Demigod is the latest game from Chris Taylor’s Gas Powered Games, creators of the astounding RTS, Supreme Commander.  Although this game is real time and is strategic, it cannot be classified as an RTS as it deviates from that formula too extensively.  For those of you who have played the DOTA mod for Warcraft 3, you will find yourselves in familiar territory which is good news as this game forces you to learn its intricacies through experience as there is no in-game tutorial and the printed manual is ridiculously sparse.  This is a tad frustrating as this game is meant to be played competitively with other people and learning the ropes in that environment can be bruising.

     The gist of the thing is that you and however many teammates and opponents (the game supports up to twelve players) have to start off at you respective sides of one of the game’s eight beautifully rendered and designed maps.  This area is known as your citadel, and at that location are various spots where you can heal or purchase some of the game’s many items, which range from potions to various weapons and armor with which to outfit your character.  Points of defense are pre-positioned throughout the map and basically consist of towers and small bunkers outfitted with varying types of ballistic weaponry.  Also scattered throughout the map are flags which, when under your team’s control, confer certain abilities.  Some of these abilities are static such as experience bonuses and troop generating portals.  Others are available only by visiting the flags themselves, which are captured by standing next to them with your character for a certain period of time.  Holding flags increases your team’s war rank - a score that at certain levels allows you to purchase troop upgrades.  Yes, there are troops but they are not generated by the player, rather when a portal is held by a certain team, the portal spawns troops at set intervals.  The troops themselves are fairly weak, but once all types are purchased, they can go a long way toward knocking out defensive positions and achieving the game’s ultimate goal: destroying the opposing team’s citadel.  The real heavy hitters of the game are the characters the player’s control: the demigods.

     There are eight demigods to choose from and each one differs greatly in appearance from the other. All are splendidly cheesy in their appearance and particularly in the things they say.  Four of the demigods are assassins, who specializing in combating other demigods.  The other four are generals, support types, who can spawn their own entourage of unique troops.  That’s not to say that the generals are unable to slay other demigods; they are quite capable of this, if given the correct skill set.  Each demigod has anywhere from 24 to 30 unique skills that are attained by gaining experience and advancing levels, RPG style; that is to say, by killing stuff.  The demigods are all very different from one another and the game really becomes enjoyable when you find one (or two, or even three) that really gel with your play style.  Torch Bearer, a skeletal, plate mail wearing sorcerer specializes in fire and ice magic and is easily the wackiest of the bunch in terms of voice acting.  Other demigods are The Unclean Beast, a huge plague bearing hound and Regulus, an angel with a crossbow almost the size of himself whom, you guessed it, is a ranged attacker.  The last assassin is The Rook who is a walking castle and will remind you of a Colossus from Shadow of the Colossus (if you’ve seen ads for the game you know who I’m talking about).  The Rook can take lots of abuse and his forte’ is melee attacks as well as uncontrolled ranged attacks from the towers on his body.  The generals consist of Omen , a heavily armored warrior who summons water spirits and can up other’s defense and his own offense, and there is the Queen of Thorns, a scantily clad nature-based spellcaster and summoner who can switch between two modes.  Also, there is Sedna, a snow leopard riding cutie who summons Yetis and can support with healing spells.  Lastly, is Erebus, a vampire lord who summons undead and can shapeshift as well as bite demigods, draining their health.  With all these colorful characters you might expect there to be an extensive and satisfying campaign mode.  There isn’t.

     No, single player mode is limited to skirmishes and a surprisingly satisfying tournament mode.  Unfortunately there is no campaign or story mode, and the game’s story is quite simple: you’re a powerful being who is competing in a tournament of fratricidal combat.  Whoever wins becomes a god, filling a vacancy in that clique as the guy you’re replacing had to be destroyed because he broke a code of silence.  Good enough for you.  If no story mode is a huge turn off for you, though, you may want to skip this game.  I do enjoy the tournament mode as there is some continuity and you accumulate more gold allowing you to purchase some of the game’s mightier items. Also, tournament mode is a good way to accumulate favor points allowing you to purchase special items attainable only through favor points.  These items stick with you, even in multiplayer modes and powers can range from health and mana upgrades to teleportation.  In this game, multiplayer mode is simply where it’s at.

     And now we come to it.  The controversy!  As you may, oh scratch that, as you HAVE heard, this game’s launch was plagued with huge connectivity problems resulting in hordes of extremely upset customers who were unable to connect to a game or who were kicked out of a game after starting.  The thing is, Demigod uses a Peer-to-Peer connection process that relies on the player’s connections for stability.  Now, several patches have been released as of this writing, and I have heard many different stories.  Some people claim they connect within three minutes; others say they sit around for hours waiting.  For me it has been around ten minutes, though I haven’t tried as often as others as I play LAN games which work like a charm.  If you intend to play solely online and this game sounds fun to you, then I suggest waiting to purchase until the game’s problems have cleared up completely.  There is no shortage of people discussing this game’s problems online, and when it is running smoothly , it should be clearly advertised.

Looking at screenshots of this game may have you wondering if your rig has the cajones to run it.  I’ll tell you this game is quite comely even on my dual core with a Geforce 8900.  I have it at 1240 x 1028 with all the other settings maxed and it runs perfectly.

    One more thing: this game has no DRM.  Online activation is required, but other than a valid email address and the key code, that’s all you need.  This is refreshing, and also, if your friend has the game and you’re not sure you want it, you can play it with his copy before buying.  Way to go, Stardock.

-jr

Score: 7 Good