Demigod Comments by Dan Griliopoulos

Guess which one.

I've played DG since beta, and I would like to correct some "mistakes" made in this article.

- AI sucks. Really. Once you understand the game mechanics, it becomes clear that dying is something you should avoid at all costs. Unfortunately, the AI has the nasty habit on rushing on an ennemy Demigod, getting hit badly, trying to teleport (which can be interrupted easily due to the long casting time) and eventually dying.

- Detah Penalty IS hampering. While the first time you die, you are only missing 10 sec, this number can go up to 30 sec really fast. But the biggest issue about dying, is giving the opposite team a lot of gold and XP for each death. So a team that will achieve early kills will rapidly have a monetary advantage on the other team, usually ending in the purchase of an imba artifact leading to "gg".

Which brings me back to point 1, the AI and its suicidal tendencies. So unless you face absolute noobs, you dO NOT want to be teamed up with AI.

Let's put it this way: most of the things you see in Demigod were done before in the famous or infamous DoTA map, map which was created by the Warcreaft 3 fans. Demigod seem to lack balance, has a limited choice of heroes, a few good ideas and a mess when we are talking about the gameplay. Not going to pirate the game, but not going to spend money on it, also. Gas Powered Games seems to be on a roll on creating half arsed games : Supreme Commander ( bad ripoff of Total Anihilation), Space Siege (one of the worst experiences I 've had), now this. Thanks, i'll pass. When they remember what they've did in Dungeon Siege series, than I'll give them my money again. Until then my wallet stays closed.

No mention of AoS? :(


What's also missing, more tragically, is any form of tutorial. If you're a non-hardcore player, who's not played Warcraft III, you may lose a few times before you get a hang of what's going on; even you hardcore players are going to click uselessly a few times on their uncontrollable troops, attempting to order them around, before working out what's going on

Not if you read the manual...


Great game imo. Can't see why Rook being slow is a bad thing...he's a giant walking castle, try giving him all the speed buffs, he looks stupid!

Wait for the demo!

It boggles my mind how a game development studio can go through all the effort of creating a game from scratch and then leave out the most obvious elements that any self respecting gamer would think of in the first 5 minutes of play...
That said, Demigod is really really fun, but there are some really basic things that could be added to make it legendary.
Hope they do...

read like a darkfall

shit game is shit.

Great concept for a game poorly executed.

There's a lot of balance issues, but I hope they get fixed in the near future. As for the multiplayer problems, I've not had any thanks to Hamachi. Played this with mates and loved it.

Pretty deserving score overall, but I have no idea what the reviewer's banging on about, calling it a "racing game"... WTF?

I dont know about helmets being useless. Scaled helm and Vlemish faceguard are probably two of the most commonly bought items in the game.

"but there's not much difference between playing alongside an AI and a human player. I'm not sure if that's praise for the AI or a criticism of the strictures of the game."

I dont say this to be mean but you are either a horrible player or the people you have played with are horrible.

One of the greatest upsets right now in the demigod community is how Pantheon and Skirmish often make games with AIs and how playing with an AI on your team, while the opposing has none, is an immediate loss. The AI while not bad, doesnt stand up in a multiplayer game as it is very, very easy to farm for gold.

i've had this on pre-order for a long time now but i think i may cancel, too much bad news for too long before the EU release

Ezzekhiel - yep, AI does suck (though not as much as some humans I've played with - it sucks reliably) and Death Penalty is hampering, especially at the beginning, as you say - but it's not something that you can't come back from.

hiddenranbir - download didn't come with a manual, sadly. Most review copies don't.

MrMud - yep, those two helmets are great - but they're the ones that make the rest redundant, as they're too good!

Viper_h - the fighting/racing game quote was from a developer interview.

hiddenranbir - download didn't come with a manual, sadly

There's a .pdf-file of the manual in the directory of the game, surprisingly. ;)

The lack of a tutorial didn't bother me at all.

Uncle Lou - D'oh. I always learn something new coming into the EG comments threads.

Yeah, in directory. I admit that the Impulse client should provide link to it in the Games tab.

Get on IRC*, join my sort of but not secret channel for good, fun players! I'm super fun.

*Game provides access to irc room with its overlay, or you can use 3rd party client if ye want.

although I'll agree theres a lot the game 'could' have that DotA has with WC3 feature wise, but I'm beginning to think no one at EG likes anything thats a neish.

Even tho the score was ok and the reviewer did take on board a lot of issues that were fixed, it does seem in the revew the fact that you can't get any instant gratifcation effects the enjoyment of the game. The Rook comment kinda points in that direction, it's one of my main demis I use and omg is it good if you kit it up with speed and life, it's deffinitly the 'tank' but it comes with built it 'rocket launchers'.

The reviewer also reffers in closing this as a ' bad RTS', even tho they are reffing TF2 and L4D, irronically when doing that they've hit the mark it's NOT a pure RTS so it's bound to be a 'bad' one, it's like saying DoW2 was a bad RTS due to it lacking base building and it's leaning towards RPG character building in the campain, Demigod runs in the same circles as that, it's a hybrid and it's being scorned for not beng 'standard'.

