Pixels are the rage at the moment, with many indie developers taking on the concept of fun filled, colourful games in retro 8 and 16 bit style graphics–and in some cases, deliver extreme violence, crude humour, and lots of swearing from British stereotypes. Devolver Digital’s latest title, Not A Hero, is no exception, and a damn good one at that too. Let’s get into it:
Not A Hero takes us into the world of the Bunny Lord, a large purple bunny humanoid whose sole purpose in life is to clean up crime in his city, and become the beloved mayor of the people. To do this, Bunny Lord has hired a group of ever so dangerous and colourful characters to kill a ton of bad guys, and destroy any obstacles that poses a threat to the city’s safety. It doesn’t help that Bunny Lord and his squad of anti-heros are just hilariously bat sh*t crazy.
It’s a simple narrative, but one that allows for a great deal of comedic situations to overcome in order to tackle crime in the city. The game’s crude, yet brilliant humour is strong, due to its bizarre satire nature, surreal visual, and spoken jokes. From seeing ghost children, grenade juggling clowns, and dead foxes on the mission prep screen, to its awkwardly weird conversations from the Bunny Lord, whom often talks about international cat day. There is also a host of one-liners from our anti-heroes who range from a Glasgow Drunkard and his pet cat who blast their enemies with a double barrel shotgun, to Steve–the wise cracking cockney south Londoner who will call you a Muppet whenever you fail to reload.
Not A Hero‘s gameplay is fast, energetic and wondrously over the top. The 2D side scrolling design presents an array of mechanical features such as using cover, special attacks, and sliding, which help in developing strong shooting and platforming gameplay. Players are given a mission that usually involves blowing up a cannabis farm, killing off a private investigator, or stealing a shipment of lamps to turn them into milkshakes. Each level has a number of challenges as well, which include not getting hit, kill all the NPCs in the level, or just collect a bunch of lovely kittens for Bunny Lord to pet. The game is fantastically diverse in offering you a multitude of tasks and objectives that each have their own means of completing, and keeps the game from getting repetitive. Missions in which the player will need to race against the clock in order to turn up to a press conference breaks up the violence and mayhem in a lovingly satirical way.
What was great is how each time you play or replay a level, some objectives and aesthetics change; whether it’s different items to collect as a bonus, or various power ups. These are minor changes, but a nice touch to ensure you don’t feel like you’re stuck playing the same thing again and again. For the most part, you’ll replay certain levels to earn the bonus points, which in turn unlock more hilarious characters with their own powers and weapons, which can alter the way you may traverse certain levels.
The violence in Not A Hero is so exceedingly over the top, that it’s actually funny. Players can pick up a range of special weapons, such as nail bombs, turrets, and cats that set off epic explosions. There are also different ammo types, which help in a manner of ways, often to help achieve certain bonus objectives or ensure the heavier enemies are dealt with quickly. These weapons also act as a visually stimulating way to watch the death and destruction, but they’re also very useful to the strategic player.
The pacing in Not A Hero is fast, but players must be tactical as many of the levels are a challenge to finish, and carelessly running in will not do you any favors. The game is fair; never breaking the rules to frustrate you and the concept is a trial and error process, learning how to overcome or plan your attack with each playthrough. Practicing or replaying the levels will gradually make players more knowledgeable to certain factors, like enemy movements, and the locations of power ups. I will admit that some levels may be a little too long, and with no checkpoints there are times the game will prove to be slightly annoying. But there are ways to find short cuts, and progress quickly through certain levels, depending on the character you are. Steve, for example, can slide kick enemies causing them to fall over and allowing Steve to finish them off quickly. This is useful when you’ve reached the end of a level and SWAT swarm into the building to murder you big time. It was also a shame that you can’t carry more than one power up or ammo type at once, as picking up a new power up will entirely replace the one you had holstered already. Still, this can help in providing a new challenge to players, and tactful planning would be required if you want to leave the idle power up and come back for it later.
Not A Hero is definitely a worthy indie title and properly the most fun you could have with a 2D shooter at this moment. With its fast paced action and brilliant humour, this game shouldn’t be passed up by anyone. It’s a game that made gaming fun once again for myself, and shows how something so simply can be tremendously brilliant. Colourful, violent and simply legendary, Not A Hero is a pixel heaven for gamers.
This review was written with the use of a review code provided by Devolver Digital