ThavianX

Join Date 04/2006

Another review up

http://gamesblog.ugo.com/games/demigod-review-pc

From UGO, gave it a B :

Overall

Demigod is solid title. It's gorgeous, has great replay value and looks to be a great platform with a long lifespan, thanks to the release of new demigods, maps, features and gameplay modes. I simply worry about the current feature-set, with no tutorial or "let me hold your hand, give you cut scenes, and prepare you for multiplayer" single-player campaign, many gamers will have a hard time jumping in. Additionally, until connectivity is a stressless and seamless experience the true value of the game is diminished.

Gameplay: B+
Presentation: B
Fun Factor: B+
Value: C
Overall: B

demigod

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That overall sounds pretty opinionated to me. Which I guess all the reviews are, but docking a game that was built mostly for MP competition for not having a "hold your hand with cutscenes" campaign seems a bit odd.

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So tired of seeing complaints about "no tutorial".

Took me 2 single player skirishes to completely know what I'm doing.

Technical issues aside, if you can't figure out this easy to pickup-and-play game, you need to go back to your hand holding kiddie console.

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Have to agree that it is weird to dock for the cutscenes. Last time I checked, games came with a manual... made of paper! =D

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Reviewers have no right to complain about the lack of a single player campaign. Why?

Sins of a Solar Empire, the game that gathered universal praise, had no campaign. Unreal Tournament had no real campaign. Team Fortress 2. Quake 3. Battlefield 1942/Vietnam/2/2142. Smash Bros. (N64 + Gamecube, Wii had a decent one). The list goes on. All were reviewed with high scores.

Multiplayer games can stand apart as multiplayer-centric titles. Likewise, I don't see any reviewers marking down FFXII because it lacks multiplayer. Sheesh.

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Is it a review writen by reviewers from UGO.com or an actual blog from someone, because I am not very fond of blog written reviews.

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I agree its extremely irritating when reviews make negative points about there being no singleplayer, theres a difference between just providing factual information and speaking negatively about it. But lets be honest the review is pretty damn positive, not much to complain about. Just because it doesn't get A's all around doesn't make it a bad review.

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Well, speaking negatively has its place, as long as it's in context. Every game should be reviewed on what it was trying to accomplish, not a "checklist for RTS features" where you go through and check off what a game has and doesn't have and make a score based on that

If a game promises an epic single player story but fails to deliver, that's a cause to point out that single player is weak. But if a game like Demigod never tries to hide the fact that it's geared towards competitive online play, complaining about lack of strong single player is pretty nonsensical.

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Quoting GenoZStriker,

reply 5

Is it a review writen by reviewers from UGO.com or an actual blog from someone, because I am not very fond of blog written reviews.

Idk, for some reason it's listed as an Actiontrip review on gameranking, but the link for it goes to UGO Games Blog.

Review is ok I guess, but as others said, I don't know why a game with simple mechanics gets marked down for no tutorial, also don't get how they can say it has great replay value, then only give it a C for value.

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I played with/against that guy a few times over the weekend.

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Yeah, maybe folks think this game is about light and dark sides meeting together in the middle to have a picknick?

Light vs Dark, kill the other guys, blow their shit up and in the mean time click a few things and see what they do. I know it's hard to grasp, but hard work and perserverance, and you might be able to actually kill and easy AI... some day.

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I love how they say that the connection is meh, but never mention that with Stardock DAY ONE IS ONLY THE BEGINNING. Tons of updates are coming this game's way, and the connections are through a somewhat different type of server than the norm. So there's going to be issues!

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if there would be a singleplayer with 10 missions and 10 cutscenes these 10 missions just would be 10 skirmishes and all reviewers would say "that singleplayer is crap". so i think it was a good idea to leave out a campain completely.

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Obviously you guys have different taste in games then others. Singleplayer is important to some people and with the cast of characters this game has it might be been interesting.

