Hero of Many

Somehow I hardly understand why this gem gets so less attention. Very beautiful, motivating, chilling and fascinating game. Starts easy, gets a bit harder from time to time and is balanced really well. The way to move on changes from passages in which you need to separate enemies and fight them, to chilling exploration parts and some puzzle elements. Soundtrack is minimalistic, but fits really good. Guess psychologists would have their fun with it, too - you can find tons of interesting stuff in it, not only those sperm-like creatures you are playing with :-) Again: this deserves MUCH more attention, get it for this low price! It's about 9-10 hours long.

Hero of Many is a good enough game however the enjoyment doesn't last. It doesn't seem to be completely developed. Its very simple with just a mouse to control your hero. There is no game information displayed at all. There is no context, plot or backstory to speak of. I have no idea of my progress in the game. Overall Hero of Many wears thin too quickly.

This game was a hidden gem for me. I picked it up to play on a whim and found myself hours later still playing. The soundtrack is beautiful and one of the few I leave on when I play. I found myself honestly caring for the little guys and going out of my way to make sure as many made it alive as I could manage. I wish more people could hear about this game and enjoy its simplicity.

About 80% of the game consists out of holding down M1 while navigating same-ish levels, with no interesting features to look and and no variety or challenge in enemies. Just about the only thing interesting about the game is its minimalistic, wordless story - unfortunately the story is utterly cliche and forgettable.

A really nice looking game, good for casual gamers and for the more hardcore minded aswell. Not easy, not too hard, amazing soundtrack. The story is driven by soundtrack and by emotions emmited by the enviroment. This is not just a game, this is art, and much better than walking simulators the type of Abzu. This has gameplay aswell. And fun gameplay.

Originaly a mobile game, but the port is so perfect you can hardly tell. I played both versions, the PC one controls better.

All in all, feel free to grab it. And if it goes on sale, it is a must buy.

I fell in love with this game after seeing the trailer years ago with its beautiful music. The actual gameplay is so soothing and relaxing. Exploring the atmospheric game world, rescuing little friends and figuring out how to move the rocks is all fun. I haven't even gotten to the more difficult looking multi-colored levels yet. No, stay away bad fishies! Don't eat my little fishies!

The biggest complaint I've seen from other reviewers here is that it gets boring after a while. This strikes me as the sort of game that you play in small doses to relax after a workday, so if you did that I'm sure you wouldn't get bored. My only complaint is it doesn't tell you how many collector orbs you've found or lights you've lit for those respective achievements.

I bought the game on a sale, but I think it's well worth the full price. Great game, somewhat minimalistic, decent number of levels, easy gameplay. Great soundtrack adds tension and thrill.

The only objection I have is that it does not syncronize your current progress with Steam (it seems to me that it saves progress only locally, so you cannot pick up where you stopped on another computer). But maybe it's just me...

let's start with a little overview.

pros:
- the music fits the happenings in the game-

well that`s everything that comes to my mind about the pros...

cons:
- little to no variety in gameplay, which leads to losing all fun after some minutes/leves.
- felt like it's a labyrinth simulator, because you have no map or anything similar to orient and you are just wandering clueless through the levels, trying to find the right ways.
- really, REAALLYYYY annoying unskippable cutscenes. they are always before a "bossfight" and if you die you are forced to watch those cutscenes again, which feel like they're one minute long or even longer. so if you are unlucky and die right after the cutscene, enjoy being forced to watch the same one minute long scene again.
- there are a lot of bugs: fishes being able to pass through the white area, where they aren't supposed to get through, getting stucked in the fishspawnholes and being able to get out, other spheres can get stuck by the black fishes in cutscenes which results in the cutscene not continue playing. these are just the bugs that came spontaneously to my mind.
- the ki of your fishes is super bad. sometimes they stop following you for no reason, sometimes they don't attack no matter what, so you die by one enemie fish, even though you have a swarm of like 15 fishes.
- last level was poorly designed, by giving you endless fishes, so you can't die unless some bugs fuck you up (which sadly is more likely to happen than you probably think)

so overall the game was just painfull for me to play to the end. i was about to stop playing, giving it a negative rating and deinstall it. but i really "wanted" to finish it, so i can actually judge it. so i had to force myself through this boring and frustrating game. the listed bugs costed me a lot of nerves and time, making me quit often before i was finally (mentally) able to finish it. it got super boring really fast and the amount of bugs just make it unenjoyable to finish, at least for me.

whoever likes to buy an "action" game, that is actually more like a labyrinth game, filled with dumb fishes and bugs, no variations and just being forced to do the same thing over and over again to the end and also being forced to watch long unskippable cutscenes will get all his wishes fullfilled.

but whoever likes at least a small, small, smaaall variation per level, kinda bugfree game (or at least with npcs that aren't programmed so fucking bad, that they can stuck yourself or enemies in cutscenes, so you have to restart) with endless long and unskippable cutscenes should NEVER EVER buy this game in my opinion!

