Hero Of Many tells the story of an orb-like creature who’s on a quest to defeat ‘black’ (evil) and at the same time save as many of its friends as possible. It draws inspiration from several games, including Journey, Limbo and even a bit of Pikmin. ‘Three awesome games ? This must be awesome too then’, I hear you say ? Well, yes and no.
Let me start by saying why I think it draws inspiration from the aforementioned games:
Journey because it tells a story without saying or showing any words; you start the game and you can pretty much immediately control the main character. Limbo because of its silhouette art style, even if it uses some background colors later on and Pikmin because you’ll be guiding your friends through obstacles, while avoiding and killing enemies.
But you don’t directly control your tadpole-like creatures. You can send them into a certain direction but you don’t control their actions. They’ll do the best they can, so if they see something edible they will consume it and if they need to break something they’ll break it. Maybe not all of them, but some of them, at least. Still, it’s all mostly an automatic process.
You’ll guide your character and the rest of the creatures through 26 levels. Except for a few of them, these levels are built in largely the same way. Navigate through maze-like levels while saving your friends and killing/avoiding enemies and get to the exit. This is fun and interesting at first, and like I said, the game does throw a few other challenges your way later in the game, but you’ll be doing mostly the same stuff for the entire duration of the game.
This isn’t a long game with just a few hours of gameplay but halfway through I grew a bit bored by it. There wasn’t much of a challenge and you’d rarely die. Was the entire game going to be this easy ? The answer is no. Because halfway through you’ll also start earning new powers. These don’t seem like much, but they’re actually quite handy once you realize the game would’ve been so much easier if you’d have started with them. So, they’re a good addition to your character and they fit the game; nothing over-the-top. You’ll earn a power to attract your buddies, you’ll earn a power to bounce off enemies/open doors and you’ll earn a power to destroy things. And yes, during the course of the game you will eventually die. Probably several times. At times it won’t always be exactly clear what’s expected of you and it might take you a few tries more than it officially should take you. This is one of the shortcomings of trying to let people experience the story instead of actually telling it. You’ll probably learn it after a while anyway, but I made me feel bitter about the game, especially because things should feel natural if you do it this way.
As I already mentioned the game’s graphics reminded me of those of Limbo, but with some much needed colors. Your creature will have a bit of color inside of it, and the backgrounds, but the rest of it is all black and white. It’s a good contrast and the use of colors give you an idea of progression.
It all looks beautiful in motion, though there is a bit of stutter every now and then. Note that the framerate doesn’t drop, not even for a second, but somehow the game does slow down from time to time. Really weird and this shouldn’t happen in a 2D game.
The interface is clearly made with mobile phones in mind and it’s one of the things that could’ve used a bit of extra work. Don’t get me wrong, it all works very nicely. It’s just shown in such a way that I was frequently reminded that I’m dealing with a port here.
The music is beautifully orchestrated and has a good, bombastic atmosphere. I’m not sure if a band was really used here, or that it was all manufactured but I was absolutely impressed by it. Excellent work, really.
Hero Of Many isn’t a long game and it should take you roughly 5-6 hours to complete. After that there’s no real reason to go through it again, but that’s okay. I think it’s a game meant to be played just once, or at least once every (couple of) year(s). For me personally it was long enough, I actually would’ve enjoyed it a bit more if it was shorter, but most of you will enjoy it regardless.
Hero Of Many isn’t my hero, but it might just be for the rest of you. In that case its title [i]was[/i] carefully chosen. It’s an enjoyable game that drags on for a bit too long but it’s not in the least bit boring or bad enough to not play it. So give it a try if you can.
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