Testers: Post Final Demigod Game Reviews Here

I think this board has not been open to criticism, particularly with regards to balance, and the subsequent effect on the final product has been substantial.

This game will be release to early imho

Alright, here goes...Gameplay wise first, art-wise later. 

 

As a concept, Demigod is very strong, and it's influences are easily recognizeable, but with enough new mechanics and strategies to make it worthwhile. The balance isn't perfect, but stardock has a reputation for post-release support for their products, so that's not so big a deal. The visuals (in the strictly technical sense) are very strong without system requirements being too high for people who don't want to shell out a lot of money for a video card. Pantheon mode is a great concept, but until the matchmaking and networking is improved(and the bot players removed) it's hard to tell how well executed it will be in the end. But it SEEMS really cool, especially if there is some ingame reward other than favor items for having your demigod or side(light/dark) win. It'd be neat if every complete "round" of pantheon could reward winning players with some new content element for participating, and it would attract players to the mode. The more the merrier

 

Art-wise, it's awesome. the maps and demigods are breathtaking to behold, both close-up and far away, and more importantly, they feel right for the game. A lot of other games lack the internal consistancy that makes a game feel like it has a coherant art direction. while there are some exceptions  (regulus seems too human to me; he doesn't really seem like a demigod if he needs a fancy crossbow and gadgets), Demigod generally achieves that. The music is incredible too, and it tends to create tension at just the right moments.

 

As a game, demigod is simply awesome, but it's multiplayer nature means that the quality of the experience is dependent on the number and quality of the players in it's community. If a lot of people play and spamming and such is kept to a minimum, I can see Demigod as a game of the year easily. At the very least it should have a strong cult following for a very long time, and I intend to be a part of it

 

All in all, a good review I think.

The current beta is very far from what they plan to release, especially with regards to balance and networking/matchmaking, so don't pay attention to any reviews on those matters.

That aside, my short review of the current Demigod beta is that it is shiny, addictive, and it warms my cynical old gamer soul.

just gunna say im very very excited for release, the games good apart from the balance matchmaking ai aspect already drawn upon

Here's my initial review:

 

The game is easy to jump right into, has a very small learning curve, and is fun pretty much from the get go.  Current balance issues will need to be addressed for this (the fun factor) to be at all true once people play the game for more than a few days against other players.  Further balance and gameplay tweaks will be necessary to give the game greater depth and longevity, but the base product is there, and it shows a lot of promise.  Despite its problems, the game is fun and pretty addictive, though as previously mentioned it will probably require some changes and additions to remain so for more than a month or two.  It is difficult to assess at the moment what the online service will be like, since Beta has a very limited version of the online client (I'm hoping).

Overall at the moment with the Beta I'd rate the game a 7.5-8 / 10, but obviously games are not rated based on the Beta.  I think this game will be worthy of a 8-8.5 / 10 upon release, and with further improvements could even be as good as 8.5-9 / 10 eventually.

Demigod Beta 3E

Gameplay - 8/10

Art Assets - 10/10

Stability - 9/10

Multiplayer Connectivity - 6.5/10

Artificial Intelligence - 6/10

User Interface - 7.5/10

Community Support - 8/10

Final Score - 8/10

The Pantheon tournament system needs some backend work, there are a few significant balance issues, and connectivity and AI are still weak.  That said, Demigod is on track to being a very good game, and the release client should see the lower scores above raised by a point or more.

As long as Stardock and GPG maintain their record of responsiveness to community feedback and full update schedule we can expect great things.

The best way I can put it is that Demigod has no soul. It follows the DotA formula too closely without distinguishing itself, as much as fans on this board disagree.

i disagree. i think demigod has its own soul.

I hear that a lot, and while I can't make a distinct comment as I haven't played the game I only see a few hard comparisons to DOTA from what information I can glean. And I loved DOTA and loved HOSK even more. Honestly, even if it's true, why does it matter? A lot of people liked DotA, but DoTA is out dated. It's a mod, balance issues abound, it has one map, and I can say more than a few not so nice things about the people who play it (or who don't and just leave games even with banlists running).

Would it be so terrible to see Demigod as a refreshed and improved DoTA with far better graphics, a variety of maps even if it isn't a huge amount, and some additional mechanics? Sure, some things are lacking such as hero selection, but Dota didn't have so many when it came out either. And you tend to see the same heroes over and over again in most high end matches anyway. If it's completly different, cool. DoTA carmel core with a different outer coating. If it's neo Dota..uh..cool again? Believe it or not, people actually liked Dota. Go figure. I see it as win-win either way..

The basic gameplay is going to be the same either way as well and I'm all for this becoming a genre of it's own. That means Demigod can be a better looking Dota to bring it out of mod status into an actual game or it can be a standalone game based on Dota. I see it as a step forward either way that will hopefully help spark this gameplay style as a sub genre if nothing else..but maybe that's just me.

 

 

Don't get me wrong: I like DotA. Copying and improving upon another game is perfectly fine by me, but does Demigod actually improve on DotA? The one gameplay feature Demigod boasted -- the only thing that really separated it -- was the generals. On paper, it was a brilliant idea. In the end, and in my opinion, the final general implementation was poor. They are not in line with what was originally announced, and they don't play nearly as well as the assassins when used as actual generals.

