The Hero Project: Redemption Season

-I really wanted to like this. Heroes Rise is one of my favorite CYOA games, but I couldn't bring myself to finish Redemption Season. It's just so boring.

The Good
-Interesting premise. You play as a new character, who is ani-powered. Fans of the first trilogy will remember these are the outcast powereds. Deals with the social issues of being ani-powered. Has the makings of a Magneto-like character.
-You're trying to win the favor of this mysterous healer-type character to help your sister. For unknown reasons, the healer wants you to do well in the Hero Project. Healer will provide secrets to aid you in the competition.
-You usually have 3-6 good options, makes it hard to decide what to choose.
-There are references to your decisions from the 1st trilogy, and the consequences of those decisions.

The Bad
-The mechip warning system. It's so annoying and unnecessary. In the first trilogy you could customize it with a unique personality. It would fill you in on the lore and immerse you in the story. In this game it just makes wisecracks that aren't even funny.
-So much text and fewer choices than in previous trilogy. You have to get through walls of text, then when you finally get to make a choice it has no effect on the game.
-Story can get depressing, and coupled with fewer choices it can feel like you're not doing anything to change that.
-Surprised by how slow paced this was compared to the author's other works. Reads like a first draft.
-I quit when I "unlocked a new character". Suddenly you're playing this other character, who makes decisions that affect your character's stats. It was just so jarring, weird, confusing, unnecessary, and didn't work for me.

Final Verdict
-I would not recommend this. Although it references the 1st trilogy, it does not continue the story. It's a new story set in the same universe, you don't need to play it.

This game could have been awesome but was too stuck on identity politics and representation and activism over story and character and roleplaying. I loved the previous Heroes Rise trilogy because while LGBT stuff was included, it was just an element and not the overwhelming focus of every non-combat scene and every dialogue option. The game really pushes this political activism stuff not only from the NPCs but your character is strongarmed into embodying it as well. At first you're given some options to say "I don't care about this stuff I just want to take care of my family" but as the game goes on your character is forced to "realize they were wrong" and start pushing identity politics activism. There is a part where you have to choose between two characters to vote out and one of them was the dreaded handsome white male while the other was a non-binary, overweight (in human form), human/zombie/werewolf vampire and I thought the non-binary character was an overly hostile jerk who provoked and judged people for no reason so I voted "ze" out. The game went out of my way to tell me at every turn that I was wrong for doing so (not by making the other guy do something evil or by revealing I had been tricked or something but by straight up telling me I had made the "wrong" choice). I was not allowed to choose my character's motivation for this vote. It was defaulted in his thoughts to "I was too scared to stand up for underrepresented rights." It's a real shame since there are some genuinely interesting characters under all that such as the MC's sister and a plot that has the potential to be interesting. I want to love this like I loved the previous games, I replayed it today because I heard there would be a conclusion coming out but I had forgotten just how hamfisted it was.

This game is to the Heroes Rise trilogy what Andromeda is to the Mass Effect trilogy: not offensively bad, but not nearly as good as what came before. Instead of a gripping superhero story, it's an unabashedly obvious bout of virtue signalling under the paper-thin veneer of a superhero story. Even as someone who generally agrees with the message of understanding and tolerance, it's hard to understand and tolerate the hamfisted presentation and drastically reduced player agency.

There were some parts that made me laugh, though. Like the part where the game invents new social issues for superheroes that weren't present in previous games, then has the characters complain about how said social issues were completely ignored in those games. Or the part when a bunch of reality TV producers declare that they need to protect and look out for the player character, then in the same breath say that he needs to be a symbol of pride and independence.

The Hero Project: Redemption Season disregards everything that made the Heroes Rise Triology great.

The writing is extremely sloppy and, frankly, lazy. There are multiple points during the story when the perspective actually cuts away to different characters. There is no suspense, even when the author tries to build it, because everyone's motivations are known; even the characters who aren't subject to this treatment are completely transparent. None of the characters themselves are particularly compelling or complex. Any attempt to push that they are is hamfisted and forced.

