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Superhero 2044 was the first roleplaying game of its genre, coming in a little late in the piece in 1977 and having been preceded not only by fantasy and science fiction games, as one would expect but even by games of the wild west, intelligent rabbits, and cavemen vs dinosaurs. The game itself comes in a colourful cardstock cover of various super characters by Mike Cagell and the mere 36 pages is saddle-stapled. The writing itself is clear, but the organisation of the text leaves a lot to be desired, as does much of the layout, although the three-column justified text was pretty hi-tech for those days. The book includes a good table of contents.

The game is set, as the name suggests in 2044 where, following a nuclear exchange, there have been various mutations leading to superpowers and a the north Pacific island city-state of Inguria (Shanter Island) has become the world power. Major technological advances include massive changes to battery efficiency, common organ transplants, near-sentient computers, sophisticated genetic screening, and alloplastics. For some extra spice, humanity has made contact with a peaceful alien species, the Formalhautians, whom some four million have been resettled on earth following disastrous climate change on their planet. The multinational and super-powered Science Police ensure global peace, supplanting The Freedom League of superheroes who were destroyed by the evil Dr. Ruby two years prior. Overall one has to say, the predictive setting is pretty damn fine for something written over thirty years ago.

Character design in Superhero 2044 consists of seven prime requisites; Vigor, Stamina, Endurance, Mentality, Charisma, Ego and Dexterity. The first three may seem a little similar in name, so to elucidate: Vigor is long-term health, Stamina is fighting ability and short-term wind and Endurance is effectively hit points. Stats are purchased with a point-buy system (the first?), with 140 points distributed among the seven prime requisites. These are further modified by the character's group (or class, if you like), being either a Unique (exotic human with paranormal powers e.g., Superman), a Toolmaster (normal technically proficient human with gadgets e.g., Iron Man) or Ubermensch (normal human at peak physical apex e.g., Tarzan). At the discretion of the referee an additional 50 points may be point into specific skills and powers. It is probably imperative that a character purchase an Endurance of 20 plus, otherwise they'll be constantly fatigued or worse. If they purchase a Vigor of less than 11, they will find themselves "unable to operate under normal conditions". Worse still, none of the specific skills and powers are described, with merely the examples of the three sample characters for GMs to derive any idea.

The rest of the game system, such as it is, is combat, which is fought in ten-second rounds. There are four kinds of combat; direct physical, transformation, mental attacks and projectile attacks. For direct physical versus mental attacks, subtract the defensive bonus (stamina or ego) from the offensive bonus (ditto) and compare to a matrix which gives a target number on 3d6. An equal difference is a target number of 11, an advantage of 40+ is an automatic hit and a disadvantage of -31 or more requires an 18. For transformations the attacker rolls a die, modifies according to the type of target (human, alien, inanimate) and then rolls another die and tries to beat the number they initially rolled. The same procedure is also used for projectile attacks, however a third roll is made for hit location. Damage affects Endurance and Vigor, but at different values.

A large feature of the game (in this context seven pages) is "handicapping" scenarios where the character has an a score of 1-10 across eight categories (crime prevention, criminal location, stopping crime, capturing criminals, convicting criminals, acquiring leads, collateral damage, and injury/capture potential). Players schedule their hero's activity in log sheets and the referee rolls on random tables to determine what crimes are occurring and the results of the crimes (including rewards) based on the type of crime and the character's handicap. Following this is three pages of income, expenditure and equipment prices.

Following the first printing of the rules, extra rules were added in the second printing. This includes two pages of a "synthetic scenario machine" for solo play, and seven pages of optional superhero rules written by other players. These include mastery in melee weapons, specialisation of handguns and rifles, some sample mental skills, agency fees, and alternative combat rules which have random damage determination.

Even in the genesis days of 1977, Superhero 2044 wasn't much of a game. With the exception of an average piece of cover art (and a couple of interior pieces) and some intelligible writing, the presentation, organisation and physical production are right at the bottom of the ladder. As for the game system itself itself, it is hopelessly underdeveloped and utterly inconsistent, with the experience of actual play is much more akin to bookkeeping than actual roleplaying. Not surprisingly, although it was the first SH RPG, it faded into almost complete obscurity with the arrival of games like Villains & Vigilantes and Champions.