demigod...

on a side note, does anybody that has the game know of an in game tutorial or anything? Seems all it does is throw me straight into battle with no idea what exactly I'm trying to do...

 

That appears to be a common complaint amongst the users that have purchased so far. No tutorial.

 

ok, I thought I was going crazy not being able to find it... I have no idea what's going on ha, and can't find anything in game to help. Can't even remember the last game I've played that atleast didn't offer some kind of a tutorial at the start, atleast an optional one...

 

This game doesn't seem to utilise multi-core. I cheated a lil bit > and my army outnumbered theirs, so the units on the screen were so many that the fps drops so bad that I can't do anything. I alt+tab to the desktop and opened task manager and found out that one of my core was staying idle. 8-}

 

I'm waiting for the user reviews, I don't trust computer magazine hype anymore (they all get cash from publishers no doubt)

 

I think it's pretty sad that in order for a game to be considered good anymore there needs to be a deep story and a tutorial. Did mario have a story and a tutorial? no, it was jump on things, shoot fireballs and go save the princess.
I got way more enjoyment as a kid out of mario 1 & 3 than I have out of some of the latest "amazing" games put out for xbox 360 and ps3. Maybe this is what companies need to start reverting to again. Cut the crap and the story line and actually focus on the game again.

IMO tutorials take away from the gameplay and I opt to turn them off at the start of any game I play, even if it's my first time. I like to be able to figure things out for myself and not get lame pop-ups every 5 minutes.

 

Funny, I feel the exact opposite. Lately, games seem to focus more and more on what I feel are less important aspects of a game (graphics, gameplay, special effects) to the detriment of the more meaningful aspects (plot, story development, character development, themes).

This is especially true in the FPS context, but also applies to what were once relatively deep and thought-provoking genres (e.g. RPG, RTS, etc.). As I pick up games today, I feel they're much much shallower and more superficial than what I played several years ago.

I mean seriously. When was the last Western game that touched upon Nietzsche? When was the last game that involved the human psychology more than "omg i'm alone in this place surrounded by bad guys I can kill?" When was the last game that involved deep human relationships that was more than "omg hot chick. i'm in love"? When was the last game that took the you along for the journey and left you exhausted and drained after hours and hours? When was the last game that had a mystery so convoluted that it takes the player hours just to figure out one puzzle?

As far as I'm concerned, if I want to play a plotless shooter, I'd go play paintball or go to a shooting range. If I wanted to play a plotless RTS, I'd join the army. If I wanted to play a plotless RPG...well, that's real life isn't it? The reason so many games become classics or become universally acclaimed is because they have something more to offer than just gameplay. They have something that keeps the player coming back for more and more and riveted within the game for hours on end - something more than just the possibility of multiplayer.

EDIT: let me say that by "plot"..i don't mean merely conjuring some random story and then making a dozen maps where the player has to achieve some or the same objective through all dozen maps with some sort of narration. That's just pitiful. I'm talking about a story that draws the player into the game and reinforces the gameplay - whether or not a "campaign" actually exists.

 

I've never replayed a game that was story driven, except for FF7 and FFT. I've played all the Metal Gear Solids once, and never touched them again. I never finished the campaign mode in Halo, WC3, WC3 TFT, or pretty much any other PC online game (except for Starcraft, but again, only played though once).

In my opinion a story is just something to distract the players from a game that might otherwise have certain flaws. "Hey man check out this game, the fighting style sucks, but man it has some awesome cinematics!"

Your comparisons also arent very accurate. Going to a shooting range is in no comparison to trying to hit real targets that are also shooting back. There is no strategy being in the army (trust me, I know), and life isn't really comparable to video game rpgs (i.e. we can't cast magic, have interesting jobs or go around killing whatever we want, without huge consequences).

If I want to watch a movie I'll check out pay-per-view, but if I want to blow things up and watch pretty graphics I'll stick to my pc.

 

It's pretty interesting so far.

 

Cinematics don't make a story great though. I'd rather a story be told through the game rather than through a video.

Going to a shooting range isn't, but you can do other things - like actually hunting or paintball. As for strategy in the army, it depends on your rank and seniority (yes yes we can be as cynical about this as we want). Life is comparable to rpgs in many ways that matter - we can't cast magic obviously, but we can go through a variety of jobs (some interesting, some not). We can't go around killing everything that moves, but a lot of the elements that make a rpg (interaction with other people, the jobs, the crafts, the development of the character, etc.) are present.

Of course these are different from games, but that's the point. If a game can't offer me anything that I can simply get in a more tangible form in real life, why would I play it? (obviously I find the Sims to be a rather pointless game ).