There really isn't much content for what your paying too. Especially considering that it feels like the story ends halfway through, it's incomplete, in an effort to push people to buy the sequel. I can appreciate the argument this game practically shoves down its audiences throats, but the game itself isn't worth wasting time on.

As other reviewers suggest, this is probably the most "politically charged" book of the series. I won't spoil the story, but let's just say that sometimes this feels a bit too forced.
It's also the one that features the least amount of fighting, focusing more on the state of the depicted world. In addition, the ending does not solve the majority of the plot points and (minor spoiler)finishes with a cliffhanger.

In my opinion, this is probably the weakest entry of the series. That's not to say it's a bad title, however. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Overall rating: 6.0/10

Damnit sergi y must u make me beat up monk waifu for this bullshit

Props for making my 3 game prodigal crush tragedy into a souless mechip that i could never interact with, forever tormenting me about their death.

Theres litterally two pathways. "Be the LGBTQQIP2SAA ambassador with dogshit powers" Or "Go back into the closet." Ideally I would have went the route of "I'm only doing this for my beloved sister" Like some Lelouch Code Geass shit, but following that path will accomplish nothing and actually decreases your relationship stat with your jelly sis. At least playing the villain in the original Hero Project was fun, here your "Villain" route is litterally just being some shy crossdressing twink who doesn't want the world to know his feelings. There was always a.. Hint of this, Sergei, and I respected that, but you fucking crossed the line.

It's okay, I'm not really expecting much anymore, the inital series was great and at least this is cheaper than Exodus, but its not feeding my nostalgia, its fighting it off into a bush with a rake.

The writer still has a good sense of humour and can create memorable, relatable characters. However, I gave up on this one half-way through because too much of content seems like it would be more at home in a blog about gender identity and social issues to the extent that it completely overshadows the plot and prevents you from feeling in control of your character. Heroes Rise (the writer's previous series) did a better job of keeping a balance and letting you play the way you wanted to, especially in its latter instalments.

First of all let me say, that in general I really like the Choice of Game games. I really love interactive novels where the reader forwards the plot by conscious decisions. Also I really like the superhero genre. The preceding trilogy, Hero's Rise, was great.

However THP:RS falls flat. Somehow heroic deeds of superheroes are only second to the social commentary. Social commentary per se are nothing bad. But here it feels artificial and academic. You are being told that people are oppressed several times, but this oppression rarely is ever shown. A dystopian scenario with real oppression like slavery, forced labor, ghettos would have been a wonderful basis for a "rise to greatness" superhero story, where the hero manages to actually change something.

Instead the "oppression" is constantly talked about in sermon-like expositions and seems oddly out-of-character and out-of-place.

Ironically for a game that for a good part deals with identification, it is rather hard to identify with the main character. The hero powers are a great idea per se, but the daily changes are so radical, it's as if the MC constantly changes with them. Also, in a game where you want to drive the plot with your decisions how the MC should act, it is very obvious that the MC is often "nudged" into the "right way". If you don't walk that path, it could lead to punishment and a dissatisfying resolution.

All in all, I'm missing the superhero story here, with all the cheese and stereotypes from the superhero genre. Conluding: I really can't recommend this game, as my high hopes after the really good first trilogy were not met.

A similar interactive novel from Choice of Games from the superhero genre which I do recommend is: Community College Hero: Trial by Fire. Check that out instead!

This is the first time I've written a review for a game on Steam, but I just wanted to chime in about The Hero Project. I enjoyed the first trilogy, and I like Redemption Season so far as well. I want to encourage the writers and developers to keep on 'keepin' on' with this series.

Pros:

I enjoy the fact that you can carry over your character choices from game to game, and I like the fact that you can see the results of the first trilogy's events played out in Redemption.

I like the stat system and mechanics as well as the fact you don't have to grind stats as you do in some novel-style games.

The plot and setting are engaging, and the concept sparks my interest.

I picked up a Danielle Steele novel the other day and found it remarkably boring compared to the action-packed writing you have here, which could either be a testiment to the game's good writing or a reflection of my own warped taste.

