It seems that Glu really have a deft hand when it comes to taking the drag out of freemium titles and Hero Project is no exception to this as it exchanges time wasting in the form of re-arranging your virtual town for punching bad guys in the gut.

It may sound silly, but when most social titles expect you to pop in for a brief moment or two before waiting for the next push notification it's nice to finally play something a bit juicier. After creating your superhero you're introduced to the main method of earning cash and experience, 'missions'. These missions are passive and can be accepted as long as you have the requisite level and energy spare, though these can take a set amount of time to complete. Ordinarily this would be where you'd start placing fences and paths to 'pretty up' the joint, but Hero Project tempts players to fight villains directly in a turn-based combat system that can become surprisingly complex.

Special powers that are bought and upgraded can consume stamina, limiting their use until you can regenerate this stat, however leveling up will refresh all of your counters and stats can be distributed to increase your regeneration rate, damage, health, and so on. The graphics are very much in keeping with the comic-book atmosphere, though animations are limited to brief frames coupled with some special effects.

Of course, players can spend 'Hero' credits to speed up missions, generate more cash or to purchase unique costumes, however unless you're impatient there's no real dependance on these upgrades and it's nice to feel like you have a choice in whether or not you spend money on the game. Hero Project defies the usual conventions for freemium titles with its active gameplay to bolster its passive gameplay and is definitely worth grabbing considering the first taste is free.