In single player skirmishes and matches, the computer proves to be an adequate, if uninspired opponent. On the higher difficulties, they’re hard to beat, but they never come close to the precision and skill of human adversaries. As such, single player is the game’s tutorial. Undocumented and abrupt though it may be, it’s about ten times less punishing than your average online match. The single player shows you the 8 Demigods’ skill trees, the usefulness of items, potions, and artifacts, and the upgrade tree for your Demigods’ team. It’s in this compilation of micro-management that the difficulty spikes. Every coin you spend to buy yourself boots of speed comes out of every allied Demigods’ pool, and out of the general pool for building and basic unit upgrades. Thus, any purchase is a careful balancing act. Do you go for the bonus-conferring artifacts early, save up for extra troop damage, or mix the two together?
When playing against and with humans, all of these decisions play out differently. Human players all want to play a specific way, and have opinions about what kind of build you should be playing your Demigod as. The road to hum
an-based multiplayer competency is extremely difficult, but the sense of accomplishment gained by not completely failing is not to be underestimated.If the game’s singe player and multiplayer are this hard to get a grip on, what’s the rest of the game like? You’ll be happy to hear that this game looks, sounds, and plays (when you aren’t experiencing connection problems) like a dream. All of the Demigods are intricately detailed, all have interesting or amusing (and quite extensive) voice-work, and all possess powers that range from mundane to impressive.This is one of those games that has a build (if not a Demigod) for almost everybody.
The swift, disgusting Unclean Beast excels at harrying Demigods and capturing flags zones quickly. The ludicrous Queen of Thorns is both an incredibly dangerous long ranged and area attacker, and a masterful leader of her thralls. The seemingly weak Oak is able to heal, buff, and support allies, and can, when used properly, utterly crush the opposition. Then there’s the Rook, who has by now become almost synonymous with Demigod itself. His massive stony body can support archer towers, catapults, and a massive hammer, and he rips through enemy structures like they aren’t even here. All of the Demigods are brilliantly realized in game. Screen shots cannot do justice to the detailed animations of each Demigod.
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