The concept behind the reader's character (their powers and background story) is interesting for me.

I am a long-time fan of choose your own adventure stories. I like being in control of the story's direction. Plus, it's like getting a bunch of different books all in one package.

I am pleased to see that the reality show producers are evolving as characters as well and have bigger goals, nobler purpose and more of a vision for the show than just to get the biggest ratings for the bang, so to speak. (I also like to see their failures and backfires and how they are learning from them.)

Even though I'm a pretty straight shooter when it comes to my romances, I like to see that this game has options, and a ton of them, for whatever orientation floats your boat.

Cons:

It's tough that you can't save and need to take the consequences of your choices (or accidental clicks) or start over, especially for someone like me who ends up duffing romance options because I'd rather save the world and succeed my way without compromising to accomodate the demands of a potential dating prospect. (Hope I didn't ruin my chances with Weaver because I voted one of his contestants off.)

There is a some heavy-handed material in this novel about social inequalities, discrimination and activism. Folks who like to read fantasy/sci fi to get away from politics may want to steer clear. I don't mind it too much. Sometimes it gets a little 'in your face', but there are some good questions and points raised by the characters about these issues that could reflect on the issues of today. I would hate to see this trilogy evolve into a social studies lesson about human rights however. My preference is to keep those issues relevant, but not overshadowing the heroic adventures of the protagonist him/her/hir self. If the foreshadowing is any indication, however, it looks like the story may shift its focus soon anyhow.

Neither good nor bad:

This series, as the trilogy before it, forces you to make tough choices. There were times where I just couldn't decide what to do and had to leave the game for a while to think about it before coming back with my decision. The consequences can be dramatic to the story and there's no going back except to start over, and I'm too cheap to spring for the hint MeChip thingy. I like stories that make you think. It drives me bonkers when the consequences take the story in a direction I sincerely wish it hadn't, or come up with an ending I find disappointing because I made that one choice way back 25 choices ago.

Overall, I liked it, though. I like the characters. Some are flat and predictable, but some have unexpected surprises and layers of depth you weren't expecting until you choose to get to know them. It makes me want to use whatever system/software they're using to create my own adventures. The game itself is not that expensive, but I waited until it went on sale on Steam and picked it up. It cost a heck of a lot less than a book at the bookstore, and I feel I definitely got my money's worth. So thanks, creators and writers! Please continue to improve your stories and enhance your writing style. I, for one, want to see what happens next.

This game was really disappointing for me. The Heroes Rise Trilogy was great, so when I found out that this game came out, I bought it instantly.
It was a mistake.
Other reviews have mentioned this, but this game was unbearably preachy. I can't really even remember the lacklustre storyline because I was being bombarded by laughable characters left and right and extremely cringe-worthy social commentary.
I understand that the author feels (very) strongly about his views, and it is fine to put them in a game, but in moderation, please. There was a certain point where I got tired of reading about how oppressed everyone was that I just started skimming the social commentary until I got to the actual story. Occasionally I would stop and read what the characters were saying and just roll my eyes because of how ridiculous it was.
The issues of the 'Underrepresented' was probably the main focus of this game, and they completely overshadowed everything else. Almost every single character in this game is 'Underrepresented' in some way and they will absolutely not allow you to forget that!
Also, in order to get a good outcome, the author basically forces you to become a social justice warrior. If you adopt an alternative social stance, you are punished with a character dying. If you decide that focusing on saving your dying sister is more important than championing social equality for all, she ends up hating you.
To sum it up, I didn't enjoy this game at all and unless you are (very!) into the idea of becoming a SJW with superpowers, you mostly likely would not enjoy this either.

While I enjoyed it, this is definitely NOT for everyone, due to violating one of the main themes of storytelling - "Show, don't tell". We're told (quite often) about the various trials that marginalized hero types face, but rarely see it in practice. It's definitely part of the background, but for the most part, you're simply told that "X circumstance exists, and needs to change" without much in the way of showcasing it. That said, I honestly found it LESS jarring than an instance in "Heroes Rise: The Hero Project" where a discussion of "camp" completely derailed things for a few pages before returning to action as normal, and that's likely because it's a central story-arc this time around.

