HERO Unit Review (Android & iOS)

“911, What’s your emergency?” And with that, a life-or-death situation begins and the outcome will depend on your choices. No pressure, right? Today we’re looking at an all-new unique text adventure game, HERO Unit, available for both Android and iOS operating systems.

The premise of HERO Unit is certainly an interesting one. You play as a 911 operator who will respond to emergency calls from all around. People out there need your help, and it’s up to you to lead them to the best possible outcome. HERO Unit plays out like a typical text adventure game. You’ll start off in your post waiting for calls. When you see that blinking green light, that means it’s time to save someone!

A typical emergency call will play out with you first acknowledging the situation the caller is in, and then deciding from there whether or not additional questioning is necessary. You’ll be presented with a list of things you can say to the caller and each option will lead to a new event. Every emergency call is different so you’ll need to adapt and be able to read the situation. Should you poke around for more information? Or is there a possibility of immediate danger, and should you contact the police right away? HERO Unit manages to convey the tension and stress using words alone, because other than the beeping from your console there is no background music. Right from the get-go you’ll be pulled in immediately and the weight on your shoulders becomes increasingly obvious.

At your post you have access to a 24/7 news feed. After completing an emergency, you can read a news article detailing the outcome. Some of these articles can be absolutely heart-wrenching, especially if you got a less than stellar ending. Thankfully though – since this is a video game we’re talking about and not real life – you can go back and replay specific emergency calls to shoot for a better (or worse for the morbidly curious) outcome. HERO Unit seems to be pseudo real time because after you’ve answered a certain amount of emergencies the blinking light will turn red. This means there are no new emergencies so you can go back into the archive and replay older calls.

Without spoiling too much, immersion is always incredible in HERO Unit. The gravity of your choices becomes heavier and heavier as the situations unfold. With that said, we had a little hiccup with the very first emergency call you get. It’s a little “out there,” so to speak, so we were expecting the tone of the game to be a little more lighthearted. All of the emergencies after that though are grounded in reality, so it was a bit of a curveball. If you do end up trying the game don’t let the first emergency call sway you, as the game only gets better after that.

We would absolutely recommend HERO Unit based solely on the concept alone, but HERO Unit manages to accomplish difficult feats in text adventure format. As we mentioned, the emergency calls you receive are situations that would happen in real life, and the dialogue is written very well to make sure you know that these emergencies can happen to anyone. You’ll feel quickly attached to the callers especially when you realize what kind of situations they face. On top of that the game is just a genuine and honest attempt at a feel-good adventure game. If you have any interest in adventure games, you owe it to yourself to play HERO Unit.

If you’d like to give it a go at being a hero, you can download the game on the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store.