A Collection Aside

HERO U: ROGUE TO REDEMPTION

DEVELOPER TRANSOLAR GAMES • PRICE US$35 http://hero-u.com/

I literally sold the school shirt off my back so that I could ante into a game of Poobah. That was the moment I began to appreciate what Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption was trying to teach me about the character class I had so rarely picked in Quest for Glory. I had failed my friend in her dangerous quest, not because I was weak or amoral. I was inadequately prepared, lost my traps, and hadn’t practiced enough with the rope and grapple. Determined not to let this happen again, I gambled the shirt money and won my friends’ lyra, for the purpose of buying better gear.

There’s a lot to that anecdote and there’s a lot to this game. I have learned many things, and suffered for not learning quickly enough, in the 40 hours it took me to finish (with only 3 out of 20 possible achievements). I began trying to review Hero-U and ended up with so many questions about design that I decided to ask writer/designer/art director, Lori Cole, what in Gloriana they were thinking, in making this incredibly ambitious game. My first question was simple, yet I still messed it up; Why rogues? Cole says, “There is no rogue class at Hero University.”

Yes, I did fail actual