Gameplay is certainly important, but it can't overcome the lack of a coherent story or theme for me.

 

Huh? Maybe I don't understand because I was U.S. Navy not Army...I had decent rank but no real seniority (left as soon as I could)...but I can guarantee you that my time in the Navy never felt like Age of Empires II or Dawn of War...in fact, Fleet Command or Harpoon 2 (somewhat tedious compared to RTS genre) is actually much more interesting than being in the Navy was...I got to see some cool stuff...MK46 torpedo drop...SM2 engagement with a drone and Harpoon off the rail destined to hit and sink a WW2 transport ship from the deck of the USS Paul Hamilton...CIWS and Sea Sparrow test shoots from a Nimitz class carrier...and day-in, day-out, it actually wasn't that much fun...

And hunting, at least in the U.S., isn't that easy...not very easy to purchase guns lately...have to get a hunting license...have to find a legal place to hunt...have to wait for a legal season to hunt...ammo isn't cheap...and if you've ever been hunting, it's a lot more sitting around than it is discharging your weapon...firing up Carbela's Deer Hunter (not that I ever would) is much easier...or going to a rural county in Mississippi and shooting skeet is more action oriented than hunting...

And for me, the biggest difference between 'real life' and RPGs is that when I get tired of interacting with NPCs, I can turn the game off...and chaotic evil characters in real life usually spend most of their character development in and out of prisons...in Fable, you can be as bad as you want to be...though I'm as boring in RPGs as I am in 'real life'...always chaotic good...

Amen to that...I've never understood why The Sims sells so well or NintenDogs...*shudder*

And here we differ...I'm all about the gameplay (of course, I grew up in the arcades...and the story behind Asteroids or Galaga or Pac-Man is pretty thin, and I spent hours playing those)...if I want a good story, I go find a good book or a good movie...I no longer have the time to play a 50+ hour game...Sadly, Ultima, Questron, Baldur's Gate, Fallout-type games are a thing of the past for me...but I understand your point...gaming for me lately is all about quick fixes...

 

I see no reason why a guy cant play a game like bioshiock (ie the incredibly rare game that has a story you actually have been paying attention to) one session and fire up something like this demigod the next. I started gaming when that meant playing pinball, pool, or cards and nothing has changed to this day. Its a game. If your not enjoying yourself there is no reason to play and you do something else. Otherwise they wouldn't be called games they would be called work and most of us get enough work AT work. Obviously different games bring different things to the table and appeal to different people.. Personallly I like that variety.

What does hunting, being in a branch of the military service (Im USMC but a different war) or any of this other nonsense have to do with this game? Maybe we can move on and get back to discussing demigod?

 

I bought the game, tried a few conquest map and it feel like a more casual version of dota. Everything is much more simpler but keeping fast paced combat (Some time in the middle of a game towards the end).

 

Absolutely nothing...and to this day I'm scared to death of Marines...Staff Sergeant Erwin and Gunney Hyler at OCS were a nightmare I'll never get over...(which also has nothing to do with the original purpose of this thread, but I couldn't resist...sorry)

I will step aside as I don't own the game...yet...and have nothing intelligent to say about it...story/no story...tutorial/no tutorial...and poor network play aren't deal breakers for me though...just want to know if the game is well polished, and the AI makes single player challenging...

 

Dont worry, I dont fancy myself a forum cop (moderator= all work and no thanks) and dont care if threads wander off topic. Going out to the shooting range though? lol. I was getting scared we might start swapping recipes...

 

I'm not saying the game can't be enjoyed without a tutorial, but I'm totally unfamiliar with this style game (never played dota which everyone compares it to) and just wasn't really sure what was going on or what I'm suppose to be doing or what each particular tower or kiosk does....

But, aside from that, starting to enjoy it a bit more now that I'm beginning to have half a clue what's up... just a bunch going on and takes a bit of trial and error... And I do get what you are saying about Mario not having a tutorial, but that's a platformer with essentially one way to go, not exactly a fair comparison, much less tons of upgrades, spells, uncontrollable littlle guys running around, and light towers blasting you while 7 other demigods are killing me.

Did find the manual, it was in a bin directory that I missed initialy, so that helped a bit.

Not sure for how long it will be enjoyable, but finally killed another demigod last night and am wanting to try again.

So, for fans of this type game that prefer multiplayer it should be enjoyable. I still truly miss a good story mode other than simply... FIGHT! But, I understand others don't mind at all.