That said, this seems to be playing up an X-Men vs. Brotherhood of Mutants deal regarding your character, who's an "ani-powered" (think Beast Boy, but with no semblance of control over what form he takes each day), though there's no payoff in this particular game for it. Like the original series, odds are this one is going to be setting up a few factors in order to include them later.

Overall, worth playing the Demo - if you like it at that point, feel free to buy (if it gets too preachy, you shouldn't have enough time invested to void the Refund option), and if you don't, you can save yourself the time/money. Or just wait for a bundle deal once the full "season" is out.

It really pains me to not recommend this game. I really enjoyed the previous Heroes Rise games, and I liked Versus, and I want to like Redemption Season. The problem is it's over the top portrayal of discrimination. Every other page the author feels the need to preach to you about oppression and social justice. And God forbid if you try to take a rational or middle road opinion, you'll be seen as a villain.

Now, over the course of all of these games in the Heroes Rise series a common theme reveals itself, there is no room for nuance. You're only ever allowed to have a one sided opinion. If you try to keep a rational balance of opinions you're punished for it. I can't in good conscience recommend this game. If this is made into a new trilogy it might be worth a look, if and only if the author tones down on the social justice monologuing in a massive way, it'd be way more fun to read.

This game is way too preachy. Do anything that the author doesn't agree with and be prepared to read paragraphs of condemnation about how you are contributing to a system of oppression.

Oh Slugger me...

yea we get it discriminating is bad like I need a fictional superhero text based game to tell me that over and OVER again

original trilogy a gem this is poor but might spark a good new triliogy

I've been a huge fan of all the other games by this author, so I'm a bit disappointed to have to say.. I didn't like this one. The game doesn't make me feel like the main character as much as just being an excuse to have to read very preachy thinly veiled propaganda over and over again. The second interlude felt extremely artificial for instance. i've racked up a lot of hours in this game simply because I couldn't do more than a few pages at a time before needing a break from it, and left it running while tabbing out.

i believe the creator will salvage it, this is more a prologue for the actual story I hope.. But compared to the other Heroes games and the Versus game.. this is really weak. On it's own, I would never recommend it. Hopefully the next part makes it all worth it.

I'm a big fan of the previous Heroes Rise games, and I've reviewed all the previous ones positively, but I'm not sure I can do the same for this entry in the series.

My biggest issue with this story is that it very much feels like you're only playing half of the game. It ends extremely abruptly and without much resolution. It is perhaps, the longest of the 4 games but that only serves to add to the annoyance when you come to the end and it feels so rushed and incomplete. Obviously we're aiming for another trilogy here.

Also, this may be an unpopular opinion but I feel as though the constant focus on 'gender indentity' takes me out of the story somewhat. Words like 'ze' and 'hir' just served to become more annoying as the game went on.

On the plus side, I very much enjoyed the 'power set' of this new hero, and whilst there are a few typos the game is fairly well written, but let's cut out all of the gender fluid/ gender neutral bs.

I want to love the game, I really do since I have been hyping about it from day one. Sad to hear, but I'll continue to support the series no matter what. I have been following the game since the first day so to say that the game is a bit of a disappointment is an understatement. I like it of course, excited to see the next part but let's me just say, the game feels really disconnected somehow. I still love it though, would look forward to see more stories from the author but this is just not my favourite installment in Heroes Rise world.


The game on Steam version seems to work fine, albeit a few glitch then and there but the game for iOS version seems to have the stat screen frozen which is pretty much uh? I paid most of my time on the iOS version instead of the PC version, but I finished it a few times already so here goes.

