Heroes Rise: HeroFall

Ну что, вот и окончание трилогии. Дают возможность отомстить за поруганную честь и грохнуть всех плохих людей к хренам? О да, дают. Правда, когда все хорошие люди собираются, они вовсе не убивают всех плохих - все-таки история про Америку, а значит придется отдуваться самому, и при том убить кого надо вам еще могут и не дать. Тем не менее, все равно - это хорошая история. Стоит того, чтобы в нее поиграть.

SUNK COST FALLACY As a big fan of games in the Interactive Fiction genre, I usually try my best not to be too harsh on them. They are often written by a single person working on them as a hobby, so I don't expect AAA-quality writing. Unfortunately, when it comes to the Heroes Rise trilogy, I've seen it recommended many times as an introduction to the genre, or at least as one of the "better" series out there. I'm sorry, but I just don't see it. I know people can have different tastes, but Heroes Rise as a whole is simply not good. It's a very rushed, generic story about heroes and villains that doesn't do anything particularly well. Recommending it to new readers would be a disservice to the genre. I wouldn't have even played HeroFall if I'd known better beforehand, but I'd already finished the two previous games. That's when the sunk cost fallacy kicked in, and I decided to see the story through to the end. Was it worth it? No. I didn't see any improvement in any aspect of the game, and simply stumbled my way to the ending. At least it didn't take too long to get there, since you can finish HeroFall in less than four hours. I can't recommend HeroFall, nor can I recommend the rest of the series. It's just not good, to put it mildly. Story It's a direct continuation of The Hero Project. Prodigy is back, and you're on a mission to stop the evil president from doing whatever he wants. The story is just so stupid at times that I don't even want to bother describing everything that happens. At least your choices from the previous two games matter here to some extent, affecting who you see and how they react to you, so that's a plus. The rushed pacing also completely kills the plot for me. The entire Heroes Rise trilogy is fast-paced by definition, but here the pacing somehow feels even faster than before. You're constantly thrown from one thing to another without anything having enough time to feel important. This makes the ending especially unsatisfying, as the entire story wraps up in a single chapter. Similarly to The Hero Project, the story has plenty of moments where it tries to be overly preachy. This isn't necessarily a problem when the writer knows how to handle it, but here it often detracts from the plot. Like, I know some things are morally wrong, so, game, can you please stop lecturing me about it? Characters All of the side characters, with the possible exception of Prodigal, are completely irrelevant and feel like they're only here for the sake of being here. They exist mostly to push the plot forward and then show up in the final battle. Beyond that, they barely matter. The romance is also here just for the sake of having a romance, without any meaningful buildup. Barely after starting the game, I'm already given an option like, "The bond I feel with Prodigal might be more than just one of friendship." You couldn't start a romance path in a worse way if you tried. It's so *** dumb and rushed that I genuinely felt insulted seeing something like this. If you can't be bothered to write a decent romance plot, then don't give the player the option in the first place. Just leave it out. Audio & Visuals 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. Technicalities 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.

Even if the ending is massivley cartacic, well earned and a long time coming, there are to many flaws to truly enjoy this game. A lot of railroading, unclear choices and worst of all, options to spend real money to get better results. Choices dont matter that much and the trilogys sadist-show credentials are in full display. Also, you are apparently a monster and erveryone can tell that if you kill the next Adolf Hitler, who has been making your life hell for decades and planning to carry out a genocide.