The Hero Project: Open Season

Crashed and burned after chapter 3. Taking away the player's own thinking, telling you what you should feel or believe instead, not to mention the entire Magnuspiral part and the forced Underrepresented Awareness message ruined what could have been the grand finale of this serie.

Honestly, I mostly just kept reading because of Prodigal (MeChip Prodigal is the best thing of THP, period) and the Heroes Rise MC appearances.

Zachary Sergi is a great writer that unfortunately decided to ruin his own interactive stories with his activist program. Same happened with the Versus story. Shame.

Yeah im sorry but im going to have to go with the the rest here... No offence to the author. I really do like your writing and your previous works. It was just extremely difficult to immerse myself into the role of a character who didnt seem to know himself. It was like looking into the mind of someone with schizophrenia... I kept asking myself why doesnt this character need a psychiatrist waking up different every single day seems traumatizing even playing it kinda traumatized me.

This got a LOT more LGBTQ hate then I thought it would, which is a shame because it's pretty good and people are like. Uncomfortable with the material. Which is also a shame because they could've learned something if they weren't too uncomfortable or uh, bigoted I guess.

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 ending, and skip this one. Really disappointing. :(

I've played through the entire Heroes Rise trilogy and enjoyed it. I picked up Redemption Season, and while I felt that it didn't quite have the charm of the first series, there were definitely some interesting dynamics going on.

Open Season is an on-rails bait-and-switch that drops all of the personal drama and superpowered action in favor of political messages that are no longer clever commentary on politics that your character can thread their way through, but a forced ideology. Not to give the plot away, but eventually, there are rebels and no matter how hard you say "No" to them, the game will not accept that answer, effectively kidnaps your character, and forces him/her to work for them by eventually not giving you dialogue choices to refuse any more, despite not giving your character any motivations to stay and do so and not undermine them. So I hope you like it when the LGBTAQ expys take over an American city and secede from the Union, because you're one of them and you're going to agree with their tactics whether you like it or not.

First off, ignore all the bad reviews.
This game has all of two actual flaws:
You don't get any kinds of 'heads up' when being forced to read as a different character.
&
A few minor spelling and grammatical typos.

Secondly, if you liked this series before, you will like this game.

This game, right from the start, throws tons of information your way.
It goes a long way to making you feel as overwhelmed as your character does/should feel.

The biggest bad thing people seem to say about this game is they didn't get enough information on Magnuspiral.
This series has always left certain things intentionally vague, so that you as a reader can fill in the blanks yourself.
It's a technique they've been using very well that promotes personal creativity, replayability, and connecting the reader with the story in a way that can change from playthrough to playthrough.

I guarantee the bad reviews are all from people who either aren't used to playing text based games, or are against the issues this story covers which has expanded from the previous stories from gender identity, light politics, and a small taste of the tension between different kinds of powered individuals. This story includes body dysmorphia, heavier politics and the full scope of tension between powered individuals.

It's clear that this piece turned into a mental health and acceptance advocacy piece, and I'm not entirely sure why people are saying that's a bad thing. Yes, some bits feel a little 'heavy-handed'. Quite frankly, those topics always sound 'heavy-handed'; because the people who care enough to champion these issues are just that: Caring and emotional.

A real improvement over the last one. I think these games are a lot stronger when they aren't as focused on the silly reality tv show. Some elements feel a little rushed. The main villain didn't have much build up and I would have like more details on Magnuspiral. But ultimately it's a fun game and I want to see where it will go next.

Now, I see a lot of reviews criticising this for A: overfocusing on side characters, and B: having an over the top plot. And I'm afraid you're missing the point of Golden Age of Comics inspired stuff- they like their rosters, they like their plots to be as high up the stakes as possible, and this does so with aplomb. As a swan song to the whole series, it keeps the momentum, it keeps the feeling that your decisions matter. You get unprecedented freedom in this game, and everything you've done across the whole series as both your characters finally comes home to roost. Were you a hard enough hero? Did you do your best? Only one way to find out. . . play this game. Highly recommended, as are all four others.

I actually really liked this story. it wasn't the perfect cap off to the Heroes series, but it was still pretty good all things considered. If this were the very last story that was being written in this universe, i would've liked it far less because it would feel to Mass Effect 3ish but as the ending showed, that might not be the case so hopes up and all that.

Does this game have it's flaws? yes, absolutely. But should you still buy it in spite of that? yes, definetly.

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.

