Retroview - Demigod

Official Site: http://www.demigodthegame.com/
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/202710/
Source: Youtube Channel IGN

Before League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, DotA 2, and many other Massive Online Battle Arena games (MOBA), Gas Powered Games (Dungeon Siege 1&2, Supreme Commander 2) tried their hand at an original game inspired by the Warcraft 3 Custom game map "Defense of the Ancients" (DotA 1).  During the time Demigod was announced, I had already played DotA for several years and was excited to see that a developer was going to take on the mechanics and concept of the game and make an original one without the limitations of the Warcraft 3 engine.  So why is it that such a good looking game is so unknown/forgotten to the gaming community?  To put it simply, there were a lot of problems with the game and I see them even more clearly now than before since the release of so many other successful MOBAs.  You could say that the lack of experience Gas Powered Games had with such a new genre of gaming could be blamed as LoL, HoN and DotA 2 all have members with close ties, experience and work to the original DotA 1 game.  I might miss out on mentioning certain aspects as I delve back into analyzing the game, but I'll try my best to explain what developers have learned about making a "DotA-like" game since the release of Demigod.

Things Demigod did well:
+ Obviously not having to be limited to the models of Warcraft 3 models, the developers were able to craft and create unique and original characters.  DotA 1's characters had many references to other videogames, animé characters and such.  A lot of LoL character's also reference videogame characters and animé characters pretty closely.  HoN are nearly direct emulations of DotA characters with different names and looks while DotA 2 recreates and refines the characters of DotA 1.  So it really was nice seeing very different characters in Demigod.

+ Skills, items, gold, Health and Mana are neatly organized into a clean bar on the bottom that doesn't take up a large portion of the screen.

+ All the skills and items are lined up into one row of keys instead of being all over the place.  Obviously, all other MOBAs did this because it made sense.

+ Games are highly customizable.  DotA 2 has a fair amount of customization, which is cool.  In Demigod, there are 4 different modes, the ability to change spawn rate, death penalty, experience rate, starting gold, and such.  With such diverse rule changes, lots of different custom games can be played with friends.


Things Demigod got wrong:
- First and foremost, online multiplayer connections had lots of problems when the game first came out.  It was a tough challenge for the developers to resolve them all.  DotA 1 also had problems with connection.  Most MOBAs now allow the ability to re-establish connection or re-join if their game/computer crashes.

- A team-orientated game requires lots of intense coordination and movement, so it's a big problem when characters in the game react 1-2 seconds after your command.  A lot happens in 1-2 seconds during a team-fight.

- Lifebars on both Demigods and minions look the same.  In a sea of enemies and allies, the inability to distinguish the two impedes on the competitive gameplay in an online match.

- You can't see the health of your team mates unless you're near them or hover your mouse over them.  A mod was made just so the player could see the condition of their team's health.


Great ideas that weren't executed very well:
* The background graphics are beautiful.  They're amazing!  But the problem is that they also take up resources, slows down the fps, and makes the game lag.  This leads up to another idea that doesn't work too well.

* Full camera control.  Aesthetically, it's nice to be able to zoom in and all the way out, change the angle and rotate the camera to see the background.  But in terms of cohesive usage in gameplay coordination, problems arise.  For one, it's hard to find that balance to how you want the camera to be facing when in battle and any position you put may not feel right.  This also affects team-play coordination when calling out positions of the map and the orientation of each player's camera will change how they see the battlefield.  Pings can help only so much.

* All items within one shop at base and one secret shop in the battlefield.  One of the hardest things I had to learn playing DotA 1 was where each item was found in one of the 10-14 shop keepers around the map.  Demigod did a pretty good job of categorizing the items by types: Helmets for Mana, gloves for attack, armor for defense, etc.  The problem was that items had vast stat differences which causes an imbalance in gameplay as those that get ahead stays ahead with the items that they get.  For this reason, many MOBAs still have items in pieces before it becomes one strong item rather than having lots of strong items as a stand alone.

* Skill builds.  Demigod provides different passive and actives for the player to acquire which leads the player to having different builds depending on the situation and playstyle.  The problem is that it's one mess of a wall during an intensely paced multiplayer game.  The window covers up the entire screen and obscures the view of the battlefield.  Most MOBAs have stuck with the usual formula of having 3-5 upgradeable skills that shows up on their skill palette.

* Lots of Maps (8 in total).  Having a variety in maps was really nice considering DotA 1 only had that one map.  But the problem was the way the maps were designed.  A lot of them had open pathways which made it easy to see who was coming and going.  Towers are almost right next together, and some Demigod can attack them at very safe distances from their own tower's protection.  It was difficult to make plays with team mates to gank, assist and distract because of how the maps were orientated.

* 10 unique characters with different builds.  Despite the different builds each character can go for, the small roster of 10 characters made it rather boring for a lot of players.  By the time Demigod came out, DotA 1 already had over 70+ characters are so.  MOBAs such as LoL has over 100 characters now.

*Lots of ideas put into a mess.  There are a lot of ideas behind Demigod: deep character skill builds, a neater shop, lots of different maps, various game modes, etc.  But the lack of character variety, item imbalance, undynamic maps, delayed character reactions to player commands, a skill chart that covers the whole screen, and the many other flaws pointed out makes it difficult to enjoy for various reasons (bored with the same characters, imbalanced for competitive play, lack of team involvement because of map orientation, etc.).


I'm pretty sure I missed out a lot of points, but I want to show just how much effort and progress developers have made towards the new MOBA genre to get to the point we have reached in LoL, HoN, and DotA 2 as well as other MOBAs (I've recently played Solstice Arena and am very impressed with it).  Don't get me wrong, Demigod is actually a pretty fun game (at least playing against computer AI in single-player is), but the various problems with the competitive and online multiplayer side of the game kills the longevity of the community and their interest in the game.  I bought Demigod over the Steam weekend sale for nostalgic purpose ever since the first time I tried it back 4 years ago and had a bit of fun with it.  But it also showed me just how far this genre has gone since then and what the industry has learned from it.