Review: Demigod

Demigod makes for some of the best PC multiplayer action we've seen since Team Fortress 2.

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I'm still on the fence about this game.

I do so like the looks of it, and it seems to be indeed quite fun to play. But I do so horribly suck at multiplayer games, be it FPS or RTS. I don't want to spend 50€ on something that I start up, and get my ass kicked multiple times without any end in sight, as it is every time I try to play an RTS online.

Yeah, I guess I could play single player, but I suspect that will quickly lose it's novelty once I've tried all the Demigods. Perhaps I'll pick it up if I see it on discount in a few years, but right now... I don't think so.

Rhayn:
I'm still on the fence about this game.

I do so like the looks of it, and it seems to be indeed quite fun to play. But I do so horribly suck at multiplayer games, be it FPS or RTS. I don't want to spend 50€ on something that I start up, and get my ass kicked multiple times without any end in sight, as it is every time I try to play an RTS online.

Yeah, I guess I could play single player, but I suspect that will quickly lose it's novelty once I've tried all the Demigods. Perhaps I'll pick it up if I see it on discount in a few years, but right now... I don't think so.

Why don't you try demo? Maybe Demigod suits your style :/

neuromasser:

Why don't you try demo? Maybe Demigod suits your style :/

I would, but apparently the demo is yet to be released.

Rhayn:

neuromasser:

Why don't you try demo? Maybe Demigod suits your style :/

I would, but apparently the demo is yet to be released.

Sorry then, I thought I had seen it somewhere :S

I'm sooo getting this game. Has had my eyes on it ever since I heard about it. I love DotA, so i can't wait to try this out.

I wanted to try this game. I won't, however, buy a game blindly for $50.

I agree that they really ought to release a demo. I (obviously) thought the game was awesome. However, I do understand that it might only cater to a certain selection of gamers (the type who would enjoy DotA). Unfortunately, with PC games, can't "Rent before you buy."

CantFaketheFunk:
I agree that they really ought to release a demo. I (obviously) thought the game was awesome. However, I do understand that it might only cater to a certain selection of gamers (the type who would enjoy DotA). Unfortunately, with PC games, can't "Rent before you buy."

And then they complain that people pirate the game.

Guess what - a lot less people would pirate if you gave the demo!

a) if they liked the game, they would still buy it
b) if they didn't like, they wouldn't play it
c) they are just assholes.

There are a lot of c) players, but a) and b)'s might get hurt because of no demo version.

Rhayn:
I'm still on the fence about this game.

I do so like the looks of it, and it seems to be indeed quite fun to play. But I do so horribly suck at multiplayer games, be it FPS or RTS. I don't want to spend 50€ on something that I start up, and get my ass kicked multiple times without any end in sight, as it is every time I try to play an RTS online.

Yeah, I guess I could play single player, but I suspect that will quickly lose it's novelty once I've tried all the Demigods. Perhaps I'll pick it up if I see it on discount in a few years, but right now... I don't think so.

To be fair, its more akin to an RPG - can be hard, to be sure, if your playing against a well organized enemy, but fun and winnable - and I hate online RTS's too ;).

The beauty part is the fact that you only have 1 unit to control yourself, see? Very little necessary micromanagement, so you have time to actually think about your strategy instead of micro-managing the enemy to death.

As a long time DotA player, I've had my eye on this for a while. Will most definately be getting it, methinks

I think I'll have to at least give the demo a try but ya this game looks pretty fun and I do need a new pc game.

Doug:

To be fair, its more akin to an RPG - can be hard, to be sure, if your playing against a well organized enemy, but fun and winnable - and I hate online RTS's too ;).

The beauty part is the fact that you only have 1 unit to control yourself, see? Very little necessary micromanagement, so you have time to actually think about your strategy instead of micro-managing the enemy to death.

Hm, that does indeed sound to be quite managable. Perhaps I'll pick it up anyway.

Not to mention I'll be suporting DRM free games if I do, right?

Rhayn:

Doug:

To be fair, its more akin to an RPG - can be hard, to be sure, if your playing against a well organized enemy, but fun and winnable - and I hate online RTS's too ;).

The beauty part is the fact that you only have 1 unit to control yourself, see? Very little necessary micromanagement, so you have time to actually think about your strategy instead of micro-managing the enemy to death.

Hm, that does indeed sound to be quite managable. Perhaps I'll pick it up anyway.

Not to mention I'll be suporting DRM free games if I do, right?

True ;) And slight qualifier to my statement - the "General" type units do get a few units in the course of battle that you can control, if you really really want to - but the auto control on them is fine and I've only used it once so far, heh.

I freaking HATE DotA, so I guess that means I'll pass.

Hmm interesting. I might have to pick this up if I see the game on sale in the US or online. But what about the multiplayer Funk? Can you have multiple teammates like 3v3 or 2v2 or even 4v4?

EDIT: Ohh that is sweet! This just got me from interested to piqued. Thanks Funk.

Tenmar:
Hmm interesting. I might have to pick this up if I see the game on sale in the US or online. But what about the multiplayer Funk? Can you have multiple teammates like 3v3 or 2v2 or even 4v4?

