'Demigod' a fun mix of old genres

• By JOSHUA WASCOM
• Special to 2theadvocate.com
• Published: May 21, 2009

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

“Demigod” exists on an odd strand of the vast web of game genres. With wave after wave of small, throwaway units, it looks like a simple real-time action-strategy game, until you realize you can’t control most of the units on your side or build anything.

With your direct control over only one upgradeable hero, it plays like a “Diablo”-style action-RPG, until the first time you lose without ever being killed, because you didn’t coordinate well with your computer-controlled troops or your human-controlled allies. And with the emphasis on team-based combat, it feels like most multiplayer-focused, first-person shooters, like “Team Fortress 2.”

There’s no real story to speak of, other than some introductory narration and a bit of flavor text here and there. The generalized fantasy setting speaks for itself -- any world that has minotaurs in it is more or less equivalent to every world that has minotaurs in it. There’s barely even any single-player element.

“Demigod” has a focus, and that focus is a fast-paced multiplayer experience. The demigods of the title are eight very distinctive heroes, each with his own gameplay complexities. Taking control of one of these, you’ll join a team of other demigods to defend against and assault another team.

Within each match, you can level your character from 1 to 20 as you assist in combat and capture locations, and with each new level you can acquire or upgrade a skill. The various skills for each character are very well-crafted, allowing one hero to serve very different purposes depending on how they have been upgraded.

The massive, castle-like Rook, for instance, can be outfitted as a mobile repair center for your team’s defenses or a slow, almost-indestructible killer of enemy heroes or something in between. You also get a fairly steady stream of gold, and you can use this to buy useful items to further upgrade your hero or to selflessly acquire upgrades for your entire team.

The heart of the game’s fun comes from interesting and important balances like the gold issue. As you decide whether to watch over a wave of your side’s troops or use their assault as a distraction to try to defend one of your team’s troop generators or steal an enemy gold mine, you are constantly making simple decisions that lead up to a satisfying whole for the strategically minded.

Despite the freshness of the central gameplay and the superb execution of the basic concepts, “Demigod” has some distinct flaws. The framework for connecting players has been improving since the game’s launch, but still has some problems, so your games can be slowed or lost, both of which are incredibly frustrating.

There isn’t even a token tutorial, and the manual pretty much tells you to go learn to play yourself. “Demigod” is well-designed enough for a practice game or two against the computer to teach you most of the basics, but a few gameplay options and button commands have to be discovered more or less by accident. There are some odd interface issues as well, and a completely overzealous announcer who will sometimes tell you about the same event three or four times.

“Demigod” is still a great game that presents some new and engaging dynamics and some old dynamics in intriguing new ways. It’s definitely worth your $40 if you can get four or more people together to play on a direct connection.

Furthermore, the developers are working on both improving existing issues and adding more content, so things can only get better, both for online play and overall.