An absolutely brilliant game. Does so much with so little. I was fully immersed my entire playthrough, and I actually started to care about some of the characters. Keep in mind that this is a minimalist style game. There's almost no text. The characters are little balls of color or shade. Yet they still have personality. Some people apparently found the gameplay to get boring in the first half, but I didn't really get bored at all. Do yourself a favor; get this game right now, set aside a few hours and play it through. Took me about 6 hours to complete.

Good game.
Atmosphere, soundrack, storytelling, visuals, controls, emotions, everything is there, and great.
I had problem with first half of the game, game introduces mechanics extremely slowly,
and i think especially every second level between 5 and 15 should be shorten/deleted.
I absolutely understand why many ppl gave up after 2 hours.
Honestly i did the same after 4 hours (2 of them i think was dull and meaningless),
and im really happy i gave it another shot after month.
Second part of game (lvl 13-26) is just fantastic fast, emotional culminating twisting.
I dont understand why are people so afraid of short games. This game would have been perfect/briliant if it had had few levels less and if it had had only 3 hours of playtime.
Great experience anyway.

Btw, game is port of mobile game so options are really limited (you can set volume level).

Honestly, I was thinking of giving this game a negative review. And I probably I would have done it if I hadn't found some empathy for this little czech studio...

The game starts great. Nice visuals, great atmosphere and fantastic, FANTASTIC music. The gameplay is simple but quite entertaining. But soon the first flaws will surface:

• You outrun the screen. Yes, the bane of old side-scrollers has returned. Often the camera is just not fast enought to follow you properly and then you basically can't see where you are going. Run into a mine and say goodbye to your beloved swarm.
  
• Unskippable cutscenes! How is this still a thing?! No, I really don't need to see the same animation for the 20th time after loading the checkpoint, goddammit!
  
• The game barely explains anything. For example, I've finished it and still I'm not sure what those energy orbs were useful for.
  
• In a game where everything around you is glowing white it's not a good idea to make the mouse cursor a tiny white circle. I was constantly losing track of it, having to pause the game to actually find the cursor.
  
[*]Hero of too many levels - yes, the game is too long. Game with such a simple gameplay gets repetitive fast and it doesn't introduce enough new mechanics or environments to keep it fresh.

What's the game about?
Sperm... erm... a fish "swims" around in a strange world, finding "food", finding other "fishes" to interact with (and sometimes they follow you to help you), "fighting" off "bad fishes", collecting orbs and finding light inside walls as well as gaining "powers" like the Red, the Green and the Grey. There's lots of color and space for metaphors regarding light vs. darkness, black on white, and stuff.


General feeling after finishing?
Very minimalistic setting that works well. I especially enjoying all the swimming and rescuing friends as well as discovering the levels. The game is quiet, but well paced, has no indication of "damage" (even when "fighting") and tells a story without words. The content of the story is, of course, open to interpretation, and uh... you SHOULD play it!


Story?
It can mean a lot of different things, so experiencing it is the best way to figure out what it's about.


Gameplay?
Works well with a PS3 controller and you mostly spend your time "swimming" and eating stuff, growing and shrinking when "attacked".


Graphics?
It's gorgeous, and the level design is mostly superb.


Sound & Music?
Sound design seems simple (that's probably its strength) but well adapted to the game. The music has that spacey feeling most of the time and I especially enjoyed the joyful parts where the music is very uplifting. It's mostly orchestrated music even if written in a machine (I don't know).


Replayability?
I guess it has some, yes...

“Hero of Many” is a very clever game, and that’s a word rarely used these days. Seemingly a metaphorical game of light versus dark, with no gray areas. You play as a small blob of light, and it’s that blob that the player controls with the mouse.

