DIYgamer.com writes: "Herman, by developer Todd Snarl and Dirge Game Studio, is a prime example of why I love the Xbox Live Indie Games service so much. With the indie games that are available on XBLA, PSN, or even WiiWare there is a certain set of criteria that must be met before any of the console makers will allow them to be put on their respective services. This, inherently, limits what a developer can do. While there are plenty of great indie games on all three services, XBLIG gives us indie games that are more in common with what you'd find on the PC. Of course, the flip side of this being that, often times, the games are a bit rough around the edges, so to say.
Herman is a prime example of the differences between Microsoft's XBLA channel and their XBLIG channel. Never, in a million years, would you find Herman on XBLA, but that's OK. It wasn't meant to be there. It's an indie game that is so ballsy and ridiculous that it truly belongs on the "other" channel... the one with the real, tried and true indie games."
Jon writes:
"Herman isn't exactly a copy of Braid, but more of an homage. As a disgruntled office worker on his last day at the office, you must get out of the building alive. The problem is the entire building has been alerted to your shenanigans and your fellow employees will do everything in their power to stop you. This means travelling through 25 levels fighting off coworkers, all the while dreaming of the life you once had with your cat Chester and girlfriend Darla. It gets even weirder than that."
Herman is an entertaining platformer that celebrates humanity's built-in disgust of a nine-to-five corporate gig, and asks you to help escape the grind by hurling fruit at your co-workers. The game's graphics are fun little cartoon caricatures of office drones, but the real stars are the background pictures and the touching soundtrack. The controls are well done, and the action can be adjusted to make it easy to play, but there's not a lot of reason to go back and play it again. Herman is often very funny though, and there are worse things you can do with five dollars. This is a solid indie title.
SFX-360 writes: "Xbox Live Indie Games have always been known for games that are created by developers looking to break out into the industry. Some do very well in creating original games with radical new ideas, while the others make useless massage apps. With the recent release of Herman, you can clearly see the definition of what Xbox Live Indie Games are all about. Although the game is not that great, it does show quite a bit of promise of things to come."
