Fallen Hero: Rebirth
I really don’t know why I’m writing this review.
I mean, yes, I write reviews because I enjoy it. But the purpose of a review is to help other people make a decision about how best to spend their time and/or money, so there isn’t much point in reviewing a game that everyone has already played, is there? And it was starting to feel as if I were the last person on Earth - or in the ChoiceScript game fandom, anyway - who hadn’t played Fallen Hero.
I figured it was about time I hop on the bandwagon too.
Fallen Hero: Rebirth, the first game in a planned tetralogy by Malin Rydén, is set in 2020, 75 years into an alternate timeline in which the technological arms race continued in earnest after the end of World War II and a series of natural disasters devastated much of the west coast of the United States in 1980. The city once known as Los Angeles, rebuilt under the name of Los Diablos, has long attracted cybernetically and chemically enhanced humans of both the heroic and the villainous stripe. A powerful telepath, you emerged onto the scene a decade ago as a hero by the name of Sidestep. Seven years ago, you were killed in action - or so everybody thought. Now you’re lying low, biding your time, planning your comeback - but not as Sidestep. Maybe it’s revenge you want, maybe power for its own sake, or maybe you’re just tired of getting stepped on at every turn - but this time you’ll be suiting up as the villain. Just as all your plans are coming together, however, you’re faced with a complication as tantalizing as it is unwelcome: a chance run-in with someone very important from your past.
If by some chance you haven’t played Fallen Hero yet, let me tell you: the hype? It’s totally justified. This game is amazing. The pacing, the character development, the worldbuilding all come together into a compelling drama that’s hard to set aside. Rydén serves up Sidestep’s past a little at a time, but she has the chops to invest the reader in her protagonist’s journey into villainy even before we understand what’s driven them to it. Sidestep’s psychology is a brooding, cynical, perseverating portrait of trauma that still leaves plenty of room for the player to interpret the character: self-sufficient or desperately lonely? bloodthirsty or careful to avoid causing serious injury? wistful or gleeful in the act of burning bridges? And for a game that can get very dark, Rebirth is surprisingly fun. I enjoyed the heady mix of caution and bravado it took to navigate Sidestep’s world, overcoming the awkward obstacles that stood in the way of my villainous debut.
Rebirth is easily the most promising series opener I have read since Choice of Rebels: Uprising, and I’m excited to see what further twists and turns Rydén has in store for the villain formerly known as Sidestep.