17.Hidden Figures meets Wonder Woman in this action-packed, comic-inspired adventure about a brilliant girl puzzler who discovers she’s part of a superhero team! The game is set to be released through the Epic Games Store on Feb. Henchman Story is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch. It’s an interesting take on a well-worn genre, and while parts of it are hammy or predictable, the core choices remain compelling. Can I afford another gig? In this economy? One of the most powerful tools the narrative leverages against players on the good path is the simple question of survival. But what about when the entire system someone lives in is designed to reward them for being bad? We’ve all seen the movies with Iron Man or read about the villainy of Doctor Doom - but what about the people who work for them, who are just there to get a paycheck?Īs Henchman Story works its way toward its climax, developer Silken Sail Entertainment both gives you lots of rewards for being bad - and lots of chances to back away and turn to the side of good. It’s easy to answer a moral question of whether I should be a good or bad person in a vacuum. Instead, it’s much more interested in questions of self-interest and survival. Bedlam’s a supervillain who loves chaos and despair, but the narrative doesn’t linger long on him. Player choices become less about whether Stan is a good or bad person - in fact, Henchman Story doesn’t seem interested in “bad” people. That fixation causes problems in the rest of his life, which I have to either roll with or desperately try to repair. Madame Scorpion is an assassin with a suite of mysterious powers, and she’s oddly interested in Stan. Stan starts as a henchman under the employ of a silly, scene-chewing bad guy called Lord Bedlam, but a new executive coming aboard complicates things quickly. He’s just a cog in a corporate system, and the stresses of day-to-day worker life are amplified a thousandfold - he works for a supervillain, after all. Stan lives on a supervillain base, where he receives meals, shelter, and benefits. Eventually, I have to make big choices on whether to betray a friend, overthrow a boss, or relentlessly pursue my own self-interests. While these choices start small - am I nice to my obnoxious supervisor, or do I snidely dunk on the dude? - they ramp up as the story goes on. Henchman Story is a visual novel, so the gameplay comes down to making choices in dialogue trees. It’s a simple ride made more interesting by the cast of characters and the compelling core conflict. While Henchman Story is an interactive tale about superheroes, it’s also a story about living in a world where superheroes haven’t stopped capitalism from running amok. But then a new venture capitalist joins the team, and things get much more interesting. I’m bored but content, and the benefits are too good to quit despite the occasional beating from a hero. I play Stan, a goon who works for an over the top, bombastic supervillain. Henchman Story starts off with a full-throttle goofy tone, and at first I thought I was in for a standard superhero story - just from a slightly different point of view.
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