But you don’t play against the forces of darkness unassisted. Nor will you stay a small blob. As you travel through what is apparently an underwater world, you come across stationary small blobs, and close proximity causes you both to merge, increasing your size. You will also encounter fish-looking characters: bright ones will join you, dark ones will attack you and your “swarm”. Perhaps you can sneak past the dark ones, or attract some away, keeping battles small and manageable. But there seem to be some larger dark creatures that cannot be defeated, and your swarm cannot protect you against them for long….

“Hero of Many” seems simple, and to some degree it is. But you are given almost no instructions, which adds to the game’s complexity. The world you inhabit is large, with many small and intertwining passages. Lights go on along the edges to show where you’ve been, and large crystals act as highly visible save points. The goal is to advance to a sort of “drain”, leading to the next level, with as many swarm members as possible.

Others things will be encountered in the game. As your swarm progress in the game it will encounter food, dangerous plants (or not, how to tell?) and large swarms of dark enemies. Also, they will constantly lose small bits of light, weakening steadily. Individual swarm members aren’t smart, and will easily get separated or lost from the main swarm. The larger the swarm, the harder to lead or control, and the more likely lost to the dangers they will encounter. But, the greater the protection offered by larger swarms.

“Hero of Many” is a surprisingly endearing game, and rapidly develops a sense of personality. The swarm is so dedicated to providing protection that the desire to return that protection is very strong. The save point are logical and reasonable, and I can only imagine that further levels become more challenging and interesting. At this low (discount) price, I would give “Hero of Many” my strongest recommendation.

Thank you.

A very relaxing and casual game, yet managing to tug your emotions and your fears as you make your way thought this strange world. The music is absolutely stunning and the visuals are simple and help you to concentrate a lot more on the task at hand. Although a little hard to get into at first, once you learn the mechanics it's fun and easy to play.

Really good game, the atmosphere and soundtrack is excellent, the only letdown is that the game feels a little repetitive after some times, new stages add new features but your protagonist doesnt get any upgrades at all. Its in a way similar to ''Ori and the blind forest'' so if you liked that title you will probably like this one too, and the price is extremely fair, so you should try it out.
Experience leading a horde of sperm like creatures!
My review 8.5/10

It is absolutely incredible how this game manage to construct a great narrative just through the soundtrack. There isn't a single word written in the game and even so you can enjoy a thrilling narrative about some fugitives who have to scape and survive.

Graphics are amazing, try it!

Hero of Many is a wonderful and original little indie game, with lovely art and music , set in a world where forces of light and dark are in constant battle. The gameplay is pretty simple, and while you do get some new abilities, it's mostly about guiding and taking care of your little group and make sure that they don't take on too many enemies at a a time.

Unfortunately, the gameplay does get repetitive after a while, and it's not really interesting enough to support the 7 or so hours the game takes. Several times I thought a cutscene meant the end, only to be put in a very similar level only with different background color. At the end I was just rushing through, not exploring, having lost the patience. If you want to invest the time for an at times very lovely and meditative experience, it's well worth it , even though it gets long-winded.

In conclusion, a wonderful little game - but outstays it's welcome a bit by being simply too long for the very basic game play.

Hero of many is good game with abstract plot about leading light (you) in the underwatter tunnels which attracts life creatures/tadpoles (as authors said) - someone talk about sperm :). l. The enemy is enviroment and other agressive eggs and creatures (remember it is very abstract so you can imigine what you want). Playing the game is very simple, you control egg with mouse and in futher you can use keyboard for three other function of egg (distract, lure your friends and attack). It´s hard to describe, but I´ve felt it´s nice to play on ipad, but on pc I need more competitive gameplay. Even though I can reccomend game for people loving new and interesting indie game with more exploring then action. BTW music is excellent. It´s 6/10

It maybe doesn't look like this from trailer, but Hero of Many has a really touching and personal story (told without a single word!). It's like Thomas was Alone or Braid, only with action instead of puzzles. If you love these games, you will most certainly love Hero also. It's 'must have' for all indie players.

A very nice, relaxing game, thats full of art, great music, and an intresting story to go along with it. The adventure and immersion of the game are next to none. I'd recommend this game to people who enjoy games like journey. It is one of those games where you feel attachment to these little balls of light, even though they have no backstory, and you really have no idea what they are. They are cute, calming, and you have an urge to help them.
The more I play this game, the more I get deeper into the story, and want to continue. This game is very well done, and I truly recommend it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fm1G118l8&index=1&list=PLFVyJ-U8SjkPHmkrorLoCrlOldhqjcBp9&channel=UCJDOzAhZY9AZAVWGEuKVG9g