Gods will definitely fall, just not as fast as you’d expect. Developed by Clever Beans and available on all platforms on Jan 29th, ‘Gods Will Fall’ is a single-player game with roguelike and dungeon-crawler feels put in a game that will certainly test your patience.

Washed up on the golden shores, your characters are the sole survivors from a mission to sail a fleet of ships, sent to defeat the Gods that rule over these lands with a harsh and iron fist. Your lone crew of 8 little Celtic warriors each carries different stats and abilities to tackle these ancient lands filled with cretins and the Gods that command them. Each unique environment harbours an almighty God protecting their realm and as you take down their minions weakening them, you must eventually face these titans as the ultimate battle to gain control of their domain.

The game is a somewhat open world with paths to follow to different doorways. Behind each doorway is a world of pure torment. Literally, torment for you as a player, which is jarring as it is so mesmerising once you walk through those doorways. With at times, an almost Dark Soul top-down approach to combat timing, you must plow through enemies’ minions to get the boss at the end of the stage but here’s the kicker, once a character dies they are gone from your line up unless you earn them back. Which my friends, in my case, can be a very long time, and if you lose all 8, oh boy, it’s game over for you. This is frustrating because the environments get randomised with difficulty again so you cant go back to that exact dungeon you knew had lower leveled minions. Just an added layer of salt and challenge for people that crave this sort of punishment.

This is so mind-melting at times as the controls aren’t even particularly hard to learn, in fact, they are easy as pie. We have your basic light and heavy attacks, dodge, parry, and vigor revival that pumps up your health after kills. It just feels like there is an imbalance between the challenging gameplay and the controlling. My main gripe with controls is the fact dodge and parry are on the same button and you have to dodge towards the character to initiate a parry. This flat out doesn’t work most of the time and doesn’t register when you boost forwards.

Enemies also have quite unforgiving health bars and coupled with rocking armour too, in some cases, it is a grind to the end. I love the fact though, that chipping away at the minions throughout the level decreases the boss’s health bar that is instantly visible as you enter their domain. This neat little mechanic really makes you weigh up whether you risk your own health bar fighting off as many minions as you can chipping away at the boss or go straight in for a boss at the end with lots of their own health.

You can also reload saves but if you have too many characters gone it just feels pointless. This game is even great at making you feel bad for losing your comrades as the others mourn the death outside, almost willing to go back in and pull their fallen friend back out.

Visually, the modern cartoonish style is something we have seen a lot but is still very pleasing and fits the mythical storytelling theme well. The environments are eerie and charming even in the foreground and the variety of minions and Celtic bosses despite their small top-down appearance are brimming with little details. The cutscenes themselves are my favorite part graphically; each is so intricate, interesting to look at and so fun to soak in as the tower over you. They definitely build that tension and excitement as the creatures rumble into the final scenes. The sound effects also complement this world well too, from the rustling of the wind through the valleys to the breaking of waves on the sharp rock faces, you definitely feel you are on an adventure.

A few things do niggle at me the more I played this game through though. The fact you have no indication about how hard the cave is means you will rush into one and pretty much lose all your characters if you continually try to chip at it. You often feel like a lost sheep being lead to the slaughter. This game also doesn’t really give you time to learn bosses’ attack patterns well as their health is so large and you die so easily and have to traverse its domain multiple times to get back there if you survive. By then, I’ve already forgotten how to fight them.

Frankly, despite being often frustrated by this game, it is actually quite likable. The fact the controls are simple with challenging gameplay will make it a winner for some but the difficulty curve is going to make people give up and not come back. I often even found myself walking away from it once I lost all my characters and while I did come back as it is such a pleasure seeking out the gorgeously crafted bosses in all the different environments, it is just too unforgiving with the lack of information in the world to guide our adventure.

Written by: Stacey