Leveling Down

I haven’t been on the 360 as much in the last few weeks due to several games I’ve been trying out on the PC as of late. Having enjoyed both Sins of a Solar Empire and still in the middle of Galactic Civilizations II, I have to say I’m a newly converted Stardock fan. Taking my wife to Target recently I discovered Stardock’s newest game, Demigod, on clearance so I chose to pick it up and complete my contemporary “Stardock” gaming collection.

Demigod is Stardock’s most recently released PC game, based on the popular Defense of the Ancients mod in Warcraft III. The game was originally released in mid-April, so my recent impressions of this game will also indicate how it is faring half a year later.

For those unaware of Defense of the Ancients, I’ll try to summarize it quickly in a paragraph. Using real-time strategy game mechanics, players from two different teams each choose a hero and the objective of the game is to battle your way towards the opposing team’s base to destroy it. To oppose this, both sides have defensive towers that deal heavy damage to the enemy units, and both sides also send an “infinite stream” of infantry troops at the other side. In a way, Defense of the Ancients is practically a huge war where heroes and infantry rush to battle until one side beats back and destroys their base. Along the way, based on a player’s performance, the hero will level up to a certain max level, learn new and stronger abilities, and earn money to purchase equippable and consumable items. Note that everything you earn in one game doesn’t leave that game, so you always start a new match/round at Level 1 without carrying over anything you earned/bought from previous matches.

Demigod successfully replicates all of these features that the DotA mod was known for in Warcraft III, but the major difference between the two is that while DotA was a free mod in Warcraft III, Demigod has a price tag. I think the game originally released at $40 (but now you can probably find it at Target clearance like I did for $15). The high price tag, the lack of any real depth to the game, and the poor multiplayer support basically doomed this game. It would not only fail to be a true DotA successor, but also be one of the first “misses” in Stardock’s gaming library.

Demigod consists of four modes. I knew that this game had a rocky start and that the multiplayer may not be too popular these days, but I figured I could at least get my money’s worth out of the single player, which consisted of a skirmish mode and a tournament mode. I tried the skirmish mode first, which is basically a custom game with AI opponents where you can pick each AI’s difficulty setting, the map, the objective type, and whatever other customizations you want. After getting through that, I went through the tournament mode, which consists of 8 rounds where you play with the same 7 AI opponents and your “scores” from each round carry to the next. You get randomly paired with different AI though, so your teammates will differ each round. It’s basically like playing a cup mode in Super Mario Kart or any other racing game – your place at the end of a round gives you a certain number of points that carry over into the next round, and to win the tournament you want to have the highest total number of points over all 8 rounds. I made it through the tournament mode, and there really wasn’t an ending. It practically just said, “Congratulations, you won the tournament.” Demigod wisely implements an Achievement system, but the Achievements are somewhat boring – playing hundreds of rounds with every Demigod hero is not something I’d want to shoot for.

The multiplayer modes are broken up into two primary modes: custom games and Pantheon mode. Custom games are player hosted and don’t seem to be very popular – every time I’ve checked them there are only about 3-4 games hosted and looking for players. I joined one and played it through to completion, getting my butt handed to me by more experienced players in a session that lagged throughout the match. Pantheon mode has more of a persistence to it, as you play in the tournament and your stats are tracked on the website. Unfortunately, every time I tried to play it I could never get into a game after several minutes of waiting. I don’t know if it’s due to the lack of players or simply because the matching algorithm is slow.

That’s basically all the game is. I played through the single player tournament and tried a bit of multiplayer before having enough. The positive aspects of the game include the uniquely designed heroes, the interesting skill trees for each hero, and the fact that it still adheres to the core DotA formula. My primary complaints with the game are the small map sizes, the lack of enough varied maps (8 maps total, with only 2 for each size – 2v2, 5v5, etc.), and the fact that this game just doesn’t have anything that really makes it stand out. In a way, it rekindled my DotA flame, but it made me want to play other DotA games and not this one. I would say at this point if you’re considering it, avoid it. The game’s time has already passed, and no amount of effort from the developers can save the game now. There aren’t even enough players even playing it these days.

Being in the DotA mood now, I’m currently checking out League of Legends, another recently released DotA-inspired game on the PC. However, this game is actually created by the people that made DotA and it’s free. League of Legends is another potential reason why Demigod’s short time has already passed. Expect my impressions on that game coming up soon.

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