It was a tough decision, but I eventually decided to give the first installment of Community College Hero a neutral review with a negative mark. Some things I will describe below will most probably sound quite subjective, but I still feel that they warrant the thumbs down.

But one important note first: I do not think that Trial by Fire is a bad game per se. It is just noticeably lacking compared to its sequel, Knowledge is Power. You can read my review for it here

Now, get ready for a lot of rambling – because man do I have some things to say today!


Let’s start with the pros, shall we? Not everything is gloom and doom here, after all, and I am actually looking to get you interested in the series instead of giving up on it completely.

First, I definitely put characters on the plus side. There are some problems with them due to the quality of writing (which I will talk about later), but overall, it was interesting to learn more about them. Somewhat subdued at first, you fellow heroes get more time to shine in the second part of the game. And if you spend enough extra time with them, you can learn some interesting secrets too.

I would also like to complement the teaching stuff. There was a good range of interesting abilities and attitudes, as well as a major conspiracy caused by them. I smell some delicious backstabbing in the future!

The battles were well-written. I felt that my skills were actually useful and they helped me defeat several opponents quite neatly – even if it was just during the exams.

Another nice thing is that our protagonist can have several distinct archetypes that affect your stats and provide unique equipment. In addition, you also have to manage your persona – how other people see you, what kind of hero you are striving to be. Some choices were outright hilarious, which added a really good sparkle to more serious interactions. And yeah, growling at people can be as much fun as being a college clown.

The last thing that I want to mention is the story itself. The first book lays a solid base for the really engaging trilogy about superheroes and supervillains, while keeping you hooked along the whole read. The genre is heavily overused these days, so it was nice to see that the author was able to give some originality to their work. Community College Hero series definitely has its own special flair that helps it stand out among similar stories.


Ooooh, here it comes! Take cover, dear readers, because I am going on a rampage!

My main gripe with the whole game is its writing. Trial by Fire makes the same mistake as several other titles I wrote about, the main culprit being The Keeper series. Both have this style that reminds of notebook entries rather than one continuous story. You are jumping from event to event in quick succession while getting barely any descriptions of things that happen between them. One moment you are just entering the school, another – you are in the middle of a training, next – an exam, then an exam again, and one more, and all of a sudden you find yourself in a study group, and this goes on and on until you get hit by another sequence of exams.

And the same with character introductions. You meet the main group quickly one after another, but get very little interactions with many of them – not to mention that some mutually exclude each other. Moreover, the people you do communicate with have not got enough depth right away and look more like cardboard cutouts of cliché personalities from popular movies. This is mostly because how little attention some of them get in the very beginning and the middle of the story. How am I supposed to built any kind of relationship with Uni if I meet her only during orientation – for just several seconds, - and then she literally disappears until exams?! You are also supposed to somehow develop an opinion about these people during these short interaction – and more often than not, you need to do it fast.

I honestly do not like it when I am being rushed; even more so if it happens in games. But even this does not infuriate me as much as shallow romance. And not only shallow, but a rushed one again! Mind you, it does not happen in all routes, but is definitely the case with several bolder individuals. What am I talking about and why does it make me mad? So, hear me out: you meet a guy/gal during your first day at college. You hit it off and flirt, quickly enough to develop some kind of mutual interest. Your romantic interest asks you out. Let’s say you come to their place, drink/eat something, snuggle on the sofa and decide to watch a movie. And then the person in question immediately proposes to move from just Netflix right to chill. Of course, you can say no, but depending on how you do it, your relationship with the guy/gal either gets a major hit or nets you only half of possible relationship points. If you want all bonuses, get ready for some horizontal mambo, friend.

What the f*ck?!

Why am I forced to do it to build a proper base for future interactions? I have read many CoG and HoG titles than never punished you like this unless you choose some outright rude options. I understand that Trial by Fire was written back in 2015, when the topic of consent was not as much discussed as it is now, but come on! And by the way, all future romantic interactions will be mostly as short and flat as this one, so do not get your hopes up.

