Reus, Renowned Explorers dev's strategy god game Godhood enters early access
Out now on Steam and GOG.
Abbey Games, the studio behind Reus and excellent turn-based adventure Renowned Explorers, has launched its promising strategy god game Godhood into early access on PC.
Godhood cast players as a brand-new deity, the twist being that they're able to mix and match "dozens" of dogmas to define their own religious ideology - whether that be one of peace, war, lust, and more - before foisting it upon an unsuspecting populace.
Your overall goal is to become the dominant religion, requiring you to increase your pool of disciples and expand your holy site. As is typical for the genre, you can't control followers directly, but you can choose classes and abilities to nudge them toward your goal. Additionally, you're able to guide disciples through divine inspiration and godly intervention, but each has their own personality and will so it's vital to ensure their faith never falters.
Resources can be gathered through the construction of buildings and temples as you manage your holy site, and it's possible to increase your follower pool by sending existing disciples out into the world in order to convert nearby tribes - using a system that Abbey calls "turn-based Ritual Combat", in which potential converts can be won over by awe, persuasion, flirtation, or even good-old brute force if nothing else works.
And then, of course, you'll need to deal with rival gods and their own worshippers - all eager to shift your disciples to their cause.
Godhood has already been in development for three years, and will launch in early access with four different religious commandments (war, peace, lust, and chastity), 13 disciple types, "dozens" of beliefs, talents, relics, miracles types, and missions to pursue, plus four islands.
Abbey says it expects to remain in early access "for a couple of months until we hit 1.0, from which we'll continue expanding Godhood even further." That timeframe may change depending on feedback, and how long it takes to implement all planned features.
These include three new commandments, each with its own disciple class, temple, and god power. There are also more relics, challenges, enemy gods, and a larger world map to come, alongside expanded religious expression and customisation.
Godhood is available in early access now on Steam and GOG. It's priced at £22.39, and there's 10% off for the next week.