The Hero Project: Open Season — Can you win America’s #1 reality show for heroes?

Yes. Yes it does. (20 characters looooong)

(Drunk rating) Hero Rise was the game that got me hooked in CoG, but Hero Project is the most disappointment I have ever experienced in CoG games. I knew it wasn’t possible for Open Season to fix everything wrong with Redemption Season, but Open Season is so bad that make me dear door the future of the Versus series.
Why Zachary did this? Why he alienated his fan base? He is a great writer, but he doesn’t want to write to guys fan base, he want to write door his own ego :expressionless:.

And why CoG allowed him to do it? Didn’t the company learned v anything with the critiques? Why they didn’t guide Zachary to the right path?
The BS with Miss Boss show how only the people who followed the “right path” are allowed the happy ending in this game. And yet CoG didn’t do anything to prevent it.

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Im pretty sure the game still sold very well. CoG is a business at the end of the day so I don’t think they would risk losing him unless sales went WAY down. Maybe not even then. They seem pretty cool about letting people write their stories how they want too (within reason). I also don’t know how much control CoG actually has on the creative process. I think they kind of just publish the games. But I could also be completely wrong so take my comment with a grain of salt.

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I think compared to other titles it’s not doing this well.
Also: apparently there’s a patch looming ahead overhauling a lot of wording etc which had to be delayed because apple.

HR was usually a title getting quite a bit of feedback very quickly.
But this time? Steam for example had 8 reviews, and only one is positive. And saud positive one is the opposite of helpful as it’s so obviously fanboyish gushing (and single sentence) that it comes across as spam.

The others agree with the criticism brought up here.

And Urban, once you sobered up, I say it would not have been inpossible to fix the stuff that made RS bad.
But for that it’d have needed a writer who even wanted to do so. And looking at what happens in the game… I feel as if Sergi simply wanted to get to the bonus epilogue to try and get people hyped for versus.

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Well I don’t have the numbers but I’m assuming the fact that it was a part of the Heroes series alone would make it sell better than some of the newer and lesser known titles. But I could be wrong and I apologize if I am. I do understand it was badly reviewed but I do feel like a lot of people bought it to get closure or something for the series. Or maybe they were naive like me and thought they would improve their writing and would have taken the fans feedback to heart. These sales alone would, at least I think, put them ahead of some of the other titles that came out recently. Maybe not for the long term but potentially for the short term.

I dont have the numbers either, but looking at the playstore for example

Open Season: 5k downloads marker, 4.0 rating 156 ratings.
Silverword: 1k marker, 4.5 rating 110 ratings

While Undercover Agent and Fielder’s fared worse, look at some of the HG titles that came out shortly before:

Wayhaven got the 10k marker, 4.9 rating 1616 ratings.
Fallen Hero: 10k marker, 4.8 rating, 864 ratings

Sure, these two got their hype before, but one would thing that hype is nothing compared to the big name title.

The easiest explanation might be that even hr fans got wary after rs and wanted to wait… and they did and either decided against it, or bought and didnt like it.

EDIT: Also: Should we get all jokes about Versus3/HR6: The Quickening out of the way now or wait?

EDIT2: I find it really worrisome how Sergi apparently does not inform the winners of his contests what kind of characters they get to name/will be named after them.

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I finaly finished Open Season after replaying through whole Heroes series and i must say it is quite good. Not even a quarter as bad as some comments here try to paint it :stuck_out_tongue:
It escalated the conflict from previous games to keep it entertaining. The tie-in to Versus universe was an interesting idea to continue atleast part of the story even when done with HR (even when i do wished for happy ever after for my characters :slight_smile: )
The game put our character in a place when we are forced to cooperate with criminals who share common goal of saving the planet and it makes for interesting circumstances. Yeah i did wated my character to expres more disdain to Loa Shift or some members of high council or how i thought of Loli and Scoudnrel as jailers, but it still was enough in allowing me to roleplay it to certain way.
Shifting perspectives to get back to our original trilogy mc were fun and nostalgic. Prodigal plot was a creative way to get back to that character.
Some things i read skimming through OS topics are quite strange compared to what i got in my playthrough, and i disagre with some of it compared to my own experience with the game (to reactions like "how did you get/interpreted this scene in THAT way??) :slight_smile:
But i don’t feel like engaging with sparring match with people criticizing this game :stuck_out_tongue: .
I just wanted to say that, while it isn’t as good as Heroes Rise or definately Versus, it’s still a decent game that let me delve into that universe again and still enjoy it. It have flaws and sometimes doesn’t allow my character express feelings i would like her to express, or some storylines seems shafted like the game was rushed too much (Miss Boss definately) but i’m willing to overlook it and i was perfectly able to enjoy it anyway.

