[h1]GENERIC SUPERHERO STORY[/h1]
I'm someone who likes to check out works-in-progress in the Interactive Fiction genre, and the superhero subgenre has some genuinely enjoyable works out there. So I thought it was finally time to check out something that was actually finished. That's how I ended up trying the Heroes Rise trilogy.
Not gonna lie, I ended up being very disappointed with The Prodigy. It's not an awful game with no redeeming qualities, but it doesn't do anything particularly well. For something that's supposed to be the beginning of an entire trilogy, it doesn't do a very good job of making me want to play the rest.
As I said, it's not the worst game ever, but [b]it's also not something I can recommend[/b]. It might be a decent way to kill some time if you're desperate for superhero-themed interactive fiction, but other than that, it's probably not worth your time.
[b]World[/b]
The world of Heroes Rise is very generic. The story takes place in the fictional Millennia City in America, which is the main place for superpowered people to live. Why there, and why America? Obviously, because they were smart enough to be the first to embrace superpowered individuals. We hear about some brewing tensions with China in the background, but none of that really matters to the overall plot.
Millennia City itself is just boring. We barely learn anything about it beyond who the important people are and the fact that the good guys are trying to stop the bad guys from doing bad things. There's no real sense of what makes the city unique or interesting.
I'm also not a fan of the origin story for the heroes. Usually, movies, books, or games try to introduce superpowers into the normal world in some clever or interesting way. Here? Humans started using special chips, and after "merging" with technology, we evolved. Yep. That's it. It just happened...
[b]Story[/b]
The Prodigy isn't really the start of some larger plot. You're just a person doing superhero stuff because you want to follow in your parents' footsteps. With the help of your friend and grandma, you get your hero license and finally start helping people while trying to build up your fame.
Obviously, the author couldn't help themselves and almost immediately started throwing us into increasingly dangerous situations, so we spend almost no time doing the petty, everyday stuff that should make the progression feel meaningful. And that's a very big problem in my opinion.
At first, you might not see this as an issue, but the longer you play, the more obvious it becomes that literally everything happens because of us, either directly or indirectly. [spoiler]We need money to start our superhero career? Well, don't worry. Here's the money. We want to climb the rankings of the most powerful superpowered people? Well, here's some random journalist who will make us famous. You need a reason for the villain to be evil? Well, their parent was killed by our parents. I could keep going like this for ages...[/spoiler]
There's no sense of satisfaction in what you're doing, and that's a major problem. The whole journey from zero to hero literally doesn't matter. The game just hands us everything we need for free so it can move the plot forward.
There's also a pacing problem, and it's fairly obvious from the start. The game is short, so we're constantly rushed from one event to another, with basically no "longer" breaks in between. The game isn't even badly written on a technical level, but the wild pacing doesn't give anything enough time to sink in.
[b]Characters[/b]
I didn't want to overuse this word, but it fits nicely again: generic. Starting with the main character and ending with the supporting cast, I didn't find anyone who made me particularly interested in them.
The MC doesn't have much to say most of the time. We can either be the classic good guy or play someone who's slightly more egoistic, but ultimately, we're just a device used to move the story forward.
The supporting cast isn't much better. We have the best friend who helps us whenever needed, the corrupt mayor, the villain who hates us, the supportive grandma, and the love interest who's there mainly to love us. None of these characters are necessarily badly written, but we're never given much of a reason to actually care about them.
[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.
