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Have you ever wondered what Diablo would be like with a few RTS elements thrown in? Me neither. Stardock did, and with he help of GPG, produced something pretty interesting. I must admit I hadn’t heard much about Demigod at all, it flew completely under my radar, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first fired it up.

Demigods’ story more-or-less plays out like this; the job of being God was recently made available. The 8 Demigods go through a rigorous interview process which involves killing each over and over in a tournament that takes place over 8 different arenas. The Demigod who earns the most points after said tournament is awarded the job.

That pretty much wraps up the entire story behind Demigod, apart from the short intro and ending sequence, you don’t get much else. Demigod is squarely focused on the multi-player market, even the single-player tournament mode is basically a skirmish against several AI controlled bots. The AI can still be fun to play against, but if you have no intention of playing with humans, you may find the experience to be a little shallow.

So, what are these Demigods I hear you ask. Well, there are 8 characters you can choose from, 4 Assassins and 4 Generals. Each Demigods has his or her own unique strengths and abilities, and are based off common character types you would expect to find in any RPG. Everything from casters, tanks, melee DPS, ranged DPS and healers are represented in one of the eight different Demigods. Generals can control a small army of minions, each minion is represented by 3 different arch-types including melee, ranged and healer type. Minions come in a variety of strengths, with the most powerful also being the most expensive. Assassins do not have access to minions, however they have more health, mana and their abilities are more powerful to compensate for the lack of these little helpers.

Gold and experience are earned as you slay the enemy and capture nodes. Each map has a collection of important nodes that benefit your team in some way. For example, controlling the various gold mines scattered around the map will increase the amount of money your team earns, which in turn allows you to purchase better quality items and equipment. There are also nodes that can provide your team with additional stat bonuses, such as increased health or XP gain.

Demigod offers a good variatey of weapons and armour. The advantages of having better quality gear is purley down to the increased stat points they offer. Even weapons are soley used for stat points, wielding a mighty 2 handed sword or a scrawny little staff will not change the way your Demigod attacks. There is also your typical mix of potions and trinkets which can offer temporary effects that can benefit you and your team or hamper the enemy.

New talents are unlocked as your Demigod levels up. Each Demigod has its own unique talent tree with a nice mix of offensive, defensive and team focused abilities. Team players will benefit most from talents that complement their team-members abilities, rather than focusing on their own individual needs.

Demigod ships with 8 arenas of varying sizes. Each arena is well designed, with some being more enjoyable than others. There are also 4 different game modes available, such as Conquest, Fortress, Slaughter and Dominate. These either involve capturing the enemy Citadel, or wiping out all opposing Demigods.

Demigods’ visual presentation is top notch, it did remind me of Supreme Commander which makes sense as they utilize the same engine (including mega-zoom out). The characters are nicely designed and the spell effects look awesome. The engine is well optimized and runs smoothly on my modest 8800GTX at max settings, so I imagine most people won’t have a problem running it. Good thing too, as the game needs to be accessible to as many people as possible if it is to succeed on the multiplayer market.

Overall I quite enjoyed playing Demigod, and look forward to hopping back online after I publish this review. Demigods’ success will come down to how well the community gets behind it. A map editor would be nice, but Stardock haven’t made any announcements just yet. One other thing I’d like to mention is that Stardock have not included any form of DRM or software protection with Demigod. You only need a CD-Key to go online, its not even required to install the game. I think its refreshing to see a publisher take such a progressive view on software security and I’m sure this will lead to more sales as a result. If you enjoy DoTA, or just looking for a new Diablo clone to keep you occupied then I definitely recommend checking out Demigod. At $39.95 it’s well priced too..

The Good

• Brings DoTA to the market in a nice little package.
• Easy to pick-up and play.
• Well presented art style.
• Loads of fun when you play with your friends.

The Bad

• Story not included.
• Limited appeal to those who don’t like playing online
• Some balance issues with certain characters and abilities.
• Only 8 arenas and no map editor.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

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