Save the cheerleader. Save the world.
That is a tagline that’s synonymous with the once popular Heroes television series. But that’s all in the past now and years after it came to an end, there’s been a rejuvenation for that super power fuelled sci-fi drama. Renamed Heroes Reborn, it is a mini-series which has brought along with it a whole host of new characters and retained a few old ones that have been etched into the legacy of the show. Where am I going with this? Well, this has led to Phosphor Games being inspired to develop a brand new and original story based in the world of Heroes.
Gemini: Heroes Reborn tells the tale of a seemingly ordinary college student, Cassandra, and a friend called Alex who wants to help figure out her family background in any way he can. This leads to an adventure of self-discovery at an abandoned facility, The Quarry; an adventure that quickly turns into a survival mission when realisation hits that there are people still there, patrolling and guarding the secrets that lie beyond.
Gemini turns out to be a first person action adventure and a puzzler, all wrapped into one very surreal experience. Throughout the fifteen levels, the general idea is to make it safely from Point A to Point B, avoiding detection and taking down enemies as you search for keys which will allow you to advance. Considering the weaponry being pointed at poor Cassandra by these guards, you’d presume that she’s outgunned and the odds are heavily stacked against her.
It’s pretty fortunate then that Cass chooses now to unveil her untapped super powers in this potentially dangerous environment – one in which her pal Alex has been captured; perfect timing really.
Arguably the most useful power and one of the key features that helps to set this game apart from the rest is the ability to time jump on a whim. Not just any time jump though like the rewinding effect seen many a time elsewhere, oh no, this will transport you a whole six years into the past and back again to the present day whenever needed. It’s great for evading guards that have a shotgun in your face and for recovering health when you’ve taken a fair bit of punishment. Sometimes routes will actually be cut off in one time period but more accessible in the other, hence switching between them at opportune moments is vital for progression.
Deciding whether or not to jump through time is made simpler by the easy to activate time scout power which gives you a peek at where you’re jumping to; it’s almost like you’re looking through a wormhole. And should danger be looming, there’s always the ability to slow time down for a limited period to mull things over for a few seconds more before imminent death. It’s most handy when combined with the combative powers acquired by Cass. That of telekinesis.
Grabbing objects lying around or even picking up some of the less powerful enemies, to fling them across the area, becomes second nature in no time at all. Kill or be killed becomes the motto in The Quarry and without telekinesis it’d be nigh on impossible to diminish the enemy force. I think I enjoyed smashing lockers into bad guys’ faces at little too much, but with the ragdoll physics seeing them fly through the air in a mangled mess, who can blame me when it’s so much fun?
Did I mention Cass can catch projectiles such as bullets and rockets? Well, she can and it’s an awesome idea to be able to fling them back at the generous enemies giving you the ammo for their own downfall. I’m not entirely convinced about the accuracy or responsiveness of this ability though, with plenty of bullets having bypassed the power to seriously wound Cass in my time playing Gemini.
Although you’ll regularly be outnumbered, you won’t actually be faced with a large amount of enemies to tussle with in each of the levels. Therefore, by the time you get used to dealing with a specific type of enemy, a new and generally improved one is lurking just around the corner, thus keeping a freshness that keeps on testing your strategic mind. There’s actually an enemy type that seems impervious to some of your powers and so, an alternate method needs to be thought about on occasion. The only drawback is how stupidly the A.I. can behave at times.
Before playing Gemini: Heroes Reborn, I had a hard time convincing people that it was a part of the Heroes franchise, despite the title being a bit of a giveaway. Whilst playing the game, if I’d have not known it was legitimately linked with Heroes beforehand, then I wouldn’t have realised. If it were not for the smartly placed Easter egg collectables that give various cool nods to the fans of the series, then the whole tie-in could easily be missed. I guess you could perceive that a positive note is that it stands on its own two feet pretty well.
Gemini is an odd beast when it comes down to graphics. I’ve got nothing particularly bad to say about the environment, apart from slow rendering at times. Where the main characters are concerned though, especially Cass, they look completely out of place and from a previous generation of gaming at best. I felt like I was being transported back in time myself to the original Xbox games.
Gemini: Heroes Reborn delivers a gameplay experience that exceeded my expectations, mainly due to mixing so many cool abilities into one character and making it a challenge to progress, having to use multiple powers to your advantage. I didn’t reckon much to the story pacing, in fact I didn’t learn an awful lot for the majority of the game and it rarely feels like there’s a real focus on it in most of the levels.
Whether you are a fan of Heroes or not, it doesn’t really matter. This is a pretty good game in its own right with creative ideas that makes this action/puzzler hybrid a success.
