Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption

Lovely all-rounder of an adventure game – a distinct art style that grows on you, interesting characters, intriguing mysteries, and a workable stealth and combat system. It also has meaningful choices, like which secondary class to take! I appreciate that there are non-combat solutions to many scenarios, especially when you invest in your stealth skill. I don't generally enjoy "time management" in games, but I found that Hero-U gives just enough time each day. Just keep multiple saves, because it's easy to miss things!

I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline, lore, references to previous quest for glory games, and general play style. The mini-games were fun and I think the game would have benefited from including more of them (darts, pool, etc.) rather than just having them as screenshots/cutscenes. My main complaint was the gameplay itself which was simultaneously too much and too little. There was lots to interact with in the environment but very little of it was meaningful or useful. IMO, point and click games should be a bit more restrictive in terms of what can be interacted with to drive the player towards what is needed to complete the story. When there are literally dozens of clickable objects (with multiple options on what to do with them) on a single page, anything truly important is drowned out in all of the other noise and it becomes a chore to click through them all and find what is relevant. I get the concept of red herrings and not making the story too linear but come on... [spoiler] For example, as far as I could tell, just about every lighting device (sconce, torch, candle, etc.) was clickable yet at no point was it ever helpful to click on them. For the first several hours of gameplay I thought there MUST be a secret passageway or something hidden at some point to justify having them all clickable in the game so I continued to check through them individually but nothing ever materialized. [/spoiler] One other minor issue was the rather bizarre romance options. Several felt forced or unnecessary and a few options that felt like they should have been viable, weren't. Nothing game-breaking but unnecessarily frustrating at times. Overall, a lot of the game (read: unnecessary clickable objects) could have been cut out without sacrificing anything of note which would have made for a more pleasant overall experience. That being said, the game was still fun and if you've got a nostalgia itch for the quest for glory games this should scratch it.

Everyone compares Hero-U to the Quest for Glory series, and there's good reason for that. It's an adventure/RPG hybrid with plenty of charm, interesting characters to meet, and tedious tasks to work your way through. I enjoyed Hero-U, but with caveats. The game is overly long. There is busywork littered throughout, intentionally so, as you progress your skills. The gameplay, such as it is, could optimistically be described as "sufficient." But the aforementioned charm really is here in spades. There's a wit and optimism to Hero-U, just as there was to the Quest for Glory games, that's difficult to describe and even harder to find in other titles. I'd heartily recommend Hero-U to anyone who enjoyed Quest for Glory. For those who never played those older games, I'd probably recommend booting them up first. Retro they may be, but Hero-U isn't much more evolved, and if that older series can't keep your attention then this tribute to it certainly won't do any better.

I am within spitting distance of finishing this game I think, so I will leave a quick review. Good adventure game crossed with an RPG. The UI is a bit clunky and towards the end there is a bit too much toing and froing from one part of the castle uni to the other, but overall it is a charming little game with a lot heart and humour. There are a good few little mysteries to solve and a bit of a sense of exploration. One minor critiqiue is some things are time gated - that is, they won't happen till enough time has passed, and that can leave you, well, killing time till it happens! On the time thing - there is a very slight time pressure in that you have a few fixed events like dinner and classes and a bedtime but really, there is PLENTY of time. I think I did just about everything there was to do and at times I was just doing training to speed things along. If you miss doing something on one day then you can almost always go and do it on the next. In the rare cases where you do have to meet a time gate or have a failure there is so much time I don't think you could fail (I never did). As I said, towards the end I have been killing time because I got so far ahead of the clock I needed to wait out all the slack time to the next event. It is easy to kill time though, just do a bunch of training. Tip - to save yourself tromping back and forth quite so much, just stay out and do stuff till you hit the daily clock e.g. 'dinnertime' or 'bedtime' and as long as you aren't in a very few rare locations you will auto teleport to the dining hall and save yourself a trip. Doing this, you also use every skerrick of time in a day. Yeah, the instructor may tell you off for beign sleepy but it seems to hold no actual disadvantage. Note - this does not work for elective classes, those you have to get to in time to do, it won't teleport you, but it isn't a big deal. Basically, the clock is just a game mechanism to move things along. It provides almost no 'time pressure'. I can see from the other reviews people freaked out about it, but it just isn't a big deal. It just seems like it is. Anyway, it is a good game. Pity it seems there won't be any more.

i replayed qfg 1-5 just to play this.. absolutely worth it.

If you were a fan of the [b]Quest For Glory[/b] (and other point-and-click adventure) games of the 90's, then you'll probably feel right at home with Hero-U. [h2]The Good[/h2] This feels like it's made by people who love good stories, and love to immerse others in them. The characters, dialog, locations, atmosphere, and overall storytelling contribute to an engaging experience that pulled me in like a book I didn't want to put down. It doesn't take itself too seriously, weaving heartfelt narrative themes with threads of lighthearted banter, cheesy rhymes conscious of their own cheesiness, and a peppering of dad jokes. I find this nuanced balanced increasingly rare in books, not to mention in games, so I was quite tickled to encounter this gem. Visually, I appreciated the lo-fi, semi-pixelated look of most of the game, which gave it a retro, nostalgic feel. A lot of care and talent went into the design and artwork, much of which is meticulously hand-drawn. The locations and maps don't have that random, procedurally-generated feel, but seem carefully curated and planned. The music completes the storytelling. It's never too epic for the encounter or too whimsical for the occasion. I don't know whether the score was written by multiple talents, or a single... either way it's always 'just right'. Dynamic enough to engross, but tasteful so as not to distract. [h2]The Bad[/h2] The game lacks some of the polish and production value of the original QFG/Sierra games . I found the hi-res, 3D-modeled player, NPCs, and other random 3D elements to be out of place with the rest of the pixel-rich artwork. The overall visual experience felt a bit disjointed. In the end, these are minor (and arguably tedious) considerations, but worth noting. [h2]Worth It?[/h2] Absolutely. All in all, Hero-U is a fun throwback that I enjoyed playing and would love to see a sequel to.

This is a great game. I'm pretty jaded about point and click games in general, but this is just nicely realised and balanced and a fun experience.