On the Run: Rogue Heroes Reviews

Good

7 / 10 Could have had more character development, but otherwise alright. Should have blown up the building. Ah well.

while the beginning is good it is somewhat feel rushed, many abilities though somewhat power fantasy story. around 7/10.

Would've loved some more built out moments with characters between scenes, and the ending felt VERY abrupt, but otherwise great CYOA!

Do you like superheroes? Do you enjoy watching them use powers and take on challenges? Or perhaps... You'd rather be bored, questioning that which is in front of your eyes, hurting your brain? If it's the last one?! This is for you! First I have to say this: that guy on the cover? With the glasses? He's hot. But I can only assume that's Liam (as it matches his description). However, Liam can't be romanced. He is in a wheelchair, which isn't a deal breaker either, and a computer genius... But we only meet him in one scene and then..............? Why did I tell you about this guy? Because he was the most memorable and interesting of the characters. You have an option to turn people either male or female for "love interests". Sadly, they wont act any differently depending on the choices you made. That said... Micah is always and constantly clingy. To the MC. Any action he did... I kept questioning his motives. Alex is the "Drama Queen/King" of the group. Constant eye rolls and negative comments. Cristian... "Knockout"... Is a nice dog bred with a noble knight... Multiplied by ten. IF, IF YOU EVER DARE to do something WRONG or IMMORAL... He will be whiny and you will make him cry. What about the MC? Okay let's do this! I made her a she, so... She can do anything and everything. Within few days of becoming Activated (getting powers) -> She managed to rescue everyone that needed rescuing. Resolve an ongoing war. Learned how to make fake bomb sensors -> WITHOUT knowing how to before. United everyone together and in the end? Forgave everyone and could pick anything and everything and anyone she wanted. Ladies and gentlemen... We have a supreme pro superhero woman! I think her power is "perfection"... As she never had to be trained in anything or even get to know anyone to pull off such feats. I mean... If she was like a powerful being or a seasoned crime lord or something... SOMEONE WITH EXPERIENCE in such things... I'd believe it! But how can you make a TEENAGER... WHO JUST RECENTLY POWERED UP... A MESSIAH?! Last... Romance... You don't get to learn jack. You don't even get that many romance scenes either. Or any at all...? That was the last straw. I need my damn romance! Damn it! There aren't even Achievements for romancing anyone!!! THAT'S NEW! Also I may have gotten bored prior to the last Chapters and decided to "pick all the wrong choices". Like you know... I have severely low Stat? So I'd pick that one. I wanted to see if anything bad would happen. Nah. Nothing. Everything gone perfect and smoothly. If you messed up? Either someone else helped or the situation was resolved so the MC could perform more miraculous feats. Cool. I just have one question. Can you please go back to writing GOOD stories.................?

So I started off with a "Recommend" review where I laid out some of the structural issues with the plot and how the story moves too quickly for you to process any of the emotional arcs or get to know any of the characters well. And after like three paragraphs I decided I'd change my review to "Not recommend." Unfortunately, when I clicked the thumbs down to change it from a thumbs up, Steam erased everything I had written. So I will try to be brief: First, it's ok. If you really love interactive fiction and the concept sounds interesting, go ahead and check it out. You're not going to hate this story, but you are unlikely to love it. I'll explain why that is the case - at least for me. The story moves too fast. Slow down, let us interact with the various characters we meet. The MC has five different parents, we meet all of them after having known only one for our entire lives, and we barely communicate with any of them. I truly don't understand why I ever had to speak to Commander Jeff. Why couldn't I just say "Hey mom, I need to rescue my sister. Help me." We live in a fascist police state except we find out that the biggest city in the country is a no-go zone for the fascist superhero cops, and that is just how it is, no further details. We are introduced to a shitty warehouse shantytown and the MC's inner dialogue is somehow awe and wonder at what a terrific place it is. There are the bones of a decent story here, and potential for decent worldbuilding. But instead of expanding on interactions with other characters and getting at least the illusion of making choices about what to do next, we just have to keep moving forward with the plot in fits and starts. The only pauses in the story are so the MC can meet someone, be given a new ill-defined objective, and move on. The conceit of "on the run" is not actually doing the story any favors here. It's an excuse to bail out of scenes that should be important times for emotional arcs, for knowing more about ROs, for developing the characters we meet along the way. It honestly baffles me that an author who presumably likes their characters and story would go out of their way to avoid opportunities for the reader to better appreciate the cast of characters they have put together. For real, just as an example, meeting the mom was such a huge disappointment. You literally don't get to have one single conversation with her before a noise in another room is somehow sufficient reason to leave her and go talk to some asshole named Jeff. Like, what the hell? Really? The MC grew up thinking their parents are dead and then finds out *all five of them* are alive and then actually gets to meet their mother who happens to be a famous superhero and we walk into her office where she has photos everywhere of you and your sister and the author just yeets us right the fuck out of there with the barest minimum of dialogue. Come on. I don't get it. Like isn't it unsatisfying for the writer, on a purely artistic level, to set up for emotionally resonant scenes and then, when those scenes have an opportunity to touch the reader, to just fucking bail? I'll say this: Because this is a superhero genre story, I can't help but compare it to the underrated gem (/s), Fallen Hero. And that is a little unfair. But on the other hand, I am going to compare every single RPG I play for the rest of my life to Baldur's Gate 3 and while it will be unfair to compare them to the greatest RPG of all time, it did kind of set a new standard that game developers need to take lessons from. I hope all the interactive fiction authors, particularly those at Choice of Games, look at the stories we all love and pay the fuck attention to what they're doing correctly - at least structurally, if nothing else. I'm talking about scenes where we slow down. Look at FHR. We go on a date and the date is practically an entire chapter. We have a scene with several pages of dialogue at a dog park where we get to learn a little more about a guy who has only been a generic tough guy in an armored suit up until that point. We make a plan for a heist and have all kinds of interesting interactions while casing the joint, and then more interesting interactions during the heist itself. It's masterful and it makes us care not just about the MC and one or two ROs that the community is thirsty for - it makes us care about the world. Freaking read that dog park scene, and then read it again because it just takes a few pages of dialogue to make us care. This story uses scenes that could have been chances to not just make the reader care more about the story and characters, but to actually create some emotional resonance that the readers can take away from the experience and remember later. Instead, you just kind of feel like you're ticking off boxes on the author's to-do list while rushing towards the ending as fast as possible. That would even be fine if the ending were satisfying but it's not. The climax doesn't at all feel climactic, and even at the very end when I had choices like "Leave the country" or "Stay with the resistance" or "Go off on another adventure" I just didn't fucking care about the choices. Look, if you are after a good story, and you really want a superhero story, this is not the worst one Choice of Games has published. The honor of "worst" goes to Skystrike, or Hero Unmasked. If you just want a good story and don't care about superhero genre, then Choice of Alexandria and Choice of Robots are better. The Passenger is better. Tally Ho and Jolly Good are better. There are a lot of better stories out there. This one could have been good but it just moves way too quickly to attempt to make you care. I guess I wasn't brief after all. Look, it's not the worst thing. But if I could tell my past self my review, I'd say save yourself a few hours and pick something else.