Rod Hero, the hero of H.E.R.O. brings back heroism to gaming…so much heroism indeed.
So the plot of the game is just that – being a hero. Well it's a little more than that as Rod Hero, a fellow miner who works in the Van Ryzin mine (the mine's name is the name of the person who created the game John Van Ryzin – pretty original I say) and because of a devastated earthquake, trap twenty miners in various caves. Thankfully because Rod Hero tinkered during his spare time the 'H.E.R.O.' (Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation and from now on I'm going to refer to it as H.E.R.O.) aiming to make mining easier, little did he know that he's going to use it to save the miners from certain death.
So what exactly is an H.E.R.O. is a propeller pack that enables him to fly around the caves. Obviously it's a cool way to save those miners however what's a mine without bats, spiders, snakes that pops out of walls and some f**ked up sh*t that pops up from the lava aiming to grab you and movable lava walls? Well if doesn't have all of that then it's no mine of mine…well a hero's mine anyways. Moving on, Rod can counteract some of that by his cool helmet that shoots a short range laser and carries a pack of six bombs to blow up walls (and you if you're not careful).
And because there are twenty miners to save in each mine, that make twenty levels to explore (just spelling that out just in case you're not with it). And as you progress further, the harder it gets. And just to make things a little more interesting, later on, there are seemly multiple paths to take however most arrive to a dead end. And that's a big deal because Rod's propeller pack only carries a limited fuel supply (a.k.a. timer) and if you get over-carried away with those bombs (remember you have only six of them), you can still blast walls with your lasers…over time. So the morale of this story is to take the shortest path possible using the least amount of bombs / fuel.
Starting the game gives you three lives and you earn another one at every 20 000 points. You gain points by shooting spiders etc and the amount of fuel / bombs you have left once you save a miner. So the quicker you complete a level, the more points you score. The more points you score the more lives you earn. The more lives, the longer the game – simple philosophy. However once you complete all twenty levels, the game keeps going however randomise each level thereafter so there's no fanfare for this hero (unless you want to bomb yourself with one of your bombs…but heroes don't do that right). And if you think you can bomb a trapped miner, you can't as that part of the cave doesn't allow you to set the bomb.
Shooting the laser is pretty much straight forward…well actually it does go straight forward however all it requires is to press the trigger button. However everything else requires some timing. Meaning if you release a bomb, it takes roughly two seconds to explode, giving you time to stand clear (or hover as some areas have minimal ground) however the hardest part is flight as it takes a little time to take off (about a second or so to lift). This may not sound too difficult however it can cause a lot of headaches (and deaths) if you 'free drift' down too fast as you can land into lava, spiders etc. Also some areas of the mine rely on light source and if you manage to hit it, the entire screen darkens until you enter another cave (screen).
Because it's written in machine language, the game runs quite fast with very little lag. This is very important as it dictates the flow of the game, that is, it's quite a fast, action packed game. Nice looking graphics with detailed walls, floors, lava flow and of course Rod. Looking in hindsight, I feel the Atari version looks the nicest and if you want a sight for sore eyes check out ZX Spectrum's version – a total blocky mess of blocking goodness.
There are no musical scores to sing with however the environmental sounds make up for it. From the tick, tick, tick boom sound from the bomb to the swirling propeller to that dreaded ding-a-ling-a-ling sound when you die all adding up to the lack of musical scores. Actually it's quite a loud game considering as because it's fast paced, rarely you hear absolutely no sounds at all (other than staring at the opening splash screen)
H.E.R.O. is a remarkable game in its own right as during 1984, computer gaming was heading for a dip (thank you E.T.). This is not to say H.E.R.O. was the only game decent enough to play in 1984 however it does show that gaming wasn't dead – nice graphics and gameplay made up for this and even though it's not exactly a platform game, it does have certain elements to it so it's not alienated from the rest of the 'platform' pack. Rod Hero, the hero of H.E.R.O. brings back heroism to gaming…so much heroism indeed.