Yep, you sure can. I've seen 2v2s up to 5v5s. :)

DOTA is one of the most fun games i have ever played, if this game is half as good i'll get it

I'm tempted to purchase this game, but money is so hard to come by these days. Damn college and crappy services!

One more quick question Funk. Does this game support any online in game VOIP? The ability to communicate with teammates would be a huge boost to improve the concept of games like DOTA.

Tenmar:
One more quick question Funk. Does this game support any online in game VOIP? The ability to communicate with teammates would be a huge boost to improve the concept of games like DOTA.

Hmm. Not that I found, unfortunately. You're right, though - that would be a huge boost. We mainly communicated through old fashioned typing.

I swear that 'it has begun' at the end of the review was someone trying to do the voice of Christopher Lee's Saruman...

To anyone out there interested in this game, don't bother! Go pick up WC3:ROC+FT battlechest and play dota, or, wait until League of Legends comes out, since it will be another dota clone, except actually done by the guys who originally did dota, and understand what makes it so good. I think maybe the reviewer here really hasn't played dota in a long, long time? The dota I know of today blows demigod away in every aspect. Demigod is just a very heavily watered down version of dota. Even if you think demigod has interesting gameplay, trust me, dota's is better.

Not to mention, some of the heroes are horribly unbalanced and not very interesting. The networking code is horrible, as a single person makes the game unplayable. In Dota games there are tools to identify laggers and kick then before the game even starts.

oneplus999:
To anyone out there interested in this game, don't bother! Go pick up WC3:ROC+FT battlechest and play dota, or, wait until League of Legends comes out, since it will be another dota clone, except actually done by the guys who originally did dota, and understand what makes it so good. I think maybe the reviewer here really hasn't played dota in a long, long time? The dota I know of today blows demigod away in every aspect. Demigod is just a very heavily watered down version of dota. Even if you think demigod has interesting gameplay, trust me, dota's is better.

Not to mention, some of the heroes are horribly unbalanced and not very interesting. The networking code is horrible, as a single person makes the game unplayable. In Dota games there are tools to identify laggers and kick then before the game even starts.

I haven't played dota in about a year or so, and I agree that the game's sheer refinements over the years make it better than Demigod right now, but I think that Demigod has a lot of potential. A max level Troll Warlord in DotA will have all the skills and all the stat bonuses, for instance, where the only real gameplay differences comes in your item build. Two max level Sednas are going to play completely differently since you CAN'T get all the abilities.

Furthermore, I really, really like the idea of being able to upgrade your TEAM with cash instead of just buying bigger and better items. I do think that the DotA item system - how it has tiers, how you need different items to get more powerful ones - blows Demigod's out of the water, but the team upgrade idea is a seriously awesome twist on the old DotA standard.

Honestly, I really think it's unfair to compare the two directly since DotA has had what, five, six years to be refined and add heroes/items while Demigod just came out? Plus, you forget that by this point the DotA community is so entrenched and so hostile to people trying to learn the game (I've had friends get kicked for saying "I'm kind of new so any advice would be appreciated") whereas that sort of insularity hasn't yet sprung up with Demigod.

I do agree that the networking code is in bad need of rewrite.

CantFaketheFunk:

I haven't played dota in about a year or so, and I agree that the game's sheer refinements over the years make it better than Demigod right now, but I think that Demigod has a lot of potential. A max level Troll Warlord in DotA will have all the skills and all the stat bonuses, for instance, where the only real gameplay differences comes in your item build. Two max level Sednas are going to play completely differently since you CAN'T get all the abilities.

Dear god don't remind me how horribly powerful the troll warlord can be.../shudder.

But that is what the appeal is that makes demigod stand out is that the hero will not be the same as your opponent. That is what makes games interesting in DOTA, that mid range where you have to figure out the build your opponent is going for and how to counter that build with your hero and items to prevent their heroes from leveling. So by having players that can't get it all will make Demigod be interesting. You will still have leveling builds like DOTA but you won't end up with all the abilities like DOTA. So that key ability you might be missing could determine victory or defeat. Also replay value will be increased by trying to figure out some new builds for each god.

Guess what - a lot less people would pirate if you gave the demo!

a) if they liked the game, they would still buy it
b) if they didn't like, they wouldn't play it
c) they are just assholes.

There are a lot of c) players, but a) and b)'s might get hurt because of no demo version.

I just dont like C.
I aint an asshole! I do buy games, and I intend to buy this. Just sometimes pirating makes things easier. I will give the example of Company of Heroes, Gold Edition. That game was, and is, a bitch to install due to so many different issues with patches. So I downloaded it. I have the gold edition sitting here, uninstalled, yet I am still playing the game.

Sooo sometimes I just pirate games. But still! Not everyone who pirates is an asshole.

CantFaketheFunk:

A max level Troll Warlord in DotA will have all the skills and all the stat bonuses, for instance, where the only real gameplay differences comes in your item build. Two max level Sednas are going to play completely differently since you CAN'T get all the abilities.

