NOT A HERO

I came into NOT A HERO half-expecting another pixel-art joke dressed up as a game. What I got instead was something genuinely crafted: a 2D cover-based shooter that understands exactly the kind of fun it wants to deliver and refuses to overstay its welcome. The mechanical hook is a quick-snap cover system layered on top of run-and-gun action. You slide into cover to dodge incoming fire, then burst out with tackles, executions, and a lot of bullets. Sliding past an enemy trips them, opening a window for a quick finish. It sounds simple on paper and it mostly is, but the rhythm that builds when everything clicks - snapping cover, sliding, executing, snapping again - is genuinely satisfying. The game runs across 21 levels divided into three districts, and each level hands you a primary objective plus three side challenges. Those side challenges are where the real teeth are: timed clears, ammo conservation limits, hidden collectibles. Breezing through a level takes maybe a few tries; fully completing one with all bonus objectives intact is a different proposition altogether. The nine playable characters are the game's smartest design call. Steve, the cockney starting pick with a fast-reloading pistol, is your baseline. Unlock Cletus and you get a shotgun that blows enemies through doors. Samantha can reload while sprinting. Jesus tears through crowds with an SMG while staying in constant hip-thrust animation. Ronald Justice wields a hammer and a pistol in one of the more deranged character concepts in recent indie memory. Kimmy pairs a katana dash with her SMG, making her feel like a completely different game. Each character reshapes how you approach the same level, which gives the otherwise slim content a second life. The soundscape backs this up nicely - a synth-heavy, dubstep-inflected soundtrack that sits in the background with just the right amount of aggression, never overwhelming the satisfying crunch of combat. Where NOT A HERO runs thin is in environmental variety. Three districts is not a lot, and reviewers at the time were right to note that the first two bleed into each other visually. The humor, built around BunnyLord's absurdist internet-speak and the intentionally stock characters surrounding him, lands more often than not in the early levels but can start to strain by the back third. The writing leans hard on comedic escalation, and when a joke doesn't land it lands flat rather than charmingly awkward. The game also won't win any awards for longevity if you only push through the main objectives - this is a few evenings of content, not a marathon. Go for full completion on every level, however, and that calculus shifts noticeably. For anyone who burned hours on Hotline Miami and wanted the tone shifted a few degrees toward cartoonish and self-aware, NOT A HERO scratches that itch cleanly. It is not as dense or as dark as Devolver's other violent flagship, but it is more immediately welcoming and arguably more mechanically generous, with that character roster giving you real reasons to replay. Roll7 built something focused and polished here, the kind of game that knows its own dimensions and works comfortably inside them. The ISO-Slant visual trick - a mild 2.25D tilt on what is otherwise a flat side-scroller - is a small touch that gives the environments a surprising sense of depth without complicating the read of enemy positions. Small choices like that tell you the craft was real.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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