable character, and she's somehow even more vanilla and boring than Jenny.
[b]Audio & Visuals[/b]
This game is purely text-based, so there’s not much to comment on in terms of audio or visuals. Still, I’ll leave my usual note for interactive fiction: even basic visuals and audio could make these games more accessible and appealing to a wider audience, similar to what Roadwarden or Wayfarer have done.
[b]Technicalities[/b]
The lack of a save system - or at least a "back to the previous page" button - is just incredibly frustrating. I can’t stress enough how much I dislike it when interactive fiction games do this. It’s all too easy to misclick on a choice you didn’t intend, especially in longer games, so give players a way to fix it.
I didn't notice any bugs, typos, or other issues.
