ZHEROS

 Xbox One
Metascore
57

Mixed or average reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 13
  3. Negative: 3 out of 13
  1. Eurogamer Italy
    Jan 25, 2016
    80
    Funny, tough and surprisingly good: Rimlight Studios’ debut game Zheros is the first unmissable indie game of the year and one of the best beat ‘em up we’ve played in the recent years. A must-have if you grew up playing Double Dragon, Street of Rage and Final Fight.

Awards & Rankings

67
#67 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2016
83
#83 Most Shared Xbox One Game of 2016

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
4.4

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 40 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 40
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 40
  3. Negative: 18 out of 40
  1. Peptide
    Jan 20, 2016
    2
    Let me explain why the score is so low. (And yes, one of the reasons I'm writing this is in the hopes that the developers will read it)
    I    Let me explain why the score is so low. (And yes, one of the reasons I'm writing this is in the hopes that the developers will read it)
    I have always loved brawlers like Streets of Rage, Final Fight, any Turtles game, so I had great anticipation for this game. As always I played on Normal. I don't mind difficult games or even games where I have to repeat an area after dying, but this game was aggravating. Yes it gets difficult after the first few levels, but it also get frustrating as new enemies are introduced and the high learning curve that it takes to learn how to beat them causes many of your deaths. Then on top of that you ALWAYS have to start back at the beginning of the level losing all your kills, score, and stats that you accumulated. Most gamers who like brawlers/beat-em-ups do not mind the thumb-mashing repetition. But when it happens as the result of poor enemy design, and poor health mechanics, that is just old-fashioned frustration.
    Then....the nail in the coffin: I consider myself to be a casual completionist (I know that sounds like an oxymoron). I don't have to collect everything but when I see alternate paths, I usually like to have the option of going back and making sure I explore each of them. In this game, when you see a split, it is usually because one path leads to the bonus star, and the other leads to the level's end. As with a lot of games you can't tell which one is which. That is fine, but once you choose a path, a force-field goes up and you cannot backtrack. On level 5 I took a path and saw just a little ways up that if I took the other path, I could get the bonus star. It would NOT let me go back. The only way to get back there is to literally replay the level. This is just lazy game design as the Xbox One certainly has the tech specs to allow for an entire 2D level to be held in memory.
    My apologies to Rimlight. The game is cute and could have had the potential of rating a 6, 7, or 8, but these MULTIPLE issues make it an effort best forgotten. Try it if you get it for free but that's all. Avoid it if you have anxiety issues.
    PS: Not much better on "Easy".
    Thank you.    … Full Review »
  2. BetterCallSalt
    Jan 17, 2016
    5
    Although fun at first, this game becomes rather dull and repetitive pretty quickly. The artistic style is OK but the gameplay offers nothingAlthough fun at first, this game becomes rather dull and repetitive pretty quickly. The artistic style is OK but the gameplay offers nothing new than your average indie platformer. I'd give this a skip for far better options unless you get this free with Xbox Live's Games with Gold.… Full Review »
  3. SkyRattlers
    Feb 3, 2016
    2
    One of the free Xbox gold games for February. I was excited to see that it had couch co-op! But that's where the excitement ended. Only tookOne of the free Xbox gold games for February. I was excited to see that it had couch co-op! But that's where the excitement ended. Only took one hour for my friend and I to throw in the towel on this game.

    We wanted to like it, we really did. We don't mind the retro feel and the simple mechanics. But the fighting was just so unreliable. You couldn't adequately defend yourself in combat. No matter what approach we took our health was constantly being drained by some bot shooting us while we were battling one of his friends, or the new bomb dropper enemy who seemed to be allowed to break our combos whenever he felt like it. If it weren't for the near constant health vials we would never have made it through a level.

    As it was we only made it as far a the 4th level before quitting. By then we realized it wasn't just bad fighting that was the only problem. The powerups for the skills seemed broken. With two players in the game we were doing our best to share the loot evenly. But this meant that after the first level was over we were never able to fill our reward meter high enough to earn any more points to put into our skills. And we were exploring and smashing everything in sight. It felt like the game forgot that when two people are playing you have to double the rewards. So there we were fighting harder and harder enemies using our basic skills....no upgrades. Bad design...

    The final straw for us was when we hit the laser beams on the 4th level. I died trying to make a near impossible leap over one set of double laser and of course my body lands right underneath one of the lasers. My friend had no way to revive me. If he came close to me to try the laser would just zap him.

    My advice to xbox gold members...don't even bother downloading this free game. It's a waste of space on your hard drive.    … Full Review »
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