Review: Demigod
- Thread starter John Funk
- Start date
I swear that 'it has begun' at the end of the review was someone trying to do the voice of Christopher Lee's Saruman...
To anyone out there interested in this game, don't bother! Go pick up WC3:ROC+FT battlechest and play dota, or, wait until League of Legends comes out, since it will be another dota clone, except actually done by the guys who originally did dota, and understand what makes it so good. I think maybe the reviewer here really hasn't played dota in a long, long time? The dota I know of today blows demigod away in every aspect. Demigod is just a very heavily watered down version of dota. Even if you think demigod has interesting gameplay, trust me, dota's is better.
Not to mention, some of the heroes are horribly unbalanced and not very interesting. The networking code is horrible, as a single person makes the game unplayable. In Dota games there are tools to identify laggers and kick then before the game even starts.
Not to mention, some of the heroes are horribly unbalanced and not very interesting. The networking code is horrible, as a single person makes the game unplayable. In Dota games there are tools to identify laggers and kick then before the game even starts.
I haven't played dota in about a year or so, and I agree that the game's sheer refinements over the years make it better than Demigod right now, but I think that Demigod has a lot of potential. A max level Troll Warlord in DotA will have all the skills and all the stat bonuses, for instance, where the only real gameplay differences comes in your item build. Two max level Sednas are going to play completely differently since you CAN'T get all the abilities.oneplus999 said:
Furthermore, I really, really like the idea of being able to upgrade your TEAM with cash instead of just buying bigger and better items. I do think that the DotA item system - how it has tiers, how you need different items to get more powerful ones - blows Demigod's out of the water, but the team upgrade idea is a seriously awesome twist on the old DotA standard.
Honestly, I really think it's unfair to compare the two directly since DotA has had what, five, six years to be refined and add heroes/items while Demigod just came out? Plus, you forget that by this point the DotA community is so entrenched and so hostile to people trying to learn the game (I've had friends get kicked for saying "I'm kind of new so any advice would be appreciated") whereas that sort of insularity hasn't yet sprung up with Demigod.
I do agree that the networking code is in bad need of rewrite.
True, but then most games aren't going to go to 25. I think where Demigod has the variation within heroes, Dota has much more variation among heroes, and really, more interesting abilities on those heroes. Most of the Demigod abilities were pretty bland IMO. Stun stuff, do some aoe damage, whatever. The creativity, and more importantly, the synergy, behind Dota abilities is the big difference for that aspect of the games to me.CantFaketheFunk said:
To be fair, that's actually been around for a while in another dota clone wc3 mod mapCantFaketheFunk said:
I think it's called EotA or something. In Demigod, there's an important mechanism here: you are limited in your army upgrades because you have to have controlled the strategic points on the map for a certain amount of time in order to unlock them. In the multiplayer games I played, people generally got the upgrades as soon as they were available. So there's effectively very little difference between Demigod and DotA here, just that in DotA you have to push all the way into the enemy base in order to get upgrades, and in Demigod you just have to push closer to the enemy base than they have into yours. Once you have the upgrades available, there's no question that you want to get them, so I don't think there's really much of a upgrade troops vs upgrade myself dilemma. The only question is really who on your team is going to pay up for it, and you will probably just pick the best farmer/least item dependent hero.
Plus you get the little brownie points good for unlocking bonuses if you pay for the most army upgrades
so usually people just jump at them as soon as they can.Do you expect Demigod to evolve that much? DotA certainly will, because it's a community based game, but Demigod doesn't have subscription fees or anything like that. Perhaps if there's a modding community I can see it getting better. I know they plan on adding two heroes at some point. However, I don't think that you can expect Demigod to make any huge leaps in gameplay mechanics. They've gotten their opening week sales. Unless they are going the route of TF2 and providing a lot of free updates then I think judging it based on the game that they released is perfectly fair. Not to mention, if you allow Demigod to evolve, you'll have to account for DotAs future evolution, which it certainly will do. I think this gap is only going to widen with time, not narrow.CantFaketheFunk said:
Yeah, DotA has a ridiculously rough learning curve. I'm hoping that League of Legends will do better justice to this emerging genre than either DotA or Demigod has done, since I think it will have the same depth as DotA but also have a desire to be commercially successful with the rest of the gaming community like Demigod, and so will have a better way to get new players in, like a proper tutorial and player ratings to prevent new players from being up against veterans.CantFaketheFunk said:
@oneplus999 (Don't feel the need to re-quote everything)
As for DotA vs Demigod. Coming from a very long time and still very active DotA player I can defiantly agree that currently it's obvious DotA is clearly the better of the two.... But I also believe Demigod has great potential.
