Tuesday, June 29, 2010

DemiGod (PC)

So right now no one knows to look here and I'll just be talking to myself. That's ok, I'll just think of it as practice (for something terribly important to be sure) and go from there. I'm going to make a habit out of reviewing some of the games I'm playing and later probably point people over here and let them play some of my side projects as they become available. I suppose at that point I'll be "Talking to Other People Too" and have to change the name or something.

For starters, let's hit a relatively overlooked but quite enjoyable PC title: Demigod by Gas Powered Games. These are the same guys who more recently made the somewhat clunky Supreme Commander, but always carry a special place in my heart for Total Annhilation, which is truly a RTS genre classic. If you haven't spent hours upon hours harvesting energy and building robots in that game, stop now, go dig it up, get an emulator if you have to, and try it out. Thank you Chris Taylor, I still appreciate that one.

Anyways, back to Demigod. This is one of the recent hero-based combat/rts titles that have recently hit the market. It draws its concept from the Defense of the Ancients mod that was so popular on Warcraft III. In Demigod a fierce battle rages between two fantasy armies throughout the course of the game. Each side starts out well fortified with a series of defensive structures and only ordinary warriors and archers (tiny in comparison) to attack the other team. As the battle proceeds both sides gain access to more powerful units with special abilities (healers, siege equipment, stun, etc...) and the fortifications upgrade. However, you don't control any of that directly (you can spend money to decide which things to upgrade first). Instead, you stomp around the battlefield as a massive ultra-powerful semi-divine being and really dictate the ebb and flow of the battle with your presence as you crush enemy troops and slug it out with the opposing DemiGod(s) directly.

It's a good concept and a lot of fun. The armies keep slugging away around you throughout the game, giving a feel of constant activity. Without your help though, they'd be well balanced and really never make much progress. The DemiGods themselves have a variety of special abilities, giving each one a unique feel to it. Granted there are a couple with a bit too much overlap (why look this guy is fast and good at close combat, and this guy is... fast and good at close combat) but I'm willing to forgive that because DemiGod gives us the Rook. Rook is basically a walking castle, and as you level him up he gains more towers and independent weaponry mounted on top of him. He is huge and slow, but while he slogs around you can see showers of arrows raining down onto nearby targets, his magic fortress linking with the other towers, and even a ballista launching from his back at distant targets. He's actually not the strongest DemiGod in my opinion, but he's just so darn fun!

The DemiGods are broken into two major categories - Assassins, who are well suited for individual combat and just control themselves on the battlefield, and Generals, who are weaker individually but have the ability to construct followers (Minotaurs, Vampires, Yetis, whatever) to help them out. The Assassins tend to be stronger early-game but frequently struggle to keep up late game with a General and his full entourage. Gameplay involves defeating enemy combatants (smaller army members and hostile DemiGods) for gold and using that gold to upgrade your army, structures, and equipment.

The equipment system is decent and allows a bit of customization, but really there are some clearly better choices. You also get to pick one bonus item every game which stays with you throughout the entire match but I'm hard pressed to ever come up with a reason to pick something besides the "Swift Anklet" which conveys a movement bonus. With movement leading to the ability to get in/out of fights, finish off fleeing targets, and simply get to good experience opportunities faster, there's really nothing more important as a selection that will stay with you all game. Maybe someone else can show me a compelling reason to pick something else in certain cases, but I'm not holding my breath.

There's an enjoyable 'tournament mode' which has you pick one DemiGod and then play a series of battles of different types with him. These can have a variety of win conditions (destroy certain structures, first team to 10 kills, flag control, etc...). Structures are well done by the way, with small bonuses passed for controlling various locations (extra gold, mana, hps, etc...), a couple flavors of straight combat locations that fight nearby hostiles, and conquerable weapon turrets. There are purchasable upgrades to make these stronger, and as the battle progresses all of your structures will upgrade themselves, and some new structures will be constructed as long as you still control their construction site when you reach that stage of the battle.

You can play DemiGod multiplayer, but my suggestion - don't bother. It is a fine game, and there's probably fun to be had multiplayer but it just doesn't have the depth of something like Heroes of Newerth that falls into the exact same genre and has better multiplayer options but no single player one. Instead, play Heroes if you have time and a multiplayer urge, but enjoy DemiGod when you need to be able to put it down and deal with other stuff or just don't feel like having some prepubescent dolt swearing at you.

DemiGod
Rating: 8.5