The Hero Project: Wasted Season

This was an incredible story. I have read these all the way from the beginning, and I'm thrilled to have finished them. I can't wait to see how this connects to the Versus series. I'm most definitely going to be reading every single title that comes from this author. The characters and the story were just brilliant. I do have a few questions that were left unanswered, but I hope that they'll come to a close in the Versus series. I am more than happy to give this a 10/10. And yes, you should read them all.

Buy this game, Chickens!

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 has some precedence, a reasonable font of fear. If someone could nuke a city like Prodigal could, you'd be wary!

And it felt like, only in the 'Hero Project' in this one odd aside between Stage Show, GG, Null, The Bear, and yourself, did any societial issues seem to come up. Monk and Fistfull always came in the plot to serve as a discussion piece, there were Ani-gangs earlier on, and I won't deny Smyther and Culic provide an interesting light on the Animalistic powered individuals.

But the zany, almost cartoony antics of the first three hit a very sour nearly preachy note in this duology continuation. Which was initially going to be three books, I believe. Might have done better longer, or would've been worse!

But let's poke at Redemption Season. Redemption Season is extraordinarily 'tell and not show'. Outside of perhaps a few moments of harsh looks from say Miss Boss or the like (And Miss Boss for all flaws, does tell you it's more 'I'm adjusting to how you look, rather than eugh!'), Griffin being well Griffin, and a süber/süper car avoiding you due to thinking you're a 'thug' there's very little in regards to 'discrimation' being something the player goes through.

You hear they have trouble finding a job, and other nuances like that, but we don't go through experiences or choices. And while normally it's alright to 'tell' some things, when the major crux of your character is 'discrimination' you definitely need a moment, or a few, where your character is faced with adversity. The aforementioned taxi-ride where they ride of on you, isn't explored. Miss Boss gets seen in a very positive light, so on.

Now I'm going to explore two facets of both these books before I continue on. In the original trilogy, you could fail. You'd take a heavy 'legend' loss, but you could fail. Especially in combat matters. When you look at this duology, you can lose in Redemption Season to votes if your stats aren't high enough or you screw around, but otherwise combat stats have no meaning outside of a few meager rewards. You can literally go into combat and flounder like a fish and nothing of consequence will happen.

Saving Miss Boss in Redemption Season? Hope you were very Societal or else she died, being private gets you punished! No combat stat!

Casualities in the Warehouse Mission in Open Season? Based on your relationship status with said characters, over picking the right options.

Then the next thing I find off in the Duology is the 'Legend' points. Don't get me wrong, it's a sort of 'achievement' but it sorta sets a precedent for a 'right' way to play. But they held such a better meaning in the first series where the protagonist was very enamored with the idea of being a 'hero'. And that the games offered you ways to reach perfect Legend whether you were 'bad' or 'good'.

In the Duology sometimes this can be a bit hard or unintuitive. Don't get me wrong; Legend is STUPID at times, like 'The Prodigy' requiring you to doubt your sidekick at all times, or how in Open Season you need to guess the plot's final antagonists ahead of time or you lose out on 10 legend.

But it felt at times you'd be rewarded Legend for such esoteric choices, or how if you were a 'Private' person in Redemption Season, you'd HAVE to sell out StarSoar, or HAVE to let Miss Boss fall to earn these points. Railroading you a bit. And Legend didn't have any weight to it in the duology, was just an archaeic carry-over that held no meaning.

And if you chose to sell out StarSoar, vote out Transfer, or let Miss Boss die, you would be confronted constantly with messages of 'you're contributing to social injustice' blurbs, instead of delivering that message through chrarcter dialogue like JK, or just not actively trying to make you feel bad for your options. You could Depower Black Magic in 'HeroFall' and you didn't receive so much flack about it as you do voting out Transfer, multiple times in the game.

But let's get to Open Season.

The critical flaw of this game is; Magnuspiral. Why?

You spend the first trilogy fighting these city-leaders for the most part. 4/6ths of them are known terrorist, gang-leaders, doomsday weapon creators, so on. Murderers, prostitution ring leaders, so on. Instead of employing these individuals as perhaps custodians for the Spiral, defenses, or funding it (initially, perhaps something the MC could alter later), your choices for leadership fall to either the MC who is more than likely SORELY underequipped for a leadership role of an entire new sovereign entity, Culic who literally blew up bridges and trains and killed people to drain their lifeforce to fuel a superweapon that would turn everyone into Ani-powered individuals, or Smyther the guy who led the Splice Circle and all their illicit activities, fueled Ani-Gang wars, and recruited lost Powered individuals to said corrupt institutions.

Are these characters in question skilled and resourceful? Absolutely.
Are they already in charge of the Magnuspiral? Sure.

