[h1]GOOD PROLOGUE[/h1]
Fallen Hero: Rebirth is an interactive text-based novel (or interactive fiction, if you prefer) set in an alternate version of the real world. While it revolves around superheroes, it’s clearly aimed at a more mature audience than your typical Marvel-style story.
It took me ~6 hours to finish a single playthrough. That might not sound too short, but in practice it felt surprisingly brief - probably because most of the time is spent introducing the world and its characters, with relatively little actually happening.
Because of that, I’m not quite sure how to feel about Rebirth. If you enjoy superhero stories, it’s a very engaging setup for something much bigger. However, as a standalone experience, it falls short. There just isn’t enough content here. It feels more like an extended prologue to Fallen Hero: Retribution than a complete game on its own.
If I could, I’d give it a [b]mixed review[/b]. In an ideal world, this would be bundled together with Retribution as one larger game - it would easily earn my recommendation then. At the very least, the price should be lower.
As it stands, I can only recommend it to people who are absolutely sure they want to play through the entire Fallen Hero series in one go.
[b]World[/b]
At the beginning, I mentioned that the game is set in an alternate version of the real world - but just how different is it?
Well, superheroes exist, and they’re much closer to The Boys than to Marvel’s version. That said, it’s a more toned-down take on The Boys. It still includes some darker elements, such as sex, mentions of suicide, and a few other heavy scenes.
On top of that, Los Angeles has been destroyed and turned into a kind of Wild West, where anything can happen because the government allows it.
The setting itself isn’t particularly unique (and it doesn’t try to be), but it’s competently built and well-written, so it never breaks your immersion.
[b]Story[/b]
I’ll say it again: this game is marketed as a standalone experience, but in reality, it’s just a slightly extended prologue for the main game. The same goes for the story. It’s well-written, there’s a decent amount of choices, the characters are solid, and the idea of a puppet is actually implemented well. Unfortunately, not much really happens.
Don’t get me wrong - it’s cool to see our beginnings as a villain, and the ability to customize the character in many ways definitely helps with long-term immersion. But when the entire game focuses on that and there’s barely any real action, it becomes a problem.
As for the story itself, I appreciate that we can choose to be a good person who doesn’t kill or an absolute villain who doesn’t care and kills everyone. Even though certain story beats are fixed, your choices can seriously alter events, and that’s exactly why people play games in this genre.
I also liked that Rebirth isn’t overly focused on stats. Some interactive fiction games get carried away with stats, and it rarely works well. Here, the balance feels just right. Some dialogues or scenes are unlocked through stat checks, but you never feel punished for playing a certain way.
What I really disliked is that some interesting moments never appeared, such as [spoiler]lunch with Ortega after the gym or the full dinner with the doctor[/spoiler]. I know these scenes aren’t crucial to the story, but they would have gone a long way in developing the characters. They would also make Rebirth feel more complete and worth the price.
[b]Audio & Visuals[/b]
This game is purely text-based, so there’s not much to comment on in terms of audio or visuals. Still, I’ll leave my usual note for interactive fiction: even basic visuals and audio could make these games more accessible and appealing to a wider audience, similar to what Roadwarden or Wayfarer have done.
[b]Technicalities[/b]
The lack of a save system - or at least a "back to the previous page" button - is just incredibly frustrating. I can’t stress enough how much I dislike it when interactive fiction games do this. It’s all too easy to misclick on a choice you didn’t intend, especially in longer games, so give players a way to fix it ffs.
I didn’t notice any major typos, just a few missing or mismatched words (for example: "I'm not used parties like this," missing "to").