Do you remember when DotA was still very young? It had a limited selection of heros + items (albeit more heros then current Demigod) that were all very bland and unimaginative, but it still worked. Over time DotA evolved becoming better and better after every patch (for the most part).
I think you should give Demigod a chance to do the same... On that note though, I'm expecting LoL to blow Demigod out of the water. (maybe I'm expecting to much).
As for DotA vs Demigod. Coming from a very long time and still very active DotA player I can defiantly agree that currently it's obvious DotA is clearly the better of the two.... But I also believe Demigod has great potential.
Do you remember when DotA was still very young? It had a limited selection of heros + items (albeit more heros then current Demigod) that were all very bland and unimaginative, but it still worked. Over time DotA evolved becoming better and better after every patch (for the most part).
I think you should give Demigod a chance to do the same... On that note though, I'm expecting LoL to blow Demigod out of the water. (maybe I'm expecting to much).
I'm guessing you didn't see my second post? I don't know why we would expect a commercial game to evolve that much. Outside of Blizzard and Valve, I don't know of companies that make free patches drastic enough to make up for Demigod's shortcomings. DotA is a whole different story since it's a community based game.Kstreitenfeld said:
And yes, definitely looking forward to LoL!
I've been playing this game since the second beta was out, and I really like it, but funk really understates the problems with multiplayer. There are tons of people who are largely unable to play multiplayer much at all. There are factors that preclude a game without lag or the game itself playing at a good speed, and really I want to say 4 out of 5 games I've played online have more or less collapsed because of either simspeed issues or more likely, connection issues.
That being said the game is great (IMO, of course) I hadn't played DoTA prior to playing this, so I can't compare the two, but it makes for a really fun kind of war between people. One thing I think is something of a problem as well is that issues apart from connectivity issues are on the back burner until they get the connectivity issues sorted out. So complaints about game balance, disfunctional controls etc, tend to be ignored.
IMO, the game may have been better as an action game. It does rely on reflexes to a point, but is also some amount tactical...although very narrowly. But really a good game, make sure you have a good mouse. Not trying to snub your review in any way, but I think if people are considering buying it, they should have a sense of the connectivity issues in the game.
That being said the game is great (IMO, of course) I hadn't played DoTA prior to playing this, so I can't compare the two, but it makes for a really fun kind of war between people. One thing I think is something of a problem as well is that issues apart from connectivity issues are on the back burner until they get the connectivity issues sorted out. So complaints about game balance, disfunctional controls etc, tend to be ignored.
IMO, the game may have been better as an action game. It does rely on reflexes to a point, but is also some amount tactical...although very narrowly. But really a good game, make sure you have a good mouse. Not trying to snub your review in any way, but I think if people are considering buying it, they should have a sense of the connectivity issues in the game.
Firstly, I never said LoL would evolve, so I don't know why you are bothering to say this. If LoL sucks when it comes out, I'll say so, and if I hear that either it or Demigod get a really big patch, I'll reevaluate them.CantFaketheFunk said:
Secondly, I clearly do recognize some commercial companies have a history of making significant positive patches well past release (like a pointed out: Bliz, Valve), and guess who some of the guys making LoL are? The guys who made DotA! So actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if LoL does undergo some significant evolution.
I remember making my very own DotA clones, with my very own heroes and very own skills, abilites and items; good times. I'm quite curious about Demigod and might buy it once it's less expensive.