Do you think it feels right to be campaigning for the rights of a city ran by either a terrorist, a crime boss, or a hero who has never ran any type of 'order' or 'group' excluding brief moments on the Hero Project and a mission in a Warehouse?

That the best representation for the 'Underpowered' leadership were the worst names possible?

And there were other moments in the narrative too. Things like the ending being a fucking cash-grab for a sequel in Versus 3, when it was implied this game be an ending for this story/universe. Your closure with the world-ending bad guy is 'They're teleported to Versus 3, not defeated.'

Or things like Prodigal resurrecting themselves, after dying twice, to reveal someone like the Menagerie had kids with Miss Artillery in a very underexplained and half-ass method. Thematically it was an amazing place to have this reveal; but it feels so underutilized and not fleshed out. For example; you can make the Menagerie the owner of the Assassin Academy that Miss Artillery owned. But in prior stories, once that Academy got shot down, she ran up to her old flame, Mr. Victon and begged to be useful for him. It beggars belief. Or the idea of the Menagerie being a hero, a provider, all that. It's good for the MC to reflect, and it's an excuse for them to have 'Infini' powers, but I was sorely disappointed that there wasn't more of an explaination for each 'Menagerie'. Just Miss Artillery humped this Ani-powered guy too, probably when she was still drooling over the one-day President. Sure sure.

And the romantic power of the duology feels a bit weak.
Transfer is a good romance. Black Magic/Null/Lucky are pretty much exchangable. The MC romance is tacked on, literally 'let's go out for coffee', Griffin hates you, Miss Boss is in a coma, StarSoar is referred to more in 'passing' than he actually makes an appearance in both books, Crystalline was a dead end, and Verdict? Lol, Verdict was complete garbage.

Author needs more feedback tbh

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 any sort of immersion, it's like reading a weather forecast instead of fighting a dangerous battle.

As said in the introduction, you are also incredibly rail-roaded in your choices. You want to fight for the things you believe in? That's great just make sure you believe in Anipowered and Underrepresented rights. Also make sure to remind everyone else of this in like every conversation even if you spoke with them five minutes ago.
You are also constatly bombed with advertisements which encourage you to buy every other game from the author and needless upgrades like the Mechip warning system. I am not against some promotion of your works but keep it nice, don't throw an advertisement in my face after almost every chapter.

Pros:
-This sequel finishes the Hero Project story, sort of. (You get a vague bonus ending hinting at another installment)
-Might gain cult status from its own awfulness.

Cons:
-No real choices, plays like a kinetic novel of very low quality.
-MC feels like a self-insert of the author, no real player choice beside gender/sexuality
-Characters feel bland and uninspired. Most of the cast represent a minority and the MC automatically likes them because of this. However, take this aspect of their identity away and you are left with cardboard figures.
-Most of the characters from the original trilogy have gone through 'rebranding'. In my opinion it takes away what made them special in the first place. The focus on white costumes was also a big cliche (white is good, black is evil).
-General bad writing, it is a pain to get through this story and I was glad when I reached the end.

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 characters, sacrifices, twists and turns, all that good stuff.
2) Be a social commentary using superpowers as marginalized groups in which you play a young civil rights activist, in a unique position of influence.
Because of this juggling of stories, the following flaws creep in:

- Preachy
When a bi feminist with a tumblr account tells you a story feels preachy, it probably is. Almost every instance of oppression is told to the reader, not experienced by the MC in anything but a throwaway reference to the past. That makes it hard to really care about her cause.
Furthermore, the first trilogy started out as a cartoony world with wacky, diabolical, theatrical villains with personal vendettas against heroes, and family feuds. And in the end, some allegories to oppressed groups, like any proper superhero world, although those don't really fit perfectly with existing marginalized groups. That's fine.
But when this game suddenly decides to really go in-depth to cover such nuanced topics as intersectional oppression,
the previous one-note villains and characters fall flat on their faces.
This extends to the main character. Unless you're very familiar with oppression yourself, it's hard to really connect to their plight. This is made even harder because they only care about two things: JK and the Cause. But the Cause is the most important thing, since it'll influence most of your choices. If MC would've had a flavor hobby, something not very thematically relevant but rounding her as a person to root for, that would've gone a long way for me.