True, but then most games aren't going to go to 25. I think where Demigod has the variation within heroes, Dota has much more variation among heroes, and really, more interesting abilities on those heroes. Most of the Demigod abilities were pretty bland IMO. Stun stuff, do some aoe damage, whatever. The creativity, and more importantly, the synergy, behind Dota abilities is the big difference for that aspect of the games to me.

CantFaketheFunk:

Furthermore, I really, really like the idea of being able to upgrade your TEAM with cash instead of just buying bigger and better items. I do think that the DotA item system - how it has tiers, how you need different items to get more powerful ones - blows Demigod's out of the water, but the team upgrade idea is a seriously awesome twist on the old DotA standard.

To be fair, that's actually been around for a while in another dota clone wc3 mod map :) I think it's called EotA or something.

In Demigod, there's an important mechanism here: you are limited in your army upgrades because you have to have controlled the strategic points on the map for a certain amount of time in order to unlock them. In the multiplayer games I played, people generally got the upgrades as soon as they were available. So there's effectively very little difference between Demigod and DotA here, just that in DotA you have to push all the way into the enemy base in order to get upgrades, and in Demigod you just have to push closer to the enemy base than they have into yours. Once you have the upgrades available, there's no question that you want to get them, so I don't think there's really much of a upgrade troops vs upgrade myself dilemma. The only question is really who on your team is going to pay up for it, and you will probably just pick the best farmer/least item dependent hero.

Plus you get the little brownie points good for unlocking bonuses if you pay for the most army upgrades :) so usually people just jump at them as soon as they can.

CantFaketheFunk:

Honestly, I really think it's unfair to compare the two directly since DotA has had what, five, six years to be refined and add heroes/items while Demigod just came out?

Do you expect Demigod to evolve that much? DotA certainly will, because it's a community based game, but Demigod doesn't have subscription fees or anything like that. Perhaps if there's a modding community I can see it getting better. I know they plan on adding two heroes at some point. However, I don't think that you can expect Demigod to make any huge leaps in gameplay mechanics. They've gotten their opening week sales. Unless they are going the route of TF2 and providing a lot of free updates then I think judging it based on the game that they released is perfectly fair. Not to mention, if you allow Demigod to evolve, you'll have to account for DotAs future evolution, which it certainly will do. I think this gap is only going to widen with time, not narrow.

CantFaketheFunk:

[Y]ou forget that by this point the DotA community is so entrenched and so hostile to people trying to learn the game (I've had friends get kicked for saying "I'm kind of new so any advice would be appreciated") whereas that sort of insularity hasn't yet sprung up with Demigod.

Yeah, DotA has a ridiculously rough learning curve. I'm hoping that League of Legends will do better justice to this emerging genre than either DotA or Demigod has done, since I think it will have the same depth as DotA but also have a desire to be commercially successful with the rest of the gaming community like Demigod, and so will have a better way to get new players in, like a proper tutorial and player ratings to prevent new players from being up against veterans.

holy crap this looks awesome!

I will have to try to buy this game!

@oneplus999 (Don't feel the need to re-quote everything)

As for DotA vs Demigod. Coming from a very long time and still very active DotA player I can defiantly agree that currently it's obvious DotA is clearly the better of the two.... But I also believe Demigod has great potential.

Do you remember when DotA was still very young? It had a limited selection of heros + items (albeit more heros then current Demigod) that were all very bland and unimaginative, but it still worked. Over time DotA evolved becoming better and better after every patch (for the most part).

I think you should give Demigod a chance to do the same... On that note though, I'm expecting LoL to blow Demigod out of the water. (maybe I'm expecting to much).

Kstreitenfeld:
Over time DotA evolved becoming better and better after every patch (for the most part). I think you should give Demigod a chance to do the same... On that note though, I'm expecting LoL to blow Demigod out of the water. (maybe I'm expecting to much).

I'm guessing you didn't see my second post? I don't know why we would expect a commercial game to evolve that much. Outside of Blizzard and Valve, I don't know of companies that make free patches drastic enough to make up for Demigod's shortcomings. DotA is a whole different story since it's a community based game.

And yes, definitely looking forward to LoL!

Abedeus:
I wanted to try this game. I won't, however, buy a game blindly for $50.

You should be happy to know that it's only $40 then.

Credge:

Abedeus:
I wanted to try this game. I won't, however, buy a game blindly for $50.

You should be happy to know that it's only $40 then.

I wouldn't buy it blindly even for $30.

oneplus999:

Kstreitenfeld:
Over time DotA evolved becoming better and better after every patch (for the most part). I think you should give Demigod a chance to do the same... On that note though, I'm expecting LoL to blow Demigod out of the water. (maybe I'm expecting to much).

I'm guessing you didn't see my second post? I don't know why we would expect a commercial game to evolve that much. Outside of Blizzard and Valve, I don't know of companies that make free patches drastic enough to make up for Demigod's shortcomings. DotA is a whole different story since it's a community based game.

And yes, definitely looking forward to LoL!

By your logic, LoL won't get any patches either, since it's being made as a commercial game and not as a community one.