Oh, but you, my summer child, think that THIS is bad? Oh no, no, no, it is just the tip of the iceberg. The most infuriating part is provided by our handsome professor, The Hedonist. If you want to get a B or A mark during his first exam, you have only two options: 1) choose the Soldier/Acrobat archetype and train the right skills, or…2) pleasure him.

WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. F*CK?!

I was stunned, completely shell-shocked when the situation came to this. My character, who was a Detective, could not get anything but D because she simply did not know how to block a marble bull rushing at her in a small room. But if she wants to get her sweet C, B or A, she had to literally ♥♥♥♥ it up. And I think you are smart enough to understand what “it” refers to.

OK, my rage aside, it is fair to say that such things happen in real life too. Very often, sadly. But why does the game treat this topic in such a light way? There are barely any consequences for The Hedonist; moreover, it is heavily implied that you are not the only one to be forced to do it.

Maybe I am just a boring prude, but this whole scene and its implications just rub me the wrong way. Oh, but you know what is even better? If you sleep with Professor Hedonist, his own secretary admonishes YOU for doing it the very moment you leave his office. Woman, are you for real?! Take your “your parents must be proud of you” and shove it up your arse. I am done with this college…


As you can see, Trial by Fire has its issues. Yes, my complaints will probably sound subjective to some, but I stand by my opinion that the game needs better writing.

At the same time, the setting, the story and the lore are competent and memorable. It is interesting to explore different archetypes and personalities, choosing new options or routes, learning more about people. I cannot say that I was ever bored while reading – just annoyed at times because of the unnecessary fast pace. And that…scene.

In the end, it is up to you whether you are ready to overlook the issues I mentioned. If you are, you should definitely buy the sequel as it has greatly improved the writing and brought many new characters to the fray.

Got no choice but to downvote this rather good text adventure.

Why?
Because when I bought it, nowhere does it say it is the first episode (ending rather abruptly), and not a complete experience. And of course, it is from the end of 2015. It is soon 2017 and no continuation has been made.

If at the very least it said in the title it's episode 1, I'd have upvoted, but this is a ♥♥♥♥.

I've played or read many, many of these CYOA titles at this point and there is a very distinct difference between those I like and those I don't and it comes down to how the 'choices' are implemented. In the ones I like, there are rarely any 'correct' decisions, instead there are just different ways to do things and the story adapts to whatever choice you make to feel like YOU are guiding the story. In the ones I do not like, they are basically text adventures with intermittent multiple choice quizzes spinkled in (although there are LITERAL quizzes in this as well.). Unfortunately, CCH falls in to the latter category.

What this design decision does is essentially undercut the entire point of a CYOA game where instead of choosing what you would do, or want to do, you just try to choose the answer you believe the author wants you to choose. It is antithetical to the design of a 'choice based' game. Additionally, this CYOA is very light on choice in comparison to most of these titles. The majority of your 'choices' are just questions about how you feel about what is going on that has no discernable impact on the direction of the story. It's a kind of 'smoke and mirrors' tactic that I felt was pointless.

So in conclusion, this is a fairly poor example of what the CYOA genre can offer and I regret both buying and playing it. I do not recommend it to others and will not purchase any further titles from this author.

I really wanted to like this one. I really did. But this story just isn't at the same level of quality as others that Choice Of Games has released. I understand that this is under the Hosted Games label, but it's not even close. I own almost all of the COG games on steam, and this is the only one that has regularly made my choices feel forced and meaningless. This is also the only story that has regularly failed to provide me with the choice that I thought was the correct decision for the situation.
Things you need to know:
- Part of a planned trilogy. Nowhere on the store page does it say this.
- Incomplete story (Not even the story arc in this chapter is fully resolved and nothing is really wrapped up. It just...)
- Inconsistent quality. (Some spelling and grammar mistakes. Most of the problems are strange writing problems like scenes that are out of order or contradict things stated in previous paragraphs in the same scene.)
- Several choices require knowledge from previous plays to make the "right" choice.
- Many choices have unclear consequences.