- Rushed
The Hero Project is finished rather quickly, even though it was the entirety of the last game, without any influence of the player on how it ends or who goes through, as far as I can tell. It certainly doesn't feel that way, and in COG games, how your choices feel overrides how they actually are.
Here's how quickly it felt to me the plot-points followed each other: The story needs you to experience Magnuspiral, so no matter whether you chose to stay there or dont, you end up there anyway. Then they tell you all the politics going on in it, even though you're not involved directly, for hand-wavy reasons. Before you do anything with that information, there's a conspiracy to solve, from the previous game. Oh no, big bad world-ending threat with environmental messages! (I thought this was about oppression?) Ah, the world is saved. Oh, right, what to do about that one city you spent 2 months in? The end.

- Info-dumping
You know how in most COG games, if there's a lot of exposition that the author made if you want to delve deeper into the world, but that isn't vital to the story, they'll put it behind a list of choices like -'tell me about [..]' -'tell me about [..]' etc etc with -'Nevermind get on with the story' at the bottom? Yeah. This doesn't have that. I really didn't need to know about the result of the lawsuit against that one nameless character who threw that one missile that one fight. I just wanted to know about the cool new powers i got after the infinitum fight, what i looked like, how they worked... but that wasn't in there.

In the end, both stories could've been interesting, but right now they're a mess of conflicting ideologies and themes. 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.

TL;DR "Where is the mixed review option?"

I enjoyed the battles and relationships/friendships, and 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.

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.

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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.

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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 is an allegory for. You could handle it in the first trilogy, but now? It's practically shoving ti down your throat.

When asked to identify how you wish to proceed, you're given six options and all of them are about pursuing rights for your character's identity. One wasn't, because it was about helping your sister. Hell the first three chocies you get are about how best to be an SJW, which would be fine, if i actually got to chose where i sat on the issue. The flaws show, and they hurt the story because the beauty of these novels, is the ability to create your character, fromt he look, to the pwoers. here you have no control and you and the next personr eading this will have the same experience, aside from the few extremely similar choices.

I don't even get the choice about whether some thigns insult me, one character said something, a slip of the tongue and my choices are all "fuck you", "ill educate you later", "She's ignorant", "fuck you" or chew her out then and there. Where's the option for, i dont care?

I'm a bit harsh on it right now and hopefully as i go through this, it'll get better and i love it, but for now. It's a no from me.

(Edit)

After reading the next three chapters though, it gets better and worse. The twists are good, the writer still has his skill, but his political agenda reers its ugly head too often to not be an issue. Stick through this to chapter 3 and it gets better, but those first two chapters, it doesn't change their overall lackluster quality.

(Edit numero dos)

Okay, so this book is a fluctuation. It starts horrid, too much political pandering. Then it gets good, really leading into a sense of mystery. "what's next? Who's doing this?" Then it goes downt he drain again. The politics is agonizing, but the moments of being the original MC is fantastic, though painfully short. You could wish for much mroe from this, but we'll never get it, as this story is agonizingly short compared to the rest(don't let my 10 hours fool you. I had this open for about four hours that i watched the overwatchleague for). I came out of this dissapointed ultimately.

I expected more from the author, because he's good. And when he kidna sets back into his original trilogy steps, he's good. I wish he slipped into that stream more, but unfortunately he didnt and what we were left with was an ultimately dissapointing story with a thoroughly lackluster ending, especially considering the fucking ending epilogue (there's two). It sets up another story that we're never getting. End a story, don't write a new one instead.

A lot of my issues come from a background of being a writer myself. Hence my distaste for the ending. It's an epilogue at the end of the fifth book in a world, but it sets up another story in the world? It doesn't make sense from a story-driven perspective, it only adds to a sense of dissapointment that this is the end.

Ultimately, i hope we get more of this world, allbeit under another name. I see that he wants to write more ehre, but his public announcements say somethign else entirely.

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 political stances. Characters are 'rebranding' and changing new group regularly, which is tedious for me to keep checking characters stat screen to understand what is happening. In the end I just couldn’t care about anyone else except few core characters especially from main trilogy.

And the political agendas? It was just too much to process with a lot characters jumping around and was felt as forceful, especially after playing as First MC shortly and his agenda still feels closer to the heart than the new one. Shows what quality Heroes Rise trilogy have compared to this spinoff. I respect the author for juggling so many characters, groups, stats etc but it all just didn’t fit together. It felt 'Disembodied'.

Only good thing is short but sweet opportunity to play as original series MC and teamwork towards final villain,that raised more questions than answers. Not the conclusion or 'bonus' epilogue I was expecting, again didn't click well for me. That is my two cents anyway, for anyone still interested, please go ahead and try for yourself. Not recommended for anyone looking to play superhero CYOA. Try something else.

4/10 More to political than superhero.