I will try to write an unbiased review of Hero-U. The emphasis here, is on try. Since I backed this game for $200 on Kickstarter, I'll probably fail. Furthermore, as a teenager, I spent countless hours playing the Quest For Glory games. So yeah, I'll definitely fail at writing an unbiased review.

When the Coles announced their Kickstarter campaign for Hero-U in 2012 I was pretty excited about the prospect of playing a new game set in the world of Quest For Glory. Because I had some money to spare (and probably because I felt guilty for pirating the first two games as a kid) I backed the campaign for $100. As the deadline for the campaign drew closer, it looked like they weren't going to make it so I threw in another $100 to get my personalized headstone in the game's catacombs.

Unfortunately, it took another five and a half years for the game to be released. To be honest, I wasn't that excited anymore when it was finally released. I did launch the game on the release date just to see if it worked and how it looked like. I played it for about twenty minutes or so, but it didn't immediately appeal to me so I put it aside again. Then another year and a half later I figured I should at least give the game another try. After all, I had paid $200 for it so it would have been a complete waste of money not to give it another try.

I have to admit that I had to drag myself through the first hour of the game. But then, one by one, the Quest For Glory references started to sneak in and I began to notice the same humor and storytelling that made me fall in love with the Coles' games three decades ago. The game definitely has a Quest For Glory feel to it, yet it's different at the same time. In Quest For Glory you could choose between three characters: Warrior, Thief or Wizard. This aspect of the games was a guarantee for replayability. Hero-U doesn't let you choose your character but it gives the player choices later on in the game that will affect the way you play it. In addition to those choices, the games also has a couple of achievements that require you to replay the game if you're eager to get them. Obviously, you're not going to be able to achieve Defeat every boss in combat and Complete the game without killing anything during the same run.

In Quest For Glory you had a lot of ground to cover. Hero-U is more limited in that aspect. In essence, you never leave the castle the story takes place in. Luckily, there are caves and catacombs below the castle full of vermin to get rid of. This brings me to the combat mechanism of the game. Just like Quest For Glory, Hero-U requires you to practice certain skills in order to defeat enemies in combat. The big difference here is that Hero-U's combat is turn based. At first, I was very reluctant to try out this new mechanism. After all, I was expecting another Quest For Glory game and those games have real time combat. However, after a while the combat mechanism started to grow on me and now I actually prefer it this way. In contrast to Quest For Glory, you have quite a variety of options during combat and because the combat is turn based you can actually think about what your best next move will be.

The entire game takes place in a school, so obviously, there's going to be classes and studying involved. This is where the game became a bit tedious for me. On the one hand, you want to increase your skills and that requires fighting in the dungeons of the castle. On the other hand, classes are mandatory, you can't skip them and they're often important for the story line. After a while you get the possibility to attend elective classes and those take up even more of your precious time. I guess this is my biggest problem with the game: the time management. There's quite a lot to do in the castle but you'll find yourself rushing from the dungeons to class, to the dining room, back to class.... This started to get really annoying; especially the mandatory lunch. Granted, occasionally important story line elements are triggered after lunch but I feel the designers could have found another way of triggering those without forcing you to leave a dungeon fight just to go grab a meal.

But apart from the time management, I enjoyed this game very much. It's full of small details, funny jokes and it contains a ton of Quest For Glory references. While Quest For Glory forces you to take another approach if you chose a different character class, Hero-U lets you decide for yourself if and how you want to achieve certain goals. You can basically skip every quest in the game and still finish it - that's what I did on my second run in order to get the Complete the game without killing anything achievement. Apart from the achievements (which unfortunately didn't exist yet when the Quest For Glory games were released) it's the elective classes that will probably make you want to replay the game. There's three classes to choose from: Science, Magic and First Aid. Depending on the class you take, you will gain additional skills which you can use later in the game.

Hero-U was supposed to be the first game in a new series, but since the game didn't do very well commercially, chances are slim that a second installment will ever see the light of day. That's a real shame because some story elements for the sequel are introduced near the end of the game and without a sequel, this makes Hero-U look unfinished. The Coles clearly put their heart and soul in this game so it's a real pity it didn't do that well commercially.

I played through this game three times so far, taking a different approach to things every time. I've gotten all the achievements in the meantime but I'll probably do a fourth run since I haven't taken the First Aid classes yet. Also, I really want to try and seduce the school secretary this time.

If you liked the Quest For Glory games and you're not put off by turn based combat then I can wholeheartedly recommend this game. You might have to drag yourself through the first hour of gameplay but everything that follows is very rewarding. The attention to detail is incredible and the endless possibilities give the game great replay value.