N-Philes

REVIEW: Demigod (PC)

Posted June 3rd 2009 by Jonathan Tietz.

Defense of the Ancients players rejoice! Stardock has produced a game that verifies the legitimacy of DotA as possibly the greatest modification of a stock game ever created (sorry CounterStrike, you came in a close second).There's something about the Defense of the Ancients mod, something special that has made it even more popular than the game it is designed on, WarCraft III. An RPG fighter in which a user joins either the forces of Light or Dark and spars in a 5v5 match of heroes (with more than 90 heroes) Defense of the Ancients managed to achieve cult status. Demigod is an attempt to take that success to the next level on its own platform.

Unfortunately I don't think Demigod is going to match the success of Defense of the Ancients. Don't get me wrong, as a standalone title this game does stand a chance. It's a decent combination of RTS and RPG play (strategy is just as important as unit control) and it has a more solid theme as well as more game types and more dynamic play, but it lacks the strategic depth that comes when playing Defense of the Ancients. There's only eight heroes to choose from and their roles are not well defined. In DotA, a new player can walk in and after 20 minutes of play should have a pretty good grasp of his hero's abilities and weaknesses. From there it's a matter of finding the best items to purchase to make your hero even better. In Demigod it seems much harder to find your character's niche. Stardock claims the game is aimed to simplify the type of game that DotA brought us, but it seems to me they've made it more complicated.

There were plenty of things that I did like about Demigod. I was extremely impressed with Demigod's simple and believable storyline that leads the player directly into battle. A "god" has fallen from the ranks of Zeus' company and now is hosting a tournament to find his replacement. The "demigods" (half-gods) apparently are the only ones with enough divinity to be potential successors. They must fight to become a god. You can choose between either a Skirmish (your basic custom battle) or a Tournament in which you fight a series of battles hoping to have the highest overall score at the end of a number of rounds. You can also choose between eight demigods of two different classes, four "generals" and four "assassins." All the demigods wield various spells and charms but supposedly the "generals" class are more adept at controlling the battle and utilizing minions while those of the "assassins" class aim to kill and maim opposing demigods. I found this line between the generals and assassins classes to be a bit blurred. Really, the demigods can be utilized for whatever purpose you desire, and not all of them fit the roles that Stardock has assigned to them.

The game's main focus is clearly on multiplayer, and while the single player is certainly engaging, there isn't a lot of content there besides the amazing adaptability of the AI. If your difficulty is set high enough the battles are quite difficult although that is mostly due to your enemies constantly warping away just before you kill them. But as with all games humans are much more cunning opponents.

I was expecting a few matchmaking problems and those will certainly be fixed in the next few weeks. That wasn't my main concern. I did, however, have an issue with some of the balancing problems. I felt that my experience playing DotA translated rather well into Demigod and I got the hang of it rather quickly, but I was unable to discover the best character for my play style and even the best strategy to pursue. Frankly, Defense of the Ancients has a much smaller learning curve and the basic strategies are apparent to even new players. In Demigod those strategies are veiled behind an overwhelming number of tasks such as capturing flags, capturing grunt portals, and defending what seems like a hundred towers. Again, I think it comes down to simplicity. Defense of the Ancients has it and Demigod does not. Sure, there are aspects of DotA that can become confusing, but those only occur at higher levels of play. I'm sure in time there will be the same gap between new and experienced players in Demigod.

As far as actual gameplay for the most part I saw players utilizing three or four different heroes. I saw plenty of Rooks (giant defense killers—he can create defensive towers of his own), Regulus (a crossbow wielding hero killer—lots of damage), and Torchbearers (a fire and ice wielding wizard—great at killing masses of minions and doing a lot of damage), all of which belong to the assassin class. I didn't see a single effective "general" class Demigod in my entire game time online. Frankly, it was a giant assassin-fest. Playing as Lord Erebus (a life-stealing Vampire "general" with a stun attack), I had a particularly difficult time being much of a general at all. With no area of effect attacks, except a stun, I wasn't very good at either leveling by killing off masses of enemy units, or protecting my towers. The only thing that could technically classify me as a "general" was the fact that I spawned minions (who were absolutely useless) when I killed things. However, I was pretty good at killing enemy heroes. Perhaps Lord Erebus should be cast as an assassin? Despite my success in killing foes, we were overwhelmed by enemy catapults, giants, and other minions.

Despite these experiences I see a very good chance that Demigod will eventually be balanced. I believe the real weakness in the game is its lack of character limitations and variety. In Defense of the Ancients there were certainly heroes that were much more powerful than others, but you could only grab one of these at a time. There were never two Bone Fletchers or Axes on the battlefield at one time. This creates a system where other heroes with different abilities are able to counter the strengths of these heroes. In Demigod there are only eight heroes which forces more of a "direct" counter to each hero. For every Rook you need a high damage demigod like the Torchbearer to counter him. For every Lord Erebus you must also have a direct counter like the Queen of Thorns (her regeneration abilities and area of effect attacks are very effective). Some demigods are just better at countering others and this creates a chain effect where each hero counters another specifically rather than in DotA where each hero can exploit another's weakness in some fashion.

Where I assume this can be corrected in Demigod is with the minions. At the moment they're very weak and succumb to some of the heroes too quickly. Strengthening these minions and making the generals class more prominent might help this situation and keep the assassin class in check. These things do tend to work themselves out in time. However, my final prognosis remains the same. When you're comparing a game that is $39.99 and still a work in progress to Defense of the Ancients (which is free once you buy WarCraft III - $34.99), I think the choice is clear.  If you love Defense of the Ancients, stick with it.  If you're looking for a different game in the same genre then Demigod might be for you.

Then again, you might also be interested in League of Legends, which is in its beta phase and is created by the creator of Defense of the Ancients. You can find more information on that project at http://www.leagueoflegends.com/.

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Update 6/10/09: DotA was incorrectly referred to as "Dawn of the Ancients" upon initial publication and has since been corrected to "Defense of the Ancients".

- Editor

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