Again I'll agree 7/10 is good for it atm until they throw more features at the game but again don't let the review make of you think it's terrible, it's for the DotA players mainly and possibily those who liked the tactical gameplay DoW2 did, demo it at least.

hiddenranbir - yeah, drop me a message and I'll join you. I've mostly been playing as Sedna on hamachi connections, because I love those yetis and her near unkillability at max-level - and keeping my compadres alive, obv.

Kremlik - no, it's not a terrible game by any means; it's a cut-down RPG/RTS where all the variety's in the characters themselves. With as many maps as Total Annihilation, an editor, and some AI-modding it could be really, really good and I'd mark it up. Hell, I'd mark it up if they iron out all those niggling bugs.

it's for the DotA players mainly

DotA players would disagree. They're all negative the game doesn't have recipes or 100 heroes, plus a lot of other ramblings most had during the beta.

This is supposed to be a far more accessible game, allowing a wider audience to get into it. I'd say it has had some success in that because I'm lazy in team games and I get to be super lazy as a Rook (not many mp teams would tolerate me chatting on irc and playing FM09 while in a DG match!)

The coming free updates will add at least two new Demigods, clan system and some other swank stuff.

I was quite excited about this game having recently discovered dota (i know i'm a bit behind but wow and various other mmos had my attention for a good long while!). Think I'll stick with trying to work out dota for awhile until they fix the problems and release some of the extra content that might rescue it. By then I might have worked out what the hell I'm supposed to do in dota... (especially because its free - you can't compete with that price point.)

@hidden - I did say it's for DotA players, I didn't say they liked it :)

Again past the more then vocal loyalists to DotA, many that I've spoken to a few and players I know like the fact the idea has had some retail expoesure, knowing Blizzard they'll be 'borrowing' the mod in WC3 to see if they can milk it for cash if DG turns out to be a bigger success long term, but again it boils down to 'turf wars' the industry's community has lowered itself to over the past decade.

The game is just inferior to DotA in many ways, if you are looking at DotA as a tournament game.

The amount of heroes simply isn't enough for tactical revisions.
The consequent upgrading of heroes doesn't suite the game.
It's far too clinical, and doesn't have the same intelligent map-structure / forest/fog situations as DotA.

I am also surprised by the fact that so few DotA-gamers have commented on this game, but the not surprising conclusion must just be the same as mine- This game simply doesn't have what it takes to wipe DotA off the throne.

Gas Powered Games seems to be on a roll on creating half arsed games : Supreme Commander ( bad ripoff of Total Anihilation)

Euh, it actually improved much of TA's brokenness while leaving certain things out which were replaced by completely new stuff. Say what you will about GPG but SupCom is their crowning achievement thus far, one of the most ballsy RTSs of the last few years if you ask me.

I don't care if Demigod is too different from DotA or AoS, or that it might not be competitive/balanced in its first month (which game was actually?), I'll look at the game itself soon enough when they release the multiplayer demo, hopefully the devs got everything sorted out by then.

Was really disappointed with this when I downloaded it from Stardock when it first came out.
Why they don't let your Demigod keep what powers you unlock and bring them onto the next level is beyond me.
Even when you do finish the Tournament, which doesn't take too long either not even a cutscene or anything showing your chosen Demigod, in my case the Vampire, celebrating or taken the throne or whatever.

Demigod is NOT DOTA2. Nor should it be. It's similar in concept but different in execution, just like games from other genres and that's fine.

Moving on, I can understand some of the criticisms levelled at demigod. Online connectivity has been poor at best, and the game mechanics are poorly explained and there are plenty of bugs and balance issues.

But while that's deplorable (although it could be argued that you should RTFM for how to play), no game these days is released free of bugs or balance issues; look at Dawn of War 2 or Street Fighter 4 for clear examples.

A quick look on the demigod forums and IRC channel show that both the developers and the publishers are determined to make this game work. I have personally done connection tests alongside the person that writes the netcode for stardock's backend system. I myself argue that there is nothing wrong with the game's core mechanics and as long as they keep keeping on, this game will last ages.

Moogle, I don't see you on IRC anymore.

@dacius: just to be sure, you do know that Chris Taylor (the man behind GPG games) also designed TA, right? :P

Reads like a 6.

@subtlesnake Fair enough. Obviously, I'm rubbish at being positive. :)

ranbir; killing floor, tf2 and dow2. I intend to play more demigod soon.

This review is full of so many lies. The "85% piracy rate" mentioned in the opening is based on one moment of active users, quoted by the game's publisher. Do some goddamn fact-checking.

Sniff...

"Left 4 Dead"

Intriguing...

@Lobster

I know. Almost every gaming site took that quote and determined that the game sold less than it was pirated, which was untrue! :D

@moogle

You can still be on IRC! :P

Better than Darkfall?


No seriously, look for heroes of newerth, for dota wannabe quality.