A tutorial would of been nice to teach you about the various structures in this game and their importance rather than you limbering around aimlessly while you don't fully understand why you are capturing certain points. Not everyone is a gaming guru, not everyone picks games up fast. Most people who are just average or below average would pick a game up, get frustrated and never play again. In an online intensive game you can see why this would be considered bad.

I like the game, yes it is simple to learn if you give it the little bit of effort. I would of preferred a story mode but am perfectly fine without one. But I can at the very least understand the "nit picks" as some call it and I am sure if they have these complaints there are legions of people who share these complaints as well. Elitism is never good for a community, or a game. A good hardcore game is one that invites newbs, not by making the game easy but by at least giving them a feeling that they might be able to compete one day if they keep learning. Doing so would give them the very basic knowledge they need to grow.

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Obviously you guys have different taste in games then others. Singleplayer is important to some people and with the cast of characters this game has it might be been interesting.

Well, single player is important to me in a lot of games, as I primarily play SP.

But the fact remains that Demigod was never going to be the great single player experience, it made no attempt in hiding it and it didn't promise a campaign.

Sure, it may be noted in the review that there is no campaign to inform the readers, but how can you you penalize the game for it when it was pretty clearly labeled as a primarily multiplayer game from the beginning?

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Quoting Annatar11,

reply 14

Obviously you guys have different taste in games then others. Singleplayer is important to some people and with the cast of characters this game has it might be been interesting.
Well, single player is important to me in a lot of games, as I primarily play SP.

But the fact remains that Demigod was never going to be the great single player experience, it made no attempt in hiding it and it didn't promise a campaign.

Sure, it may be noted in the review that there is no campaign to inform the readers, but how can you you penalize the game for it when it was pretty clearly labeled as a primarily multiplayer game from the beginning?

Probably felt it could of been better with one, a B is a good score either way.

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Quoting Annatar11,

reply 14

But the fact remains that Demigod was never going to be the great single player experience, it made no attempt in hiding it and it didn't promise a campaign.

I think it could've done a better job of not giving the impression that it had a solid single player campaign. Read the box...

"A God Has Fallen. You Must Fight To Take His Place."

That does hint at a single player component. If I read the box without any previous knowledge of the game I would assume there was some single player because of that.

I also think that a tutorial would've been beneficial, because the game has a lot of intricacies that take a bit to make themselves known to the player. The manual doesn't do the best job of covering all of these matters either.

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Given the incredibly cool rendered promotional video that was released before, you can probably excuse people for being a bit disapointed that there isn't any cutscenes of that calibur, even the promotional footage itself, in the actual game.

Lack of a solid single player campaign I can forgive, as its a multiplayer focused game. A tutorial would have been handy though. I don't need one, but I can see why people would like it. Some people enjoy the trial and error method of getting into a game, but there's definately value to being told what the key game features are and how they work. It wouldn't have to be much, just a skirmish against an easy AI with tooltips to direct the player to what they're supposed to be doing would be more than sufficient. It would be easy for some key features to be missed if you weren't told about them or looking for them. Idols, artifacts, flag values, citadel upgrades, equipment, war rank, common hotkeys, etc are things that one could potentially overlook if they just jump right into the game without having any prior understanding.

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What's wrong with creating an incredibly playable, fun game?

What makes a game nowadays?

Take Sins and Demigod as examples - a game created without all the gloss packaging and reviewer friendly 'items' that increase review points.

Would you prefer the core game, the bit you're going to be playing over and over and over is all there and completely enjoyable? Or would you prefer it was half as good because a smaller developer has instead allocated their time to creating cutscenes you'd watch once, a tutorial you may or may not even play, and a brief single player campaign you'd likely play - either completely or half of. When the multiplayer main side of the game you're clocking hours and hours in and keep going back to?

WHY do games HAVE to have all the one-off BS to make it a decent game? Why cant it just be the meat of the game without all the bells n whistles people feel compelled to need?

*edit - I do think a game of this nature DOES require a tutorial of some sort as it really is a step away from other titles and can be difficult to newcomers to pick up - but beyond that - reviewers should be focusing on the GAME part of the game, not the bs that they think is mandatory - ie cutscenes.

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