 

I played this with a friend for a bit, and it's good chaotic fun if you set up towers to extra strong, spawns to extra fast. All the demigods can be pretty 'godlike' in various ways, like the Torchburner going all fireball + fire nova, or the sniper going snipe + range + attackspeed/damage.


My fav has to be Oak, you never see him coming but the Spirits of Dead + Valor and massing armor + life, you and your party will never die. Oh man, I was in a game where I went all armor and life, and by end game, 10,000 life, 600 damage swings at 0.5 attack speed. I could solo 3-4 demigods at level 20 at once, and survive(can kill 1-2 but i'd stall til my allies came lol).

It's mindless chaotic fun, pretty much. I can see it wear out after a while but for now it ain't bad

Plus, at 1680x1050 and max settings, its quite pretty

 

Cool, Im done with the review... It sucks, but at least people will be able to get a look at it, I'll link it as soon as its done processing

 

Damn well here's a low quality one for now,

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nice review, thanks for taking the time to do that... and, I'd agree with most of what you concluded, atleast thus far into my play time with it. I just wish there was atleast some sort of singleplayer story mode.


Only have one complaint though, would have rather not seen what I presume is the entire end of the singleplayer mode ha..... granted, not a huge deal, but would have much rather not seen it until I get there.

Nice video though!

 

My baaad, lol, I thought maybe I'd illustrate the fact there wasn't single player because alot of times words just dont cut it lol

 

Have had a little time to play this now and I am forming a few opinions. I read the multi rocks just about everywhere, forums, reviews, etc. True story that, once you actually get in enough games to figure out what is going on the multi is stellar. While not having measured time to get into a game it seems to me that its getting better since I first tried. They get the issues worked out and give up some new demigods, maps and so on to keep it fresh and I can see this one staying on my drive for some time.

The single side reminds me of deathmatch against bots. With strategy. Ok for a little action fix from time to time would be my highly technical rating. It is actually more varied than I expected since changing demigods and your opponents changes the strategy quite a bit.

 

I have been playing the game for awhile, one of the 18 thousand out of 120 thousand players who actually BOUGHT the game, and it's been a real blast.

IWantMyMTV, this is your kind of game if you enjoyed the way Unreal 3 did single player mode. You essentially run through each of the 8 maps in the game, attempting to accrue the most 'favor' points, thus ascending to Godhood.

I think each of the Demigods is quite interesting, but for some reason I chose to play the least popular one (Sedna). I ended up having a blast!

Now I'm playing in the online tournament (Pantheon) and it's pretty decent also, except for the FREAKING GAME PIRATES (did I mention 5/6 of players STOLE the game and played it online?) initially Denial of Service Attacked Stardock's Servers, making it so people who PAID for the game couldn't play.

 

Now this game has peaked my interest, is it *WORTH* $40!?

 

I bought it too, stormeffect. I believe we have good reason to hope the connection problems will be fixed and the gameplay is there so I would have to say it was worth it to me, htwingnut. To be honest I haven't had this much fun online for some time and I am off to get into a game shortly. Er, hopefully lol.

 

Where'd u hear that Demigod servers were DOS attacked by game pirates?

 

Well, not quite a DOS (by intent anyway), but here's a post from Stardock explaining the problems at launch: http://forums.demigodthegame.com/347467
The Ars Technica site referenced in that post is fairly informative too.

In short, it's probably not worth the $40 at this time due to multiplayer connectivity issues.

The game was designed primarily to be based around multiplayer, as was mentioned in several posts above. However, due to the problems at launch, multiplayer was essentially nonexistent for many people, and of course, the single-player portion isn't really that great.

The major downside from the bad launch is that first impressions matter, and a multiplayer game that can't quite do multiplayer results in several VERY low scores at the major review sites (see metacritic: GameSpot, 1UP, IGN, etc.). Rumor is that 1UP might be revising their review after the game's fixed its multiplayers, but who knows.

You should probably wait a month or so to see if the momentum of the bad launch reverses or if it ended up being fatal to the game's success. If the game still has a fairly large and robust multiplayer community at that time, then it's probably worth buying then. If not, then you might as well save the money.


All this is assuming you like the type of gameplay it has to begin with of course - i.e. basically a neat version of DOTA that you can use to unwind now and then, but one that doesn't have anything resembling a plot or anything except matches of various types.

 

Looks like a pass for me, any game centred on multiplayer is an automatic turn-off for my tastes.

 

I agree...picked it up yesterday at BestBuy for $40...haven't installed it yet, and probably won't until Friday (when I end my current shift rotation)...

