The Hero Project: Open Season

As someone who played and loved the first trilogy a few years back, I really wanted to see how it'd end. TL;DR: I'd only buy this if you've played all previous games and really want to know what happens next to every single side character. Otherwise, just play the original trilogy again. Pro's: - Characters from the original trilogy It's great to meet old characters again, and play as your old MC, even though it's not the focus of this story, and doesn't last too long - The action is fast and the writing style is quick as always - Choices have clear consequences and are well explained Some COG have you pick choices that seem arbitrary at the time, but turn out to affect the story in a way you didn't intend at all. This saga never had that problem, as far as I remember, and still doesn't. Cons: The biggest problem in this story, narratively, comes from it trying to do two things at once. 1) Be the finale of the series, with a huge, world-threatening villain, many returning characte...

I actually liked the first Heroes Rise spin-off Hero Project: Redemption Season despite few flaws. First because of the story, an unique powered hero going into a superhero reality show to save disabled sister. I liked it very much because even in bigger picture as a superhero, it felt personal. The sequel, if you played the demo, threw the core of this spin-off Hero Project out the way. Titled as Hero Project and making MC being kicked out of the reality show because ‘plot reasons’ didn't click well for me. With core concept that I liked out the way, main character is thrown into situations I personally chose not to be yet I still was going into it, forcefully. As a CYOA, I should be able to choose how I want to progress my adventure? Atleast same goal through different path/method? Lack of variations with replay value only down to different type of motivations is disappointing also. Then, there were given a lot of old and new groups and characters with new motivations and polit...

---------------------------------------------------------- Is this good? That's what you come here for right? (an edit? Already?) (A second edit? The day after?) Short answer, It's bad, but read it if you've read the others and want an ending, albeit a dissapointing one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I've finished thew first chapter and it's a bit fo a dumpster fire. I genuinely loved the original trilogy and because i like the writing style of the author, i liked redemption season. This however, in one chapter has just magnified everything wrong with the first spin-off novel. Gone are the days of creating your identity, now we're slapped with gender alegories and proto-social justice, everything is a slight against your character apparently, not you. ou don't get much of a chance to relate to the character you make ehre because likely, you're not int he demographic that the character i...

To start, I played every other Heroes Rise game but this spin-off doesn't hold a candle to the original trilogy. This 'game' reads like a very bad comic, no freedom of choice because the outcome is always the same and even if your ideals are different from the author, you are forced to pick an option that agreees with them. I'd hoped that the bad parts from Redemption Season would be improved and the story would actually pick up a bit. Sadly, this is not the case. I found the MC to be very boring and whiny in the first game, giving long speeches about the unfairness of their situation and fighting for ' the rights of the underrepresented'. It was fine as a sideplot or a background motivation but it has become the sole focus of the series. You are constantly faced with walls of text discribing one unfairness or another and you barely get to see any action. When something does happen, it is presented in a very passive way. ' You are watching teammate X fight enemy Y' and so on. It kills ...

[h1]The Hero Project: Wasted Season[/h1] I bought this game and its cash-grabbing DLCs for one reason, straight out of its launch: to support the author. Zachary had made one of the most powerful Choice of Games titles, Heroes Rise, and successfully created a culture around it. I had not yet read Redemption Season, but I thought I [b]knew[/b] it would be good, simply because it was from him. I was wrong. Open Season and Redemption Season were titles that served more as a political agenda and lecture other than a good story, a game, or an adventure. Zachary showed this kind of attitude in the second installment of his other Choice of Games series, Versus. It was awful then, and just as bad now. If I were to point all the wrongs in the game as passionately as I wanted to I would end up writing a novel like he did, judging you, the reader of this review, for any action, thought or feeling you have that doesn't coincide with my view of what you should be thinking, doing and feeling. In...

Even as a diehard fan of the Heroes Rise series, I found it somewhat hard to enjoy this as much as the others. The political spiels that made Redemption Season as controversial as it was are still present, along with a good amount of railroading, confusing stats, disappointing romance options, and a rushed plot- the whole final apocalypse arc felt somewhat shoehorned in. I did enjoy seeing the original trilogy characters though, having the old Heroes Rise MC back was almost like catching up with an old friend, even if their character is pretty much the same no matter what choices you made in the original trilogy. Still, I'll take what I can get. Overall, you should probably stay away from this if you didn't like Redemption Season, unless you really love Heroes Rise and want to see the conclusion, as much of a trainwreck said conclusion is, especially after that damned bonus scene. But personally, if I wanted a good ending, I would pretend HeroFall was the final book.

I enjoyed the early games of this series but the intersectionality/racial stuff was laid on so thickly this time it wasnt a intresting theme as much as a heavy handed essay. I support creators making games in there own image/ideals but its really not enjoyable in this. Maybe this game isnt really for me, but I wanted to see the series through to the end. The choices are very limited, it wasnt so much choosing what my character would most want to do but choosing the option which was least unfitting. It might not help that I cant remeber the characters of previous games too well, which isnt to my own detrement not the authors but unless you can be bothered to repaly the old ones this might have an effect. Its pretty cheap though and if you like identity politics/ sociology and have played the others then you might get a kick out of it.

I was a fan of the original trilogy that this game came out of; and playing it now in it's current iteration, and scouring the code, I have to say I'm not a fan of how or where the direction of this game is going. When you look at the Original 'Hero Project' in the initial trilogy you had people like Black Magic acting extraordinarily rude, and some dilemnas forming. And at times the games did seem inconsistent at times. You would have the opening of 'The Prodigy' tell you about how debates on things akin to race, or sexuality seemed to have been overcome in lieu for debates regarding powers, but outside of a debatical of how your character got bullied, the 'Gene Hazard' slurs, and disdain for Powered individuals at large and not 'in regards to their individual power sets' save for the Infini powered, you don't really get a taste for any sort of 'systematic' prejudice. And that was more so out of fear of how the Infini-powered could be extraordinarily dangerous to the planet, so it ha...

TL;DR "Where is the mixed review option?" I enjoyed the battles and relationships/friendships, and [spoiler]possibly due to the nature of some of the characters in this one and the ending; would very much enjoy seeing these characters become big members of Versus.[/spoiler] However, because of the initial introduction of all of these new characters, groups and different powers did feel very jarring and disconnected, as well as all of the new political or anti-political agendas that almost seem to force additional choices and consquences in just to increase the story/game that little bit further. Current feelings after my first playthrough are very mixed. Maybe, after another playthrough or two I will come to enjoy this final "book" of The Hero series after getting used to what I found to be jarring on the first playthrough, or maybe I won't, it's hard to say at this point.

I really, really wanted to like this one. The first Trilogy was awesome, like unable to put it down fun to read. It was always a bit tell-don't-show-y, but I really felt like I was driving that ship and that my character was mine. So, despite bad reviews, I wanted to get Redemption and Open Season to see where all of my favourite characters ended up! Do not do this. Redemption was a struggle to get through, with its forced political stances and illusions of choice, but at least some of the characters were fun! I couldn't finish Open season. I did everything in my power to not make a certain choice, but was forced to make a choice anyway because of the author's clear ideologies making their way into the story and constantly trying to force their political agenda on my character. If I wanted to be preached at I'd read twitter for five minutes, not pay $5 for a game that isn't interesting or clever enough in its politics to keep me interested in the weak story. Have Herofall be your en...