Never heard of this system, but loved Chosium's Superworld in its day. Shadowrun, though not hero genre exactly, was the closest thing I ran into afterwards mechanically...

I have played and DM'ed Hero system. I ABUSED the VPP rules making a telepath/telekinetic that basically was easily as tough as the silver surfer. Light sabres were generally defined as RKA's with no range, and AVLD life support became a huge problem.

Very easy to min/max. The up side is experience is earned by roleplay not what you smash and grab. A good GM makes the players create a conception, and makes the conception be the definition.

The first step I use is having the player define all the PC's limitations based on the concept.

Those limitations usually mean I have to create villains that spring from the PC's back story.

Psych limits are almost REQUIRED. Those usually tell you about what caused the PC to be hero in the first place. Having a character with a hippocratic oath psych limit makes interesting drama in a war zone scenario (like trying to medical evac refugees in Darfur -- check out the show ER for some permutations of this delimma)

Hunteds are a great way to keep the Players on their toes. One joke in an old campaign was "How can you tell a character is hunted by 'Nemesis' (A vigilante group of skilled normals with great equipment and good tactics) --- he's the one looking over his shoulder during combat, and after combat. More than once they showed up right after a combat and ambushed the heros and villains simultaneously, hosing both of them.

I like Hero system. I prefer old fashioned D&D.

You can pretty much abuse any game system if the GM allows you...the GM should be careful when allowing players in, esp. if he knows they're munchkin gamers.

Once you get the combat system down, it moves pretty fast. Combat in Hero 5th should only really be "once per session", as the rest is RPing.