SEATTLE -- Lifting the best ideas from Diablo II and Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients, it would be easy to shrug Gas Powered Games' Demigod off as a simple clone job, but the game's true strength lies in its polish.
The title runs on a modified version of the engine behind GPG's strategy hit Supreme Commander, and aesthetically it takes full advantage of the powerful tech.
Units are gorgeously detailed, the camera can zoom in or out almost indefinitely and Demigod's fictional world is dotted with the stunning graphical quirks (such as the pulsating distortion around each side's portal -- an effect only noticeable at the higher levels of zoom).
Graphics are nice, but gameplay is really the thing in Demigod.
Defense of the Ancients fans are going to be immediately at home here. Even the game's lead designer Mike Marr agreed that the gameplay is very reminiscent of that super-popular modification to Blizzard's Warcraft III.
Players control one of eight widely varied (and customizable) demigods, a super-powered unit capable of using special abilities in the same way a traditional role-playing game hero would use spells to complement their melee combat. Actually, a better comparison would be to Blizzard's Diablo series, as the game offers players skill trees, and simple, mouse-driven combat that is nearly identical to that series.
Alongside your demigod are groups of units spawned from your portal. Though they aren't technically directly under your control, each group will follow your demigod and target the groups of enemies he (or she) happens to be fighting.
To bolster your forces, each map is pocked with gold mines and flags that have a varied range of benefits. While the former allows you to shop at a specialized in-game store, the latter can do anything from disable your opponent's ability to spawn troops to grant you new, improved units.
Instead of wandering through a wide-open world, Demigod pits you against an equal opposing military force on a map reminiscent of a real-time strategy game. Most maps are symmetrical, though "a few" of the 8 shipping with the game are not; none, however, feature 3-D terrain, a feature that Marr__ __characterized as problematic for computer AI, citing units in Supreme Commander who would find themselves firing into the sides of hills.
Each map's two forces clash throughout the small battlefields with the winner being the one who drives his enemy back and destroys his base. Typical strategy game stuff, really.
To sweeten the allure of the game's innately competitive gameplay structure, Demigod's world is semi-persistent. By competing in online games, players are able to earn points which can be cashed in to customize their persistent demigod. The eventual goal, as with the singleplayer storyline, is to earn your way into the lore's pantheon of gods -- a worthy goal if there ever was one.
I realize how derivative Demigod sounds -- and normally I'd despise it just based on that -- but the gameplay is simply extremely well honed. We should almost expect GPG to develop the finest in Blizzard clones after the company blatantly lifted from Diablo for the excellent Dungeon Siege back in 2002.
As with that game though, Demigod is just such a solid clone that it will please fans of its inspiration and newcomers for months.
Images courtesy Stardock