While the subject matter is near and dear to my heart, the execution lacks depth and interaction. You have statistics that have apparently zero bearing on the story, your popularity and efforts are tracked, but at no point do you have any control over your habits, your personality, or even your technique. More often than not the game commits the cardinal sin of utterly ignoring your choices, forcing you into one of those you did NOT choose, regardless of which box you tick.

Give this one a pass.

Its an OK story, for sure. But as I got into it, I really started to see what some were saying about your character and decisions being pointless. First of all, the story has a way of taking your decision and then cutting you off, so that it didn't matter. So you want to do this? Ok-Nope. Wait. Story has decided that before your character can even blink, you're going to do what the story wants you to do instead. Silly peon, choices aren't real.

Next, the uselessness of your character becomes a real pain. You start to wish you HAD superpowers, because most of the time what skill you do have always fails and you just end up a wart on your fellow peers toes. Really, I played a sharpshooter and EVERY time I tried to attack ranged, the game either made me fail miserably, cut my off before I could even try, or at one point flat out put my character in a no-ranged combat situation...for a grade. Then said teacher tries to solicit my character for ♥♥♥ for a better grade? Seriously?

This could have really been a promising COG, but in the end, while its an ok read, it really feels to on-rails to be a choice game. Maybe more just a straight novel.

I very much lked "Choice of Robots" and "Tin Star", but did not find "Community College Hero: Trial by Fire" nearly as entertaining. Some of the characters are interesting (the most intriguing aspect of the game is trying to find out each student's secret) and the game definitely has its moments, but writing is a bit ham-handed and there were two major issues that greatly reduced the enjoyability for me:

- The plot is strictly rail-roaded. There are several occasions where you are offered various choices, only to see the game tell you that what you chose was not possible after all and some of the choices you did not pick occurred instead (not due to skill checks or any other reasons, your choices are simply disregarded). There are several odd non-choices, where you are just asked to select an opinion that has no effect on anything. And the worst bit: none of the choices you make actually affect the course of the main story..Basically your choices only affect which relationships and skills are advanced, there are no multiple possible storylines. All these shortcomings are in direct contrast to what I'd expect from a quality multiple-choice game.

- This does not feel llike a complete independent game. You start developing a character and following his/her story, but in the end everything is just left hanging in the air and you get an advertisement for the sequel – you are told merely the opening chapters here. In my opinion this should definitely be marketed as part 1 of <n>, so that it would be clear that waiting and further purchases are necessary to get the full story.

The pacing is awkward (huge time-skips), the writing is mediocre at best and - the most important - your character doesn't affect a single thing in this story.
The game looked promising in the beginning - opened with an action scene from the future (which hasn't happened yet, because the third part of the series is yet unwritten - keep that in mind!), you could design your own superhero, including their persona. I always wanted to be the snarky one, and luckily there was such an option. Well, if you're fond of kindergarden sense of humor and jokes like "I'm doing your mom" - direct quote. The rest I summed up above.
There are also the tests. Just the thing when you're trying to relax, playing the story-based game, amirite? The tests on all subjects you'd better pass. They require not only attending the lessons and pay attention, they require extacurricular activity to pass. And you can't choose extra lessons on all the subjects, you have to choose. The tests themselves, or, rather, te test in law, depend only on the above and not on your decisions. You must attend the extra lessons or you'll fail and fail and fail... well, not that it matters in the end. The plot progresses on its own and doesn't need you anyway.

There are two main issues here:
the first being that the writing is somewhat puerile at times. Trying to be a jokester feels almost impossible because of how inappropriate and just downright lame you have to be. On top of that the dialogue seems to split 50/50 between your choice is completely ignored, and there being a definitive "correct" way to answer. Which is kinda killer for any game like this.

Second is just how absolutely pointless everything feels. Your choices rarely amount to anything and often fail when they do. It's not uncommon to be put into a situation where there is nothing your character archetype can do.
Ultimately it comes down to: do you want to be the dead weight being carried by your team? Do you want to continually fail and feel like a worthless piece of garbage?

The other factors in this game are nowhere near enough to justify these shortcomings. Ultimately, it's just unsatisfying to play.

every choice you make gets railroaded into something that doesnt matter, every character is unique in the sense of rehashed outlandish anime themes