Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption: Review

Cult series Quest for Glory from spouses Corey And Laurie-Ann Kolov (Corey Cole, Lori Ann Cole), who worked in Sierra On-Line, at the turn of the 80-90s of the last century, he actually created a new genre of humorous adventure/RPG. There, solving puzzles, collecting and using objects and other quest elements organically coexisted with choosing a character class, non-linearity, leveling up skills, battles, trying on new equipment and quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The last game in the series was released in 1998, but then there were also fan remakes and parodies, and with the advent of Kickstarter and the fashion for reviving classics, we saw several more excellent representatives of the adventure/RPG genre – for example, Heroine’s Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok And Quest for Infamy.

Authors Quest for Glory, naturally, they also succumbed to temptation and began promoting their project in 2012 – Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. They raised money for it in several passes, receiving more than 500 thousand dollars through Kickstarter, but this was still not enough to release the game on time, the ambitions of which were gradually growing. Six years later, the developers finally launched the long-awaited long-term construction project expected by many. And this game turned out to be as leisurely as the pace of its development.

I will become a thief – let them teach me!

Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption – this is not a continuation Quest for Glory (to which the spouses have no rights), and her spiritual and ideological heir. As in almost all similar games, everything here revolves around a “heroic” theme and begins with training the main character… to become a hero. Only if usually in such situations we were given a choice of who to eventually become – a magician, a warrior or a thief – and what to specialize in, then Sean O’Conner does not have any special options. An aspiring thief, dreaming of getting into the legendary Thieves’ Guild, was caught red-handed by a certain stranger and, for some reason best known to him, was sent not to prison, but to the University of Heroes – but not to the department of paladins or magicians, but to the faculty of thieves.

For the sake of secrecy, the students themselves call themselves a class of “retired bards,” but they are taught not how to play the lute, but how to properly sneak up, peek through a keyhole, crawl along a rope, throw knives, use master keys, traps and rope.

And these are not empty words: according to the plot, from time to time you actually have to take tests on the theory and practice of theft, answering what an ideal thief would do in a given situation, or, for example, buying master keys and trying to pick at least some lock in the training room. In this case, of course, you can only get into the room itself using the same master key.

Univer. New episodes

Of course, such a limitation in the hero’s specialization is also constrained by the nonlinearity of the passage itself. After all, in every issue Quest for Glory in fact, there were three games – the passages for a magician, a thief and a warrior (the choice must be made at the start) differed significantly, suggesting different ways of solving problems, tasks and sometimes even (as, for example, in Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness) different storylines.

However, even in Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption enough nonlinearity. This is primarily due to how we communicate, build relationships with others – and, accordingly, how we play our role. The fact is that the game is in many ways reminiscent of a kind of student/schoolboy simulator with all that it entails – communication with classmates and teachers, passing exams and a strict daily routine. Sean carries out numerous assignments – helps pass a master key test, arranges a date with a girl for his roommate, or, conversely, upsets a fellow student’s meeting with a rich student who immediately dislikes our hero, and so on.

By helping, the protagonist improves relations with one or another character. And Sean’s reputation is calculated separately for each of those he meets at the heroic university. In addition, in almost every dialogue there is a choice of several lines of behavior: be smart, cheerful, answer correctly, evasively, or speak directly, without beating around the bush. You can also flirt and give gifts.

Study, train and study again

This is how we build our prime-spielautomat-casino.co.uk own image of the main character. We build not only in word, but also in deed – all our actions also increase its numerous characteristics. The more often he looks through a keyhole or listens to what is going on behind each door, the faster his perception increases, the more often he tries to pick locks, the better his skill with master keys. Even regular descents/ascents of university stairs improve your climbing skills.

The university has a special room for practical training, where you can train – throwing knives, hitting dummies, walking on a rope, climbing ropes, lifting dumbbells. All this gradually increases the corresponding parameters – strength, agility, combat skill or defense.

Also, combat characteristics are pumped up in battles, which mainly take place in the basements of the university castle – we regularly go down there to kill monstrous-looking rats and cockroaches and get money for their carcasses, with which we buy potions, bandages, traps, master keys or, for example, a new vest that increases protection. In addition, you can read various books in the library, becoming smarter. In general, everything is according to the precepts of the series The Elder Scrolls – and quite in tradition Quest for Glory, where was the same roleplaying mechanics.

