She-Hulk goes to Murderworld

YOU become the paralegal assistant to Jen Walters, a lawyer also known as She-Hulk. She’s in the San Francisco Bay Area for a case, and wants you to help make her decisions. It’s a bit weird, right, that she would need your advice on anything legal as well as your advice on superheroing. But just go along with the plot, or it’s gonna be a short book, okay?

Retired super-villain Ruby Thursday is in jail for murder, and has asked her old arch-enemy She-Hulk to defend her in court. Bold move, right? She must really think she’s innocent if she wants her enemy to re-investigate everything that the police didn’t even bother to look at, then vouch for it in court.

But has Ruby really reformed? Can we bring enough reasonable doubt to get Ruby out on bail? Can we uncover layers of conspiracy and stop a supervillain disaster?

Depends on whether you survive the attack by a vampire cow right here on page 1. We’re off to a weird start.

Review and Opinion

The writing is very fun and very enjoyable. The writing moves from scene to scene, covering a lot of ground as you uncover a whole supervillain conspiracy. The characters are likable and there’s a lot to explore.

The mechanics are easy to understand: roll one or two dice, add your skill, hope for high. Most times the outcome matters only in subtle ways, such as that the next fight round is slightly easier or harder. Therein lies the problem with the game system, though: if a failure costs you a point and makes the next test harder, of course your chances are even worse. So you can find yourself in a downward spiral, crawling from one scene to the next as you get your butt kicked a little more each time until finally a boss fight kills you.

Despite this, it’s a great book. There are fourth wall breaks, dry humor, and a portal to the You Are (Not) Deadpool book. There are second-rate villains well worth a laugh, and tense scenes of fighting hordes and robots. We had a lot of fun playing this one over and over again.

Hints and Tips

In the fight with Kangaroo, if you win all three rounds you get the numbers 98, 92, and 88. These unlock 278 where you get a Sinister Medallion for +2 Concentration.

After you meet Arcade, there are 5 possible endings affected by your Charm and Simpatico (Ruby’s attitude), Waves (how much warning Arcade had), and Wheels Within Wheels (identifying who’s involved and why). Try them all!

There are six hidden entries, some with useful bonuses. But they are so well hidden that they’re not even linked, and as far as I can tell there aren’t even clues that there should be clues. If you know the logic behind any of these, I would love to hear about it.
– Secret One: 13. The Expo Pass gets you into the expo more easily and without losing Concentration. Turn to 13 when you’re in Bright’s bathroom and see dollar store shampoo.
– Secret Two: 190. In the Vanguard laboratory (39) the control panel (45) has cryptic symbols. If you guess 190, there’s the Experimental Gauntlet which gives +2 Power.
– Secret Three: 288. Nothing. This is not an entry, and says so.
– Secret Four: 37. In the Tekeli lab (184) there’s a scrawl about rubidium on the blackboard. So of course turn to 37, the atomic number for rubidium, for some loot. Why not? The Glowing Pearl gives +2 Charm.
– Secret Five: 98. The secret VIP entrance with a crystal dodecahedron (stats boost!). Go here when Ms. Cruz (88) shows you a map and says 9H,
– Secret Six: 84. Turn here when Ben makes his Kool Aid Man entrance to Chtylok’s arena on 151, 140, and 289 for a big bonus to fighting Chtylok,

Errors

On 173 in the Bessie fight, if you lose it goes to 38 which is a bathroom and is unrelated. I think it should be 58, which is part of the Bessie fight.

On 88 you get +1 Sympatico which I’m sure is supposed to be Simpatico.

On page 51 if the fight with Spellcheck isn’t going well, the house may be on fire and you go to 191 to the Omni and Gray office instead. But it doesn’t ask if you’ve already been there, so it’s possible to go there twice.

There is an achievement for finishing the adventure with Legal Favor of 1 or more. As far as I can tell, it’s impossible not to have this. After rescuing Marion, you return to Judge Hirst and get Legal Favor. That’s the only way to get Ruby on bail and continue into Act 2. Am I wrong?