The interactions are lacking. You get to see from others' perspectives twice in the story, that's nice. But outside of that, there aren't much interaction with other characters. Instead, you get to see from the eyes of these seemingly important but in reality, doesn't make much of an impact on the main character. Of course, Weaver works as your handler and you can unlock of a romance with him, that's nice. Lyra is the producer, but to be honest, so far, I really don't care about her. It's a nice tidbit to know what happened between your character and their romance partner but the lack of response for Prodigal romance kinda hurt. Especially since she uploads her personality to MeChip server, I would like her MeChip personality to at least acknowledge of the hero.

The Finalists go by in a breeze, some characters receive more attention than others, only for them to be kicked off the show in the blink of an eye. Other characters like Crystalline, Transfer, etc. receive an enough amount attention to get to know them. But their personality also gets extremely ambiguous at one point, it might cause disinterests in many people. It's nice to see the characters from the previous game to come back like Mach Girl, Fumble, etc. But interactions with them only go as far as that.

As some previous reviewers stated, the game focused too much on discrimination against the character's Powered ability without proving it. Remember, showing not telling. Or else the reader won't be able to relate to the problem since it's pretty obvious to most that the sister is in dire need of help and deserve more attention from them. Which is true, and I believe many others would also choose to focus on saving her. That said, I also like JK a lot, she's really interesting and it's nice to have a sibling this time. But in the end, the writing's still more or less too personal.

I also wonder if it's possible to delete saves in the future since I have a lot from old games and it's cluttering up.

This was very disappointing since I did like some of the previous games.

This is probably the preachiest of the lot, which is saying something, considering how the author seems utterly incapable of writing about societal issues in a non-hamfisted way. The entire game is full of clumsily written speeches that feels more like they're coming from the author than the characters themselves.

A huge focus in this game is discrimination, which I thought would be interesting. But instead of being shown instances of the discrimination our PC apparently faces we're just sort of told it exists. According to the author we're obviously supposed to care about it, and you don't really have much of a choice.

If you choose to be uninterested in politics and instead focus on your sister (who is DYING by the way) you're almost punished and berated by the game, which is absurd. The author also seems to hold a bit of a grudge against certain characters, like the character Griffin (who's a RO!) whose only crime as far as I know is that he enjoys a bit of attention and isn't very bright.

The author really needs to begin distancing themselves a bit from what they're writing because it's not doing them any favours. There's nothing wrong with having social commentary in your game. But author, if you're reading this, please try taking a step back in your next games and let the characters and world speak for itself. It's jarring to feel judged for your choices by the author in a game that's supposedly built on choices.

I liked the first three stories of the hero project a lot. I had high hopes this would be of similar take. So I will just list a few things here in the likes and dislikes to avoid spoilers and other fun stuff.

Likes:
*The characters, far more diversed this time around.
*Anything with you doing hero work proverbially.

Dislikes:
*When you aren't doing hero things, story drags and gets a little to hung up on political way to much for my taste.
*Felt rushed and then incomplete. I know this is the first of the new set, but I was left more going okay, then I enjoyed it like the first three.
*The lack of connection to characters, while there are a ton of interesting you never really interact at all in the story. Felt the connections were stronger in the first three.
* Another area where stats are built like money and serve no purpose, I want to see it matter.

So I will stop there, this isn't a bad game, it just feels weaker then the others. I will likely buy the sequel to this just to see if it picks up. I will only recommend this to fans who enjoyed the series and want to see it start fresh with a slightly new outlook. Otherwise I would say skip this until the second story is out and buy them in a cheap set.

(Edited on 12/04/16 for grammar/punctuation and adding a few more thoughts.)

I'm a big fan of the Heroes Rise series and of Choice of Games in general. It's wonderful to be able to go back in time to the days of reading through a CYOA book as a kid.

The Heroes Rise trilogy of games followed your own individual character who you coould customise with a few options such as gender, sexual orientation, codename, powers, etc. Throughout each game, you'd be faced with choices, some critical and some not so much, which would further tailor your character in terms of their sense of justice, their morals and their opinions on how powered individuals fit in society at large. It was a great story told over three games and there was a real sense of being a small cog in a big machine as other characters in this world evolved alongside you throughout the three games. In short, you should definitely go and play those three games before playing this one.