Time for business – time for fun

The catch is that you won’t be able to help everyone at once and upgrade everything in one playthrough. Sean’s student life is scheduled by the hour: in the morning he must attend classes, in the afternoon he must go to the cafeteria, and after 10 pm he must go to bed.

You can, of course, leave your room after lights out or not immediately go to the cafeteria in order to carve out an extra half hour for practical classes or completing some assignment, but there is a high chance of running into the harmful director of the university and getting a warning for bad behavior. And when the “yellow cards” accumulate to 100 points, Sean will be expelled, and everything will end – just like in Quest for Glory, V Hero-U many ways to see a premature gameover. And the hero himself quickly gets tired and begins to yawn, refusing to perform many active actions. Therefore, after some time the game will force you to the dinner table or to bed.

Naturally, the thief class simply cannot do without card games, billiards and darts, which improve luck and Gaming skills!

So you have to choose, under constant time pressure, who to help first, who to flirt with, what tasks to complete. And how to pump up the hero – work out with dumbbells and dummies, gradually turning Sean into a pumped-up warrior, or crawl along ropes and ropes, developing primarily dexterity. Therefore, the first playthrough here may differ from the second and third.

Student routine

But in any case, you will have to be patient – the authors overdid it, turning the game into a student simulator with a measured and strict schedule. Classroom, lunch, library, fights with rats in the basement, training in the practice room, sleep – and so on in a circle.

It is clear that in Quest for Glory and many similar games, the heroes also, as a rule, undergo training at universities and magic academies, but there are also trips to exotic places where you can perform feats and find new adventures to your advantage. And in Hero-U We spend the vast majority of our time within the walls and casemates of the university, communicating with the same characters and performing approximately the same actions under the annoying ticking of the clock.

Yes, after some time more interesting events begin to happen, it turns out that the castle is full of secrets, we go deeper into the casemates under the building, find secret rooms with treasures, skeletons and ghosts, learn to communicate with spirits, meet some strange wolf, and so on. But we still have to wait until then. And the turn-based combat system, to be honest, is disappointing – it’s too primitive. In a fight, only a few options are available – move, hit, throw something at the head, skip a turn or run away.

When laughter prolongs and saves

It is humor and irony that largely save the game and color this student routine. At some point, the thieves are accused… of stealing a variety of items from other residents of the heroic university – from apples in the kitchen to the rector’s hat. And they threaten to disband the class and kick out the students. It was Sean O’Conner (that’s what I’d like to call Sean Connery, Yes?) we have to investigate and catch the thief, who turns out to be a talking blue lump with eyes.

In general, funny characters in Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption enough. Sean lives in a room with a student whose dad was a human and his mom was a female faun (“Your mom is a deer”?“- our hero immediately clarifies with no tolerance at all), in the basement a mouse in a jacket is selling all sorts of useful items, and in the paintings hanging everywhere you can see images of lions in the armor of a paladin or upright dogs in a Sherlock Holmes costume. How can one not remember that in Quest for Glory there were also leotaurs, that is, human lions, or, for example, pizza elementals!

And the main character himself is also a humorist who can joke about any subject within sight. Good in Hero-U a huge amount of high-quality text and almost half is spent on ironic descriptions and discussions about what was seen, accompanied by jokes, quotes, references to games, books and films and periodic breaking of the “fourth wall”. Moreover, almost any item, be it a cup, a table, a painting, a statue, a chest of drawers or a piano, you can try to steal. In most cases – to no avail. And Sean, of course, constantly jokes about this topic.

After defeat in a battle with ordinary opponents, the hero does not die, but ends up in the university infirmary.

Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption turned out to be a controversial game. Its obvious advantages, such as gorgeously drawn backdrops, an abundance of humor, high-quality text, interesting characters and riddles, coexist with frankly low-cost animation, a primitive combat system and an all too (especially at first) routine simulator of student life. However, those who have the proper patience, appreciate thoughtful playthroughs, love to read, know English (the game has not yet been translated into Russian) and even more so remember the classics in the face of Quest for Glory, they simply do not have the right to miss such hard-earned work of the spouses Koulov.

Pros: interesting plot; charming main character; well written characters; an abundance of high-quality text, dialogue, humor and irony; many skills that are upgraded as you use them; fairly high replayability and variability; very nice hand-drawn backgrounds; nice music.

Cons: budget animation; dialogues are not voiced; a lot of routine actions; few diverse locations; primitive combat system.