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Personally I felt OS corrected a lot of what was wrong with RS while allowing Sergi to tell his story. There was considerably less heavy handed narration to it. My issue was that he tried cramming too much into one game making it feel rushed to a degree. It’s a shame really

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Still fascinating to see how there’s little to no in-between with this game especially.
Is there really ‘too much’ in OS? because after all, no decision matters (sure, there’s a few utter-minor ones that might cause something to be greyed out, but it doesn’t matter). Plotthreads getting handwaved or are left hanging, bad guys getting pardoned cause why-exactly and the player is pushed into a spectator role to the point I’d like to dig up the ‘is HR interactive fiction’ thread.
Because, cross your heart, OS has nothing anymore that qualified the other games as IF.
/shrug

EDIT: Pushing this back up to open the discussion on a final judgement, in light of the main points of criticism that ex- and persist since the first game:

  1. Lackluster world- and characterbuilding
  2. Lack of continuity
  3. Lack of consistency (two different things)
  4. Railroading
  5. Preachiness
  6. Turning the Player into a Spectator (one could argue that this is part of the railroading, though)
  7. The tone towards the player should they ‘stray’ from the ‘golden path’

Since the first game the games have, to many, felt as if at least half the game was missing, and there’s little to no improvement over the course of 5 games, 7 if you include versus.
Game after game you’ll be face with choices that sound as if there’s a different path behind them, only for the game to mock/scold you for picking this path, telling you you are wrong and railroading you back unto a path you did not perceive as right for your characters.

And it all culminates in OS:
It’s utterly irrelevant what you do, the story will always go the exact same. Sure, tine bits of flavortext are different, but they lack impact.
And that is not something that should happen.
Not when these points of criticism existed ever since the first game in the series.

So… what went wrong?

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Gently pushing this up, to ask people something:

If you bought the WarningSystem in RS (and I mean bought. Not the free one) did it carry over?

I didn’t buy in this but I think it’s the same as the Versus, it does carry over.
The variable for the warning system is set true in the first game and, I think, he uses the same variable so it should carry over.

No it doesn’t, that’s why I asked.
In fact, checking the code now revealed that even if you got the variable set to ‘true’ in a loaded game, the game sets it to false. WTH happened there?

Code below (second line)
You send a mental thanks to MeChip Prodigal, knowing that 
*set warningsysnine false
*check_purchase warningsysnine
*if choice_purchased_warningsysnine
    these warnings will keep coming because of the Warning System you already purchased.
    *goto cmaroun
*else
    she has been trying to talk you into one of the most valuable MeChip upgrades, the MeChip Warning System 9.0, which enables her to continue warning you the way she just did. If enabled, MeChip Prodigal will be empowered to inform you of strategic advantages, help you make efficient and consistent decisions, and warn you if you're about to make a decision with a high level of risk.

    Do you want to keep warnings like this coming, with the Warning System 9.0?

    *if choice_purchase_supported
        *purchase warningsysnine $0.99 cmaroun
        *page_break No, Thanks
        *goto cmaroun
    *else
        [Purchases are not possible on this platform]
        *page_break No, Thanks
        *goto cmaroun


*label cmaroun
*check_purchase warningsysnine
*if choice_purchased_warningsysnine
    *set warningsysnine true
    *achieve achievethewarn

I counterchecked with HR3 and this doesn’t appear to be a necessity for the purchase to work. So… wth happened that that *set is there?!

EDIT: I know the code gets changed from the beta (obviously) so I wonder:
Mistake (and this was meant to end up an *if) or purpose?

Do you think it was a mistake or was it done on purpose?

Heck if I’d know. As said, I know the code does get altered from the beta (as in, in the beta you could click ‘buy’ but it’d just unlock then and give the achievement).
So, it might be either.

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Hmm that’s very odd. (I actually tried to ask the question before your edit but I had to wait for moderators to approve my post. Sorry.)

