Heroes Rise: The Prodigy

[h1]Is this game worth its price tag? Yes, it is. However, its price tag is also illustrative of its limitations[/h1] Heroes Rise - The Prodigy is what anyone that read the game description should expect it to be: a text adventure about superheroes. Was it fun? For the most part it was. Is it worth your time and the price? Yes, I would say so. Was it good? Well... "just maybe", I guess? You see, this is game with a number of flaws that end up forgiven because of its price tag. And most of the flaws have to do with the writing, and when your game is literally all about the writing, I expected a bit more. Let me explain what I mean, and keep in mind I still recommend (6,5/10) this game despite all that I'll say about it: [b]Point A:[/b] *the writing and the plot as a whole kind of feels like you are reading fan fiction. Is it enjoyable but it is also definitely not perfect. To me, the things that contribute to this impression the most are: 1) [u]the really odd pacing:[/u] up until around chapter 10 things go perfectly fine in this regard, but from that point on you start to feel like you are having major events thrown at you at every turn: a world-ending mission in the morning, a call to meet the president in the afternoon, and a date with a victoria secret model at night. All this while you just started your career as a lowly rookie unknown hero the day before. The point is: the story progresses way to fast, like in a anime adaptation where the producers decided to skip a good number of chapters from the manga, and with that comes plot holes and inconsistencies. 2) [u]the horny teenager mindset:[/u] the narrative has wayyyy too many unnecessary sexual overtones, and it just feels weird. It might seems harsh, but the best way to describe it is as if the author was reminiscing his adolescence (or maybe this was the authors' main target audience, that would make sense as well). 3) [u]the "no-real-choice" issue:[/u] multiple reviews complain that the game does not give you many real choices, and sure, that may or may not be true, but it did not bother me for the most part. What did bother me, though, was that this sometimes led to me being locked into some truly nonsensical and frustrating situations (e.g., you said you don't want anything to do with the girl? to bad, the game will put you in a romantic scene with your character in love with her anyway [unless you were 100% a scumbag in all prior interactions]). [b]Point B:[/b] *the whole morality/inclinations sliders (and power/health numbers as well) feel like a smokescreen. They are way less nuanced than the game makes you think they are, especially because there is no middle ground, so you always end up forced into one side or the other (which leads to story developments that sometimes make little sense). [b]Point C:[/b] *the game's approach to the topic of queer and inclusivity is implemented in a way that feels so forced and blunt - almost to a cartoonish degree - while also repeatedly making effort to remind you that it is there. Do we really need things like "you open the door and in a TMZ-shockingly-way find "Muscular Man A" (who you just met) making up with "Smart Old Man 1" (that two minutes ago made a point of making you know that he was bisexual)?" I am quite certain that there are far more realistic and subtle (and even respectable) ways to approach the topic. [b]Final verdict:[/b] So, after all that, what I can say is that "Yes, I had a good time" playing the game, but also that I'll most likely not be playing the next 2 installments in the series. I liked my experience enough to go give this type of games more chances, but I'll probably be avoiding games wrote by this author.

Classic

This game is alright a solid 7/10. Near the middle it's get engaging with a bit of a surprise at the end, but nothing amazing to be honest. The writing has it's cringe moments certain characters are just to based on stereotypes, and the character interaction tends to feel kinda rushed. I feel like this game would have benefited being maybe a few hours longer just to flush out characters a bit more, but I enjoyed my time with the game and want to try the others.

extremely over-the-top woke, it's extremely shoehorned in, it is to the point you can't simply ignore it. it's a shame because it could have been immersive if it weren't for the fact it breaks it's own immersion by using weird pronouns, making a point of inserting sexuality and a host of other dog-whistles. this "game" is closer to a propaganda/normalisation piece. I really gave it a fair shot but it doesn't let up.

This is nice, but feels lacking. It's a classic Choice of Games game and includes a cool story line. The plot is easy to follow and it's fun deciding no how you want your super hero to be. The only issue is that there are several times where the game makes it seem like a choice matters, but then it doesn't. I can understand this for games where it has graphics, voice acting, animations, and so on to worry about, so lacking in choices makes sense. But this is purely a text-based game that doesn't have any visuals to it, so having choices not matter is egregious. Choices mattering is the base and foundation of these types of games and things not mattering is awful. And this clear when you try to do different play-throughs of it. While somethings will be different of course, there are other things that won't change at all despite the character being very different. This is just very disappointing considering that there are hosted games (games made by fans and people outside the studio) in their forums and site that have more depth than this. Overall, while it is a fun game, it's only really worth one play-through. If you really want to play it, get it on sale.

I like Choice of Games products, but this one is far inferior to the others I have played.

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