I won't play online multiplayer...I love LAN multiplayer, but I cannot stand playing people anonymously over the internet...several bad experiences in the early days of Descent via Kali, and Diablo...my brother and best friend keep telling me that it's all about the clan/community...I just don't have time to fully participate in a community of like-minded, mature gamers so I usually get the boot...fortunately, notebookreview.com is an 'allowed' site at work...

Having said that, if the AI is competent, I can enjoy a game that has a multiplayer design at its core...

 

from the review on the second or third page, it sounds alot like dota, and I think someone else mentioned that too. Any other thoughts on similarities to dota?

 

A bit OT, but WOW! That brings back memories. I spent tons of time on Kali and playing Descent, but primarily Descent 2... and yes, it was with known friends, not anonymous dorks that ruined the fun.

Ok, back ON TOPIC. I guess I'll pass and wait for either a demo, or revised impressions after a few weeks.

 

Ah...I miss the days of Diablo 2... Joining random people's games and pking them until they leave. It's so good to be bad.

 

Oh man, this is identical to dota. In fact, the similarities are found all across the board: the rook looks like the golem-thing, you have that chick on a tiger which was very similar to one of the dota characters on a tiger, many items look the same, and some items have the exact same name as dota's items. The only item name I can remember from dota was the "cloak of flames" (I loved that item) and so it was interesting when I saw the "cloak of flames" in the artifacts shop. I actually enjoyed this game, although I don't think it's worth $40.

I've only played with two of the heroes so far, and I gotta say, the rook is unstoppable at the higher levels (fast healing, fast mana regeneration, lotta armor, TONS of health, massive damage, useful skills, etc.)

 

Lol or saying you can dupe and get people to drop their stuff on the other side of teh fence. They dont realize that you have a tele ring. Then tele over hte fence and grab their stufz

Lol old trick I know, then I figured out how to make a sorc bot run meph all day. Fun

 

Just got Demigod in...but my computer's not here yet. I'm gonna load this on my compaq and watch my comp die, it should be fun.

 

The game runs fairly smooth on a T7250. I've gotten maybe 2 half-second stutters during a whole round of gameplay. FPS hover anywhere between 25-35 without any lag.

 

i got it today and i can max it out completey and it runs smoothly. i am going to play a round of it and tell you the fps i am at.

 

ok i am back and i got 55-62fps average in this game with aa off. with it on i at 30-40fps.

 

Well my current specs are:

2.0ghz amd turion x2
geforce 7000 (ouch)
4 gigs of ram

which sort of almost make the min reqs

edit: yea...that's a big negative. I think I was getting like 5fps with all the settings to lowest.

 

Yeah, on my tablet with the ATI HD3200, it's playabe on low with 15-25fps, but isn't great by any means... is playable though, but that would be the bare minimum hardware I would say.

 

After looking into the game a lttle more... I frankly think i'd rather play DotA...

I mean, only 8 heroes?!
and those maps look REALLY small

 

The maps are actually pretty big, a lot bigger than dota, and they vary in size, from 2v2 to 5v5 (small to large size, obviously). The heroes are also a lot more complex, and they will be introducing more later.

 

Some maps are huge. Whereas in Dota, going from one side to another(say top left to bottom right lake) takes a good minute. Going from one side to another will take 3-4 in Demigod. Teleport = Useful!

 

yeah, slowly figuring it out, and the big maps are quite large... takes quite a while to walk the rook across one of them.

My only problem is my demigod dies all the time lol. I mean, I'll rack up like 40+ deaths in a single game... against an easy AI ha. Will win the game, but die constantly! Need to learn how to fight! Game is growing on me though, is fairly deep learning all the upgrades and demigod traits.

 

Is dying as big of a deal is it is in DotA?

 

Ahem...exactly...I left permanently...other than a brief *yawn* stint on WoW because everyone acted like it was the Christian second coming...

I guess I missed the Defense of the Ancients map thing-y on Warcraft 3, but I installed Demigod and played around with it for a few minutes...I was impressed by the quick action combined with upgrade depth...an old school arcade feel with competent AI and lots of options...won't ever be my favorite, but I find it worth $40...

 

Yes, if you die a lot people will say that you suck in DOTA. An ideal death count for dota is between 3-7 by the end of a decent game. However, I've seen some games (even league games) where people have finished with 0 deaths, and other where people have died 20+ times. Sometimes people are just bad, other times their being targeted by the other team and no one will help them.

 

I unfortunately would fall into the simply bad catagory... but trying!

Do get to see the death cooloff screen a lot though...

 

Well yea, i know that about DotA xD (i usually have MAX 3 deaths )

I'm asking for DemiGod if dying is like a totally bad thing like DotA

 

Ah, sorry. I misread your post.