If you have played the Heroes Rise trilogy, you can choose to carry your save data over to this game (though I did encounter a very annoying bug which meant I had to play through the whole of the last game again to make a fresh save which could be uploaded) which means that even though you're playing as an entirely new character, you'll get to encounter some fun little callbacks and some additional worldbuilding, courtesy of the choices you made in the HR trilogy.

But what about this game? The Hero Project (THP from now on) has you once again take on the role of a customisable super hero who, in short, is tasked with saving their sister's life. It's a classic story made much more interesting by placing your character in a reality show environment. I got some real Hunger Games vibes from mingling with my fellow contestants and delivering interviews with my answers playing a role in whether or not I'd be going home or advancing to the next stage and it's this which is my main issue with this game. Although THP is a CYOA game and the choices, big and small, do indeed carry weight throughout the game it is pretty clear that the writer wants you to follow a set path. There is a theme running throughout the game of the oppression of the downtrodden and how as a member of the downtrodden, you could take it upon yourself to use your new reality show platform to reveal the true plight of your kind or, in theory, you can ignore this agenda and focus on helping your sister. Only you can't. Maybe I've not made the right choices but I was greeted by three game over screens (you can imagine my frustration after spending around an hour combing through the text and deliberating over my choices that I was told I'd failed and could either restart the whole game or sacrifice my legend score (a stat which tracks your hero's fame/notoriety) to go back a few choices and try again. No checkpoints, no save state.) after trying to pick three different sets of choices which followed the beliefs I wanted my character to have (a straight-talking, private person with a soft spot for her sister. Her only motivation for going along with the contest being to help her however she could. She had no particular interest in any political message and was just there for family). On my fourth go at it, I decided to have my hero take a much more vocal approach to her thoughts on the political landscape just for the sake of trying to get past this one part and was rewarded by being allowed to progress through the game. I can only wonder why the option to not have a particularly strong opinion on the plight of 'ani-powered' heroes was included if you can't actually progress through the game by going down this route.

Although this decision by the writer has soured my opinion on this game, I still recommend it. At least to those familiar with the series. THP is a nice spin-off to the main HR series and it's pretty neat seeing decisions you made there coming back in some form here. The writing is great, characters are varied and memorable (JK is truly endearing) and this game will keep you hooked if you're a fan of the source material. If you're looking at this game and think it might be for you but haven't had the chance to play any of the other three then I highly recommend you look at those first.

Pros -
- Customisation. Name, codename, gender, sexual orientation, costume, sense of justice and more. Though do bear in mind that most of your potential enjoyment from this feature will come from your imagination. You can't choose your character's appearance or even something as basic as the colour of their hair but to me at least, that wasn't an issue.
- The ability to upload your save data from the main HR series (though this game will only take a completed save from the final part of the trilogy).
- An engaging story with twists and turns and memorable characters. JK, Weaver and a certain blast from the past definitely helped convince me to recommend this game.
- Some truly creative super powers.
- All of your stats are kept in one easy to find place where they can be readily referenced at any time.

Neutral -
- This is a text-only, CYOA game. There are no images and your enjoyment of this game will derive entirely from how much you enjoy reading and using your imagination.


Cons -
- Some illusion of choice.
- Hidden stats that affect whether you'll be able to progress through the game, get to try again at the cost of a huge chunk of your character's fame score or have to restart entirely from scratch resulting in you having to click through a bunch of text you've already read and typing in names that you've already written.
- Personally, I wasn't a fan of the main character's superpower.

///SPOILER/// You get to harness the abilities of a different animal every day. And also their appearance. You literally spend some of the game as a chicken man/woman. And as a wheelchair bound bumblebee person. ///SPOILER///

In summary, THP makes for some nice worldbuilding in the thoroughly enjoyable universe of Heroes Rise. If you've played that trilogy or will be playing it in preparation for playing this game then you're going to enjoy THP a lot more than you would if this was your first taste of the series. £2.09 (until April 15th) for a very well written book that you can influence the outcome of is a very good deal indeed. Just give the main series a look first.