Horses for courses, games for Geeks, you pay your money and you take your chances. Gods: Lands of Infinity will either appeal to you totally, or not at all, depending on your gaming proclivities. First off, combat is turn based and ultimately quite strategic (if you hope to succeed). All you Diablo loving clickers can head over to the forums, this game is likely not for you; you will have to engage your brain as well as your fingers.
Next on the chopping block are all those who insist on spending hours creating the perfect character. Sorry, there is no character creation, you begin as Vivien the female avatar of the Firegod, who finds herself on a strange world stripped of her divine powers. Her task: restore her power and find the ultimate weapon for the war of the gods. Several companions will join (and leave) her as she achieves her goals. That having been said, you are in complete control of each character in the party and you can determine how each is developed. Vivien begins with rudimentary fighting and magic abilities and it is your choice which you develop. Her fighting skills are the easiest early on, but eventually you can make her the total package. To do so, will take a very large amount of gold, but there are several ways of accomplishing that.
Basically, the game reminds me a great deal of the original 'Summoner' game from a few years ago. It's primarily a first person party based game where you talk to as many people as possible, accept quests and eventually open up more and more areas as your characters gain experience. Along the way you'll upgrade your weapons and armour several times, buy or create potions and trade goods of all kinds to merchants scattered throughout the world.
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Part of the appeal of the game, is that it advertises itself as a 'trading game'. For those who enjoy such things, you can spend a great deal of time buying low and selling high as you wander the various game maps. Fortunately, the 'ingame' map highlights traders and a simple mouseover will list what they are willing to buy and sell. However, you will need to keep track of individual prices. While I find this sort of endeavour a trifle tedious, it was an excellent method of attaining sufficient gold to advance my characters in the early part of the game. After I completed what I'd call the demo part of the game, (the section available to people who download the free demo), I abandoned trading as I had no further need for it.
Continuing this theme of horses for courses, the game is very linear. There is no wide open world to explore such as you find in Oblivion - rather there are a series of 'maps' which continue to be revealed as you progress through the storyline. Fortunately, these maps are all linked on the 'ingame' world map, so travel between them, once they are opened to you, is quick and simple. Just find a signpost, click on it and the world map opens. Click where you wish to go and basically you're there. The game even autosaves every time you enter a different map. Actually, the demo is the most non-linear part of the game. Some of the early quests are very much of the Fed-ex type, but these are soon replaced by more and more strategic combat and this is where the game really shines for me.
If you've played the demo, you will have a sense of how the console-inspired TB combat operates, but it's not until you have a few companions that the strategic elements really surface. When combat is initiated, your view immediately changes to a combat window where your characters are placed in two rows facing your opponents. You will need to determine not only the placement of each character on either the front or rear row, but also how you wish to develop a character to complement the rest of the party. You can change formations, use your inventory, make an attack, cast a spell, defend yourself, or even run away, but each activity will use up one turn. If you run away, you will lose experience. In addition to this, each action requires a certain number of 'Action Points'. Once these are depleted, you have to rest (defend) for at least one turn to replenish them. They replenish at the rate of 3 per turn and you begin with only 4 AP's. This is a weakness in an otherwise good system. As the character advances, it should be possible for them to increase either the initial number of AP's, or the number that are replenished each time they rest. Managing your AP's effectively is essential to success.
Magic is quite well done in the game, though it's limited to combat situations (which means you can't use it to heal or resurrect a character AFTER a battle is finished), and it only really opens up as a viable character path after you're about a third of the way through the game. Spells are stored in crystals, which you purchase and add to your spellbook. Different level spellbooks will hold a different number of crystals. Each spell also requires a certain amount of mana to cast. There are potions to restore HP and Mana, which also regenerate when you sleep. Sleeping consumes food and water, which you also need to purchase. This convention has always seemed strange to me. To be honest though, I found magic to be a little underwhelming for most of the game. Physical attacks usually were far more damaging than most spells. Using a summons to absorb attacks and casting healing spells during battle were often more productive than outright destruction spells. Crystals can also be placed in armour and weapons to give them either an extra buff, or an extra kick.
Perhaps the poorest application in the game is Alchemy. It appears initially as a great addition, even though there is no mention of it in the manual and figuring out how it works is not intuitive. However, after spending several hours upgrading my skills by finding large numbers of ingredients for the trainer, I discovered that there were only about four basic recipes in the entire game and that most of the ingredients I'd collected were therefore useless. Somehow I get the impression that this aspect of the game was never completed; it gives the impression of being only half finished. That's a shame, as it could have added an extra dimension to the overall gaming experience.
Graphically, the game is not going to set the world on fire; it's no match for Oblivion, but it's certainly more than acceptable though there are a few strange lines, which appear on some maps. The characters are a little blocky and when they walk, many of the NPC's look constipated. Still, bear in mind that Cypron Studios is a small independent company and much can be forgiven; it's the gameplay that counts and bottom line: the game is fun to play. The total is greater than the sum of its parts. It's bright and colourful with a pleasant and suitable music score and it's one of the very few turn based RPG's made in recent years.
In summary, if you enjoyed the demo, you'll enjoy the whole game; if you're a fan of TB games, this is for you; if you prefer a strong, directed (linear) story with a few side quests, then again, at least try the demo. If you don't mind pre-generated characters, which you can then develop, give this some thought - but if none of the above apply, then stick with your favourite twitch. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, despite a few annoyances and frustrations such as the tedious nature of some quests. We all expect a few fed-ex quests in a game, but there is definitely a need for more variety. I hope there's a sequel and I hope the developers progress to even greater accomplishments. It's by no means perfect, but there's enough to enjoy making it worth the price of admission.