ZHEROS

 Xbox One
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

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  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 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    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.    … Expand
  2. 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 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.    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 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.    … Expand
  3. thekingofdallas
    Jan 25, 2016
    0
    This game was an absolute chore to play through. Ridiculous design. Shoddy audio and horrendous one song soundtrack on repeat. Bland mechanics and repetitive nature just scratch the surface on why i couldn't be paid to download it. "The repetitiveness of levels and enemy encounters, the barebones story, and the constantly frustrating fighting mechanics – the game’s main draw – are all aThis game was an absolute chore to play through. Ridiculous design. Shoddy audio and horrendous one song soundtrack on repeat. Bland mechanics and repetitive nature just scratch the surface on why i couldn't be paid to download it. "The repetitiveness of levels and enemy encounters, the barebones story, and the constantly frustrating fighting mechanics – the game’s main draw – are all a reminder of how far gaming has come. Rather than build on a foundation set by juggernaut titles like The Simpsons and X-Men, ZHEROS copies their blueprints exactly as they were"… Expand
  4. theyocumm
    Jan 25, 2016
    0
    HUD doesn't even fit on the screen. Loading screens don't fit on the screen ratio either. No story. Bugs galore. Little variation of enemies. D-pad and other buttons don't even do anything. Extremely repetitive levels. Cringeworthy music. Just bad. Plain bad. What a joke.
  5. Broyax
    Jan 18, 2017
    0
    Jeu offert aux abonnés Xbox Live Gold de ce mois de janvier comme tant d'autres pauvres merdes indés tout au long de l'année mais pas seulement !... car cette bouse sortie en 2015 est tout de même, excusez du peu, affichée au prix très officiel de 20 euros ! 20 balles pour une resucée d'Oni honni déjà en son temps et conspué pour sa débilité de jeu idiot bourre-boutons... sauf qu'ici onJeu offert aux abonnés Xbox Live Gold de ce mois de janvier comme tant d'autres pauvres merdes indés tout au long de l'année mais pas seulement !... car cette bouse sortie en 2015 est tout de même, excusez du peu, affichée au prix très officiel de 20 euros ! 20 balles pour une resucée d'Oni honni déjà en son temps et conspué pour sa débilité de jeu idiot bourre-boutons... sauf qu'ici on peut aussi jouer avec un gros con si on veut. Encore faudrait-il le vouloir : techniquement bien faible, bien aliasé et des temps de chargement bien longs. Beaucoup de "bien" donc... pour ce beat'em up bien répétitif et crétin et bien nul à chier.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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. Official Xbox Magazine UK
    Mar 5, 2016
    40
    For a more exciting game, try playing Scrabble. Alone. [March 2016, p.87]
  2. Brash Games
    Feb 7, 2016
    70
    It doesn’t do enough to make itself stand out among a crowd of side-scrolling beat ’em ups, playing like a multitude of games that have come before it. I can’t emphasise enough that I did enjoy playing ZHEROS, but I did find my attention being drawn to other games waiting to be started that lay on my shelf, as I think this is the main problem ZHEROS has, in that it has released at a time when there are literally stacks of games vying for our hard-earned cash.
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  3. USgamer
    Jan 26, 2016
    60
    ZHEROS is fun to play for a while. Its combo system is entertaining to use, and its graphics look good. However, flaws in its design include frustrating difficulty spikes, some punishing later levels, and occasionally awkward controls, which results in a game that falls short of its potential.
    Read full review
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