Mini-Review

[Mortiis558]

So I was looking to see if there was a review thread in general, I know it could go in Gaming Blargh but I thought a seperate "blargh" like topic solely for reviews might be better. For the first review I am going to do the new game from Gas Powered Games titled:

 

Demigod

 

I had high hopes for this game. Supreme Commander had it's moments but was unabashadly difficult. And where Supreme Commander was very in-depth and had a steep learning curve Demigod is almost the complete opposite. I don't even think there is a tutorial, but really it doesn't need one and is best when you just jump in and play.

 

The basic story, if you could even call it that, is that a God has died and 8 other demigods are battling it out to become the new god. The demigod's range from up close melee fighters, to the ranged archer, to spell caster, with some of them being more defensive and supportive and some being more dps oriented.

 

 

The gameplay is psuedo RTS and don't think you'll really be controlling everything on the map at all times. Your main control is over a singular Demigod you choose at the begining. When a level starts you have a certian objective to fullfull like killing a certian amount of other Demigods, hold flag control points, destroying the Main enemy base or destroying little sub bases littered across the map. Each demigod has a skill tree that you can fill out as you get xp. Everything the guys on your side kill or destroy adds to your experience bar and gold and you will gain anywhere from 10-20 levels a map, but these are reset, as well as the gold you get, every map. Certian flags control gold mines that add to your total as time progresses. You can use your gold to buy anything from items that refill health and mana, to armor and weapons that increase stats, to artifacts that increase stats as well as have abilities, or you can buff up your reinforcements from your main base as it levels up. There is even a nifty little achievement system that gives you points to buy certian items game-wide that you can select with any character, and once you've bought them you can use 1 per map without having to re-buy it everytime. The maps themselves are pretty creative looking.

 

 

But for all that there are very few maps (maybe 6 or 8 total) and during the course of a tournament you will probably play a repeat map and/or objective. Tournaments are basically 8 stages where you fight on maps and at the end the person with the most points for all maps becomes the new god. Nothing special. I haven't tried it online but I think that this game will really shine against real people as the AI on single player games is fairly easy to beat even on Hard and Nightmare. You dont ever build anything (aside from the Rook's ability to create towers) and when something is destroyed it is gone for good for that map. The only thing to hinder you or your reinforcements or the enemy are towers that attack anything from the opposite side when they get within a certian range and the other side's reinforcement/demigods. I haven't tried out multiplayer yet, so if that turns out to be where the game is really at ill come edit with some more info.

 

 

All in all if you're looking for a deep story driven RTS, this isn't going to be your game. If you're looking for a fun, somewhat creative single and multiplayer experience, that's easy to get into, definately check this out. 7.5/10

[Mortiis558]

Battlefield Heroes: BETA

 

Got my key the other day so I have been investing quite a bit of time on this game, as Battlefield 2 is arguably my favorite FPS of the current generation.

 

So for basics like the other Battlefields you have different classes, different weapons, and vehicles. But that is about all if has in common with it's previous bretheren.

 

Now before you start a game you make a "hero." You can choose from 1 of 3 classes, but can only have 4 total characters right now. There are two sides and you must pick a side for each character but the side only determines aesthetic characteristics of you characters, and what clothes you can buy. The classes are are basically Soldier, Sniper, Commando. The soldier starts with a machine gun, shotgun, and grenade. And each class has some special abilities. You start with 1 unlocked and can buy more. The soldier starts with a health regen that has an AOE affect for other guys on your side as well. The Sniper starts with a knife, sniper rifle, and dynamite (which sticks to tanks). His special ability is to be able to turn invis. You lose invisibility when you attack with anything but is has a cooldown so you can use it again after 45 secs of turning un-invis. The Commando is similar to the Heavy from TF2 and has a mini-gun, shotgun, and dynamite as well or you can equip a rocket launcher in place of it. He is able to pop up a shield that protects him for 10 or so secs.

 

There are also missions you can complete to get points to spend on new weapons. The missions range from kill X amount of enemies, to capture X amount of flags, or deal X amount of damage to enemies or vehicles, and varitions on these. The points you get can be used to upgrade you weapons from the standard ones you start with. The newer weapons can do more damage, or have a faster rate of fire. But ALL weapons have a certian length of time they are active so you will have to rebuy them after a week or a month of use depending on what you choose. You are also able to buy things like a Pistol for the sniper. Also while playing you will accumulate Hero Points when you level up. You get xp for pretty much everything you do in game. Hero Points can be spent on more and different abilities and vary by class. Examples are a Poison Dagger, or Faster running speed, mines, the ability to see invis characters for a time and some other ones. You can also spend points you get for completing missions on things like health packs or items that boost xp or valor.

 

You can spend REAL LIFE money to get Battle Points which are used to buy clothes and ONLY clothes. This is purely for looks and doesn't affect your character in any other way.

 

Vehicles are standards affair, with there being Tanks, Airplanes and jeeps. Tanks just shoot out a shell, and can also hold another character in a gunner position but they use their own weapon to fire. Airplanes only have a machine gun, but can hold one extra player on each wing. Jeeps hold up to 3 characters.

 

You have health and you will be able to take more than a few shots without dying, so don't expect insta-kill shots even with the best sniper rifle. You'll survive direct hits from a tank or a rocket, but will be blown into the air. All in all is a less realistic system than in previous games.

 

There is only one mode of play which is basically Hold a Capture Point. Anyone familiar with Arathi Basin in WoW will know what I am talking about. There are 4 maps right now, and as expected they are designed very well, with no one particular strategy or way to win on any given map. Some of the maps are suited to vehicles and some more suited to close up "street fighting." They seem to have put a lot of effort into making the maps as balanced as possible and it shows.

 

If you have seen screenshots you will notice that Heroes has a more cartoony look to it. Since it is meant to be a free to play brower game essentially theyve toned down the graphics from say Battlefield 2 or 2142 but they work well within the scheme of the game.

 

There is still some polish and kinks I hope they work out before the official release but as is it is a highly playable and very fun game, and I really can't think of anything major wrong with it.

 

If you want a fun, lighthearted game that you can drop in and out of without the feeling of losing out on something, get this when it comes out. It will be completely free to download and play so there is no reason not to try it out if you like Online FPS's. It has minor RPG elements so you can look forward to your kills and flag captures bringing more than just a good feeling and points. It adds yet another reason to play "just one more match."

 

9/10