I’m really mad at myself right now because i remember something that i had noticed about that game, went to an old thread about the series to post about it just to see it was locked, only to remember now that this thread exist and now i have forgotten what i had remembered

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Taking a cue from this post I’d like to address the main (and still present issues) with OP if I may (some of the things will have been said before, but for completeness):

Spoilers

Overreaching: Open Season almost instantly moves away from the whole TV show aspect to have the MC assist what is, by all means, a terrorist group. Because… they are ‘nice’ to ani-powereds? (I’m refraining from saying 'because their leader promises to ‘make powereds great again’ even though the game itself compares him to that spray-tanned calf) The plot the revolves around… what exactly? Sure you do some tasks for the town, and then there’s a short battle against a world-spanning threat, but the majority of the game is… soapboxing.
Each and every scene tackles (tries to tackle) some major issue one way or the other, without any rhyme or reason, resulting in quite harmful opinions being portrayed as ‘true ones’.
The plot tries to be too big with too little substance.

Pass/fail prevailance & Linear storyline & weird directions No choice really matters, no matter what they might look like. The biggest impact choices have is on flavortext, but even that boils down to being just a minor change to what is happening.
Example: In the demo already, you can pick which of the four voiceless to battle. This only affacts some stats, which… are only needed for an achievement, not to get through the story.
And no matter who you pick, no matter how well you fare, it will always end the same: the same people will join the town, the same guy will get killed by the terrorist leader, the same person will escape. No matter what you do. Always the exact same.
Then you get to pick whether or not to stay in the town. You pick to stay on the show, you’ll get the finale, get kicked out because of some leaks, get kidnapped by your sister into the town.
And when you pick to stay in the town? You watch the finale, some half-sentences are slightly different, and it’s the exact same, minus the kidnapping: the same events, the same thoughts, same choices, same everything.
There are dialogue bits that let you express your distaste for the town and what it stands for, choices that have no impact on anything. Sure, there are games with pure ‘roleplay’ options, but given the story at hand, choices like this should make some bit of a difference.

And then there’s the … endings: Barely any of the choices made throughout the game matter: In the end you can pick your ending almost in full. There’s barely a difference between a looming war and ‘peace & harmony’: again some slightly tweaked half-sentences, but no matter which ending you picked (yes, again you pick the ending instead of it being brought by by your decision beforehand) you will, again, go through the same options, motions, interactions.

And then… it’s over (after the ‘real heroes’ get beamed up to the Versus verse…). After an epilogue that handwaves so, so many things.

Now, the ‘pick your ending’ can work, as demonstrated in Tally Ho, but there your choices beforehand do matter. Here? Not at all.

Like the games before (maybe even more so) OS feels more like a novella with a few alternate scenes in the appendix than any for of IF/CYOA. In fact, OS can be played by just starting a new game and just spamming ‘next’, ending with 86 legend points, enough to get the versus bonus. That is how little choices matter here.

And the less said about the game setting the var for the warningsystem to false, thus forcing those that got it for free at the very END of RS to buy it if they want to use is, or the ‘database’ that make itself out to be a ‘vital asset’ and is but an incomplete set of copy-pasted notes, the better

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There is also the big ‘choose one of the Ten romance !’ that is pretty much a lie at this point, because despite playing multiple time, i only saw like 3 romance, 1 that end with the RO in a coma before any relationship can begin, 1 that is just you pining for someone who is after someone else and 1 with the blind girl that litteraly fell on me from nowhere in my first playtrhrough, i had litteraly forgotten that character.

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Sorry im gonna butt in right quick and say i freaking love Weaver.

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I am starting to think that the ‘10’ romances count the one’s from a loaded file? which it shouldn’t because we already got those achievements in HR3?

but yeah, there’s just 3-5 (weaver, transfer, not-jury and the MCs (assuming the mcs are counted as two)).
Miss Boss is either dead or in a coma (and we can not even drag Loa Shift, a vitakinetic, to the hospital to wake her up)
Fake-Griffin is not an option at all (also, 20+ agegap)
Lucky, BM and Jenny are old MC romances
Crystalline is the pining option (also, whoop-di-do we pin for the white girl and the black guy might die… eeesh)
and Lolli and Scoundrel aren’t options either

EDIT: digging this up again, because I think I solved it:

New MC ROs:

  1. Weaver
  2. Transfer
  3. Not-Jury
  4. Old Mc

Old MC ROs:
5. Not-Jury
6. BM
7. Jenny
8. Lucky
9. Prodigal
10. New MC

Which, frankly, is kinda cheating…

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