There isn’t any comprehensible combination of words that you can throw together to create a flashy introduction for Demigod. Other than the short, wimpy intro when you boot up the game, there’s not much backstory provided to help you create a mental image and see why these Demigods fight each other(or sometimes themselves). With that said, it’s pretty obvious that despite my best efforts, there’s not much I can do to make this game, or this article, jump out at people, and thus I’m doomed to repetition. However, don’t give up hope for this game yet; it’s actually quite interesting, and has the potential to be fun.

I. The Game:

It’s no secret that Gas Powered Games/Stardock were looking to re-create the Defense of the Ancients experience in some way, shape, or form. Whether it’s better than DoTA or not is up to personal taste. I’ve played DoTA, although not as religiously as some other people, but I didn’t like it as much as I like Demigod.

For those of you who have not played DoTA, though, read on. Demigod is a strategy game… of sorts. It has many RPG elements sprinkled on it. Each player chooses one of eight Demigods and fights for total control over the map. The very uninspired Forces of Light fight against the very cliché Forces of Darkness, and there’s a few ways in which a team can achieve victory, but we’ll get into that later. Each Demigod is given 5 equipment slots, which they can use any way they want to. There’s an item shop near your citadel whenever you start the game. How do you buy items? Simple. Each Demigod has its own wallet. You earn gold over time, and there are bonuses that can help you earn more gold over time. You also earn gold when you kill a Demigod. The person to get the killing blow on the Demigod seems to be the one that earns the most gold. It doesn’t seem to be based off damage at all. I can hit a Demigod once, and let my friends kill it, and I will get the same gold as everyone who assisted in the killing(except for the person who delivered the killing blow, they get the most gold).

Gold is used to buy upgrades for your demigod, following the standard RPG rule that more expensive = more betterer. Gold can also be used to help your team by purchasing upgrades at the citadel. Citadel upgrades improve reinforcement armor, damage, give you better reinforcements, etc. What are reinforcements? In Demigod you don’t fight alone. It’s not just you and your friends against 5 other Demigods and nothing else. Every now and then, reinforcements will spawn from any portal you hold. In some maps, you can capture additional portals so you can get reinforcements to spawn in different locations. You don’t control these reinforcements. They’ll just run to where the battle is and start fighting, or healing, or whatever it is they do, depending on the type of reinforcement they are. So, your Demigod is the only thing you can control, but you still need to plan a strategy with your team on how to spend your gold.

If your team decided to spend all their gold upgrading their Demigod and not buying any citadel upgrades, then you’ll have very strong Demigods. However, if the opposing team has balanced their gold between improving their Demigods and reinforcements, they’ll more than likely stand a better chance. Their reinforcements will include better units, that’ll deal more damage, have higher armor, etc. That means their reinforcements alone can obliterate yours, and if you’re not around to help them out, then you’re in trouble.

II. Leveling!

Hurray, an RTS where you have to grind! Just kidding. You get levels for basically sneezing on a reinforcement in this game. In Demigod, both your citadel and your Demigod will be able to level up. This allows access to better skills for your Demigod, and better upgrades for your citadel. From experience, some Demigods have a much easier time leveling than others. For example, when I played Oak and got my area damage ability, all I had to do was walk into a wave of reinforcements, one shot them all and I would get half my level or more.

The skills in Demigod vary from one Demigod to the other. Skills in this game land anywhere in between the “totally uninspired” and “incredibly creative” spectrum. The Rook, for example, has some really unique upgrades. They can build towers on their shoulders, which will independently attack units and buildings. By comparison, you have Oak, who has nothing too interesting. He has an immunity shield, a ward that raises the dead and gives him minions, an AoE ability, a single target ability that snares enemy demigods, etc. Not to say all his abilities are boring and uninspired. At a certain level, Oak gets an ability that allows you to continue fighting for about 45 seconds more after you die. During this time, you’re immune to damage, and deal more damage than when you were alive but cannot use your other abilities.

The problem here is that there’s only about 8 Demigods. Seeing as you can have more players in a game than Demigods, you’re forced to repeat at least one Demigod more than two times. It’s a bit lame to watch Regulus fighting on the Forces of Darkness, when he’s supposed to be a holy warrior, but hey. What can you do? Two more Demigods are planned soon, so that should help a bit. Maybe. I’m sure everyone will still be playing Rooks and Regulii.

III. Piracy

The game had a nasty run-in with piracy, which made the multiplayer facet of the game completely unplayable from launch. Pirates outnumbered legit copy owners by about 8:1. Measures have been taken since then to try to bring down the pirate uprising, but it still left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.

To conclude, the game ain’t bad. It’s actually really fun, even with its limited amount of Demigods. I imagine it’s hard work introducing Demigods to this game. You definitely couldn’t expect them to start out with 90 Demigods. The balance issues the game would’ve suffered would’ve been unimaginable.

If you like RTSes, and if you like RPGs, you should give this game a try.