When I look past the networking and the matchmaking, I think it's the generals that drag the game down most. And without generals, all we have left is DotA with some fancy networking and graphics but less of everything else. I think we (myself included) did Demigod a disfavor by insisting it wasn't DotA when at its heart it was meant to be an improved copy all along. Demigod landed somewhere in purgatory by not knowing what it wanted to be. As a gamer, it's certainly not a bad game, but it simply doesn't grab me. It doesn't offer anything more than the competition.

Damn. I didn't mean to turn this into another DotA thread .

9/10  Great game.   Game of the year candidate.

Very easy to learn and play.

I think if you look somewhere between what A.Z. said and what Blitz said you'll have a pretty decent estimation of the game from what we know now.

Most beautiful game I've seen. Very good action, fun to play.

I am quite particular about the games I play and only buy 1-2 games a year.

I expect a several months of good online play with Demigod. This is less than I played with SupCom and Forged Alliance and WC3 before that, but still very good.

To call the game "great", I require more strategic depth and better maps - more reactive, more open, more three dimensional.

All this assuming minimum fixes of networking and balance, while diversity and pantheon also much wanted.

Ok, so now we want to create Demigod in the Unreal 3 engine?

This is what I meant when I said criticism wasn't well received on this forum.

Maybe i should have added a Smiley. Here it is:

 

 

 And thinking about it, why not? Should be possible to mod such thing.

 

Just to get this train back on track - thread isn't about the Beta process.  Stick to reviewing the game - one review per customer, and if you see something you disagree with in another writer's review counter it in your own.

Thanks, guys

duplicate, thanks

A.Z. is right, you're intentionally misinterpreting him and shutting down his suggestion, which is all too commonplace here.

I'm pretty sure his point is that the maps are so flat and basically 2D (they're like wacky chessboards).  There's a lot more they could have done in that sense.

Demigod Beta 3E:

Balance: 6/10

Connectivity: 4/10 (Custom Games)

Gameplay (fun): 10/10 (when playing with friends), 7/10 (when playing with strangers)

Community features: 3/10.

AI: 5/10

Visuals: 10/10 (best looking strategy game I've ever seen)

 

...

Where I'd expect the final version:

Balance: 9/10 (though it's going to be close on some of the tweaks)

Connectivity: 9/10 (for Pantheon), 9/10 (for Skirmish), 7/10 (for Custom Games), 10/10 (LAN)

Gamplay (fun): 10/10 (when playing with friends), 8/10 (when playing with strangers - due to balance improvements)

Community features: 8/10 (minus a point for no Voice over IP built in, minus a point for having to build a friends list from scratch, plus points for all the cool Pantheon stuff that'll be in.

AI: 8/10

Visuals: 10/10 (I'm still amazed by how good this game looks and I look at it every day)

 

 

Visuals: 10/10

Performance: 8/10

Fun: 9/10 ; didnt play any games, but the ones i did were really fun.

Connectivity: 3/10 ;     pings > 100ms is just not acceptable. I can get 40ms in other games (espacially DOtA with pickup.listchecker). 

Demigoddesign: 7/10; wished the general-minions would have been implemented more RTS-like (special effects, HP + mana seen in the HUD...)

Mapdesign: 4/10; they could have done much more. Bigger maps, with greater distances and some controle areas ressembling fortresses. Moreover: what about adding a free terrain with trees, hills, rivers/lakes and roads. The minions could still walk on the predefined roads towards the enemy.

 

 

I hate to say this but I agree with AngryZealot. The thing that made me pre-order and excited for this game was the claim of having a game that mixed RTS with RPG and I believe that this game failed hard at achieving this goal. Generals simply are not what they were purposed to be. Other than that ill rate on the rest of the game.

Gameplay: 6/10 - IMO the gameplay is very repetitive with very few deviations from certain items and powers. This makes the strategic depth of this game plumment.
Graphics: 10/10 - beautiful
Community: 10/10 - developer/beta tester communication is very good. The skill level of competitive players is very high and has tons of room to grow and develop into a kick ass group of gamers. The promise of support for an entire year is definetely nice to here.
Connectivity 5/10 - frequent drops and inability to join games hurts this catagory. Hopefully this improves with the release and patches
Beta Process: 7/10 - communication was good I think that the developers could of listened a little closer to the cries for changes to stuns/generals I feel the game has not turned into what many of us tried so hard to bring out.
AI: 4/10 - Nightmare AI is a joke to any experienced player

Final rating: 6/10 The game didn't turn out how I anticipated it would. I enjoyed being part of the beta experience and the game turned out good but not what I wanted it to be.

I'm not going to give the game a formal review since I haven't been able to play it in a while and don't think I can really remember enough to grade it. Also I haven't gotten to play since 3B or C. I do really enjoy the game. It's fun and it doesn't get old. The graphics are great, the music is good too. The one thing I am dissapointed about is how the Generals turned out, but otherwise I think it's really a great game and I'm looking forward to playing the released version.

Off-topic - does this mean Impulse friends list won't import?  Thanks