Not a Hero (2015)

An interesting platform shooter with nice retro aesthetic and a somewhat weird humor.

The story in the game is st silly and feels added on. It doesn't stop it from producing quite a lot of somewhat funny banter you don't really need to read though as it's not really essential to the game itself. At times the amount of text felt too much. Especially since it's about some kind of bunny running for mayor in a corrupted world.

The game itself plays really well. The levels are fairly short but there is enough variety and number of levels to enjoy. The short levels play to its advantage so when you die it's easy to give it another go. There's a couple of playable characters - each with different guns and play style. Playing different character feels completely different and it makes a lot of difference when approaching certain levels.

The levels them self play a little bit like a puzzle. The enemies are always spawning in same place so you basically need to manage your reloads and routes taken in order to fulfill the main objective. Each level comes with optional objectives for additional challenges. The difficulty level varies depending on the level but it's not the easiest game around. I've struggled with some of the later levels quite a bit.

Overall had fun with the game and have no problem with recommending it.

6/10

In Not A Hero you can run, slide (which also allows you to tackle and execute an enemy), shoot and take cover. Like OlliOlli, Roll7 has taken a genre and extracted the core elements without the fluff. This is good and bad. It loses some of its luster as you play on, but it's generally an entertaining silly shooter, where there are a bunch of different characters you can choose from (as you unlock them), that vary a little bit in how they play.

But it also takes a while to get to anything. The pre-mission dialogue with Bunnylord (the shitty politician that you are killing for) is generated from a set of rules so you'll get different combinations, but most of it isn't funny. It grates, and while you can skip it, you shouldn't HAVE to skip dialogue in your first play through. The humor just doesn't work most of the time and when it does it's a minor chuckle.

It ends up lacking the oomph that it needs. It gets compared to Hotline Miami and while that's not entirely accurate, it's somewhat true. HM is more tense, better constructed, with a better story. Not A Hero tries similar things: makes you fail missions multiple times in order to get it right. It's just not as good.

There are objectives in each level to accomplish, but I can't see myself wanting to replay it to complete them all. The game isn't rewarding enough.