Last year UK based games company Roll7 released Not A Hero, the trailer blew me away & I was really eager to play it. It was initially going to be released on PC, Playstation 4 & PS Vita, watching the gameplay I thought it would be really good as a handheld game but alas they cancelled it due '...technical hurdles..'. It was only recently I remembered the game again & thought screw it, I will give it a go on PC.
There are many, many foods that I like, some of them are even good for me. One thing I really like is cheese & crackers. It is a great snack, simple, tasty & almost zero prep time needed. If I had to pick my favorite cheese I would have to say...brie, probably because it spreads easily & tastes nice & rich. Playing Not A Hero I found myself asking was I enjoyed a tasty, rich, snack or was I just eating Dairylea?
The story is...well...it's a little unusual but hell that is half the appeal. Steve, an assassin turned campaign manager needs to help Bunnylord become the next Mayor. Who is Bunnylord you ask, he in anthropomorphic purple rabbit from the future here to rid the world of crime. It is a large undertaking but don't worry you have others people to help you including; Steve, Cletus, Samantha, Jesus, Mike, Stanley, Clive, Ronald Justice & Kimmy.
After a quick tutorial Steve & Bunnylord go for an average breakfast an Aunt Ruby's (who is a big supporter of Bunnylord's). The story is ridiculous, fun & never takes itself seriously which I really liked. One thing is for sure, the story is certainly original.
The game goes for a 2D pixelated art style which is really fun. There are three districts in the game; Vodkaville, Bredrin Park & Sushi Central each with their own distinct look. My favorite places in the game were; Bunnylords Fun Club, Aunt Ruby's Cafe & Roof Gardens in Sushi Central. Bunnylords Fun Club is where all the characters you have unlocked hangout & relax (see above). A cafe might not sound like the most visually interesting place but Aunt Ruby's place really is, after a mission has ended this where you & Bunnylord go for a little R & R, this is also when Bunnylord says the funniest & weirdest things. The roof gardens has that classic showdown look, the architecture has a nice Asian feel especially with the cherry blossoms.
The music used in the game has a very electronic sound & while it clearly has a modern sound it did reminded me of some of the older games I used to play (& still to do). The score is made up of various artists that don't lend themselves to any one genre but instead create their own which is a cross between, electronic, chip tune & synthwave:
Dubmood is from Sweden & his albums include; Badlands, Lost Floppies Volume 2 & Chip tune 7.
Giant Big Circles (Jimmy Hinson) is from the US & has made contributions to video games scores along with producing his own albums, his works include; Mass Effect 2, Borderlands 2, The Glory Days & Impostor Nostalgia.
Zabutom is from Sweden & his albums include; Zeta Force, Lost Tapes 1 & Bad Television.
Sulumi is a solo artist from Japan & his albums include; Air Inhibition of Water, The Heaven, & Unconsciousness.
Infinity Shred are from the US, the trio is composed of; Damon Hardjowirogo, Nathan Ritholz, George Stroud, Clara Warnaar. Their albums include; Future Towards The Edge of Tomorrow, Even Further & Sanctuary.
Kubbi is from Norway & his albums include; Circuithead, Ember & Transmittance.
Zircon (Andrew Aversa) is another solo artist who has worked on video game music along with his own projects, his works include; Mass Media Constant, Return All Robots, Unearthed & the video game soundtrack for Globulous.
Snild Dolkow has no albums but instead a collection of work that mainly focuses on chip tune, some of pieces include; Coding Blind, From Pixels Born, Radioactive Crypto Attack & Red-Black Trees.
There were two other artists featured, Corvox & Facteau but I was unable to find any information about them. Almost all the artists feature on the website Bandcamp if you are curious to hear any of their work.
The soundtrack runs at little over ninety minutes & as a whole is a pretty good with only a few tracks that just seemed to go on a little too long. My favorite pieces included; 'Bunnyman' 'Vindicate Me'
'Attack Vector', 'Psychic Youth', 'Cydonian Sky', 'Kepler's Star Catalog', 'Thrashers', 'Toaster' 'Easy Mode' & 'Colossus'.
Onto the meat! I will start by saying the gameplay is a lot of fun, the controls may be simple but that does not mean it's easy. You need to constantly slide, shoot, duck into cover & reload to stay alive. There is no specific difficulty setting but trying to complete all objectives will certainly increase the toughness level. There are four grades you can achieve per mission; Mayor, Prime Minster, King Of Britain & Global Megalord.
There are many powers to collect including; Fatboy & Drill ammunition & the Exploding Kitten. Each character you choose has their own unique skills & weapons, my favorites were; Steve, Jesus & Clive. Steve is a geezer & is pretty nifty along with being fairly accurate when firing. Jesus is a Spanish ladies man who is constantly thrusting his hips & uses a machine gun, the reason I liked him was that when he is killed he raises a cocktail glass similar Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Wolf of Wall Street. Clive is a cross between Hitman & James Bond, suave, bad ass, accurate & is able to dual wield.
While the combat is good & the cover system works really well something that frustrated me was the number of times the game crashed. In the time I was playing it had to have crashed about 10 times which I thought was a lot especially for this style of game. But with the exception of this the gameplay was solid.
After eight hours was it Dairylea or Brie? Well for the most part it was Brie, I wished the game was a little a longer & it had not crashed as many times but apart from that I was happy. I know that in the future I am likely to play the game again just to see if I can help Bunnylord become Global Megalord. I feel pretty lucky to play another good game, I am happy to give this one 4 out of 5
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