Indie Calendar - Not A Hero

OlliOlli was one of the most frustratingly addictive games of this year, at least we thought so, and as such we've got both eyes firmly trained on the game's creators, Roll7, to see what they're going to come up with next.

That next game - the second album if you will - was announced earlier this year, it's heading to PC, PS4 and PS Vita, and it's called Not A Hero.

It's a fairly straightforward game with a nice hook. The studio describes it thus: "the greatest 2¼D cover-based indie shooter of all time ever!" Nice and modest then...

It gets stranger. A whole lot stranger. Roll7's Simon Bennett offered us a bit of background when we asked him to describe the game.

"BunnyLord's political career is getting nowhere," Bennett explained. "On several election attempts - thanks to the power of time travel - his campaigns have ended in failure. It's time to put honesty, integrity and baby kissing aside and use reasonable force (unreasonably).

"Campaign Manager Steve must clear three districts of crime and recruit new heroes for the cause by sliding, diving, ducking, and taking cover through hundreds of full-throttle shootouts across the city."

We've played the game, albeit briefly, and it's going to require the same quick reflexes that are needed when playing OlliOlli. Whether it'll be as punishing remains to be seen, but if we were partial to a little bet, we'd wager the later levels of Not A Hero are going to be total bastards to complete. Or as the studio put it: "you are going to die a lot".

The concept is simple, with players moving through various city locations, clearing out bad guys, and in the process avoiding one-shot kills by snapping in and out of cover either side of the central path of the platform. It's a remarkably simple system, but from what we've seen, it really works.

We played with one character, armed with a pistol, but the studio are also promising more "not heroes", armed with shotguns and swords and other such weapons of destruction.

"Not A Hero is basically the brainchild of resident genius / nutbar John Ribbins," Bennett explained when we demanded to know more about the game's origins.

"It started off as a demo that was picked up in 2012 by YouTubers, and has been worked on by a tiny breakaway team of JUST 2 - John (programmer / designer) and Jake (artist) on and off ever since. The game is firmly set in a dystopian London, something that has NOTHING to do with the recent Tax Breaks restrictions."

We've actually spoken to the folks over at Roll7 about the game twice before, and you can see those interviews above and below, but basically we're really looking forward to this one, and can't wait to get our hands on it when it releases next year.

Gamereactor's Indie Calendar