Set in the controversial colonial era, Herald is a decent effort by Wispfire developers to give the players a dramatic story telling experience with adventures, deceit, betrayal and politics. With choice system that could compete with L.A.Noire, the dialogues and the interactions are the only reason you push yourself to finish the game. The developers solely rely on the story to keep the players interested and somewhat succeed in doing so.
Herald is a choice-driven adventure set on colonial tides developed and distributed by Wispfire, the game is available on the PC platform via Steam since 22 Feb, 2017. Keep in mind that Wispfire is planning a patch on the 30th of March together with a discount of 20% on the 1st and 2nd of April. So if you are looking to pick up Herald soon, you might want to hold on till that sale.
Herald
Detailed Review
Narrative
In Herald, you play a steward of mixed heritage on the HLV Herald who is tasked with several menial tasks on the ship along with the responsibility to handle the politics that keep you busy, I mean really busy.
Even though the story is great, the progression is too slow to keep the players interested. A slow moving story with bland side quests of petty politics among crew members, the game makes you feel like an actual steward (You’ll be running errands, TRUST ME!).
Game-play & Mechanics
The graphics are a turning point for this game. Even though there were a few glitches (God! Is this game from 2007?), the graphics were able to give the players an essence of what it was it to be like in the colonial India.
The developers were able to deliver a story of intrigue with beautiful landscapes and the never ending blue sea from the ship. But, considering the current trends, the developers could have considered using better engine and next gen-graphics in order to compete with the current indie games market (Something Like Dreamfalls Chapters By Red Thread Games).
Collectibles in the game are interesting though. The HERALD LOG is an interesting area which lets you discover the dark secrets of colonial India and other interesting historical facts of the period. The memorable characters were numbered. The point that takes the cake is the that the developers have tried to make every character unique and with the excellent dialogue system, every conversation gives you a unique experience.
Considering this is the first venture by the developers, we hope that they take these points into account when they give us our next action packed adventure in the Indian Ocean ;).
