Fallen Hero: Rebirth

Testament to what videogame storytelling could and should be. This game still dominates my thoughts even months after finishing it. Extremely highly recommended if anything on the proverbial cover even slightly intrigues you, and frankly even if it doesn't, you might learn something new about yourself.

好玩 可以当神经病

Writing this much later than I usually would for a steam review because [i]Fallen Hero: Rebirth[/i] has just been stuck in my head in the weeks since I finished it (and its sequel, [i]Retribution[/i]) in a way that few other games have. It does the thing all my favourite postmodern superhero stories do and considers the ways that superheroes and villains have changed and effected this world, the writing is evocative, and the cast of characters are layered and compelling, but maybe my favourite part is the way the story explores queerness and transitioning if you decide to play as a queer/trans character. It was my first time playing an entirely text-based game and it's going to be such a tough act to follow as I dive deeper into the genre.

"i felof" -Sidestep, probably

Great story I love it <3

My actual playtime is 12 hours including the demo which transfers your progress to the purchased game. The demo gives you a good sense of what the rest of the game will be like and I highly recommend you try it before looking at reviews that might spoil the story. Definitely going to play the sequel.

This has taken over my life

One of the best Interactive Fiction options available on Steam. The writing gives plenty of opportunity for introspection and is effective at questioning the player's decisions. I especially liked that there are plenty of options for the protagonist feeling like their life is out of control and they're just along for the ride. One of the biggest criticisms of this story is that the protagonist's motivation is abysmally vague. Unfortunately, this was an intentional choice on the part of the author, because that motivation is revealed in the sequel: [spoiler]the protagonist is a Re-Gene and was made, not born, and resents being tortured and molded into a tool[/spoiler]. I understand why the author wanted to conceal this, but that ambiguity makes it incredibly difficult to empathize with the protagonist. There are many options about "showing them" or "revealing the truth" but without any context, those all ring hollow, if not being downright confusing. Who are we even angry at? Organized criminals? Hero society? The government? It was a calculated risk to hide this until the second book, but... it falls short. It is simply too much to ask that readers ignore the protagonist's entire motivation for their plans. One thing the game suffers from (which is thankfully resolved in the sequel) is the lack of checkpoints. If you are achievement-hunting and make a mistake, it's back to the beginning for you. There are also some rare typos (usually pronoun swaps) but they aren't common.

I only have 5.6 hours in the game at the time of writing this review. I knew absolutely nothing about this series before playing, I saw someone mention it online and decided to dive in head first. And man did it not disappoint. The game ran fine with no issues; the inclusion of dark mode and a dyslexia font was super nice and made my experience so comfortable. I won't spoil anything but I need to include this in my review. Being a trans person, it was so nice to see transgender not only as an option for my character, but actually thought of. What do I mean by this? Usually in stories/games when a character is transgender, it's mentioned once and never brought up again. In my playthrough, it was brought up at least 3 times and there was a moment where it kind of went into the world building as well. This is the kind of inclusivity I like to see! Actually having that be part of the world and not just thrown into a sentence for points really means a lot, at least to me.

Muito bom mesmo