What Would Matt Do

If you were to stop reading now and go buy Demigod, you’d probably be fine. Heck, from what I can tell, you’d be better than fine. Demigod is an outrageous game. The problem is, it’s not just crazy good. It’s also got a whole host of problems.

I’ve been mulling over what I want to say about Demigod since I bought it. That’s not say I haven’t loved it. I have. I played it a good 15-20 hours in the first two days I got it. I haven’t done that with a new game in years. But if I’m being honest, I probably spent a couple few hours of that time waiting on a multiplayer game to start. See, that’s where the problems come into play. Literally.

The Good

Lets start with the good though. And boy howdy is it good. You see, Demigod is a new kind of RTS. It’s more like mixing Desktop Tower Defense (still the best Tower game around) with a typical RTS and taking out all of things you don’t really need. Oh, and throwing in a bit of RPG to go with that. I don’t even really know what to call it. I’m sure someone smarter than I (yeah right) will come up with something clever to call it.

Whatever you call it, I’d say it’s revolutionary. No RTS (or RTS hybrid) should be made ever again without checking out what Demigod did with slight changes to the formula of your typical real time strategy game. They did what Relic was trying to do, create a strategy game that was really about the battle not about the building. And they did it by getting rid individual unit control (with some key exceptions).

In Demigod, you start out in control of one two types of Demigods trying to be the best so you can attain full godhood. Each map starts with your DG at level one. You get one free talent on your talent tree (think Titan Quest), a thousand gold and that’s it. You need to level up to get more badass, which you need to do to stop the other would be gods from destroying you (or fortress or holding flags or so on. Depends on the game type). You take your newly born god, head out into the beautiful map (Every map is just sweet) and try to stay alive while capturing flags, fighting of hordes self controlled units that spawn periodically for each side. As you fight you gain gold and experience. The experience you use to buy talents and the gold to buy armor/weapons/powers/guys.

To boot, their are two basic types of Demigods. Assassins and Generals. Assassins never control more than the one upstart god they begin with. They have rely on their powers to keep themselves alive. Generals also get some powers, but usually they are more towards controlling units and making them better. Each style is a very different experience and actually pretty different between each of the four per type (eight total demigods, four for each type).

Once you play a few games, it makes more sense. It all boils down to control and strategy though. Should you run for the flags, or try to meet in the middle and kill some little guys for experience? Can you take the huge Rook you see stomping your way, or should you retreat and rearm? Will your Torch Bearer have enough mana to burn him to the ground he can crush you with his massive hammer? Or will the Oak nearby come over and help out by stunning him when he tries to use a power… So many choices, almost all of them tactical in nature. You’re fighting a full fledged battle every time you start a map. By the end of you’ll have clerics, angels and giants fighting on your side (if you upgrade your citadel), all of which you aren’t in direct control of. And your Demigod will be displaying all kinds of crazy mystical powers. Because they can.

The Bad

Ok, now, if you stop reading here and run out and buy Demigod, you’re going to miss what makes me want to say hold off a bit. Maybe. You see, Demigod has a MESS of multiplayer issues. If you want to play single player, I haven’t heard of many problems, other than the AI being a bit brain dead on the higher difficulty levels. Online though? Well, multiplayer matches can take anywhere from five to twenty minutes to start. Yeah, that long. Not always for sure. And it’s improving every day (I played a couple of matches last night where each only took me about five minutes to get started, from clicking search to playing…that hasn’t been the norm though). It was so bad though, and especially on launch day, that multiple reviewers panned it and gave it abnormally low scores. I can’t really fault them either. If I had bought on launch day even, instead of the day after, I would have probably been a lot more upset

I won’t even get into how wrong it is that an entire review for a game was destroyed because they tried to play the game for one day and couldn’t. That’s mainly because reviewers don’t play games the way we do and is more a systemic problem in the industry, rather than one specifically for Demigod. The point being, on launch day, it was near impossible to play Demigod online. Whatever the reasoning was, it still didn’t work. And it didn’t get a lot better right away. Hell, it’s not a whole lot better now. It’s better, but still filled with problems. For instance, they’ve got this really cool site setup for stats and the like. Except, even though I’ve clocked easily over 30+ hours in Demigod, I don’t exist on that site. And I’m not alone. Or system they have setup to buy items that carry over between games…almost every time you start a match, the number is messed up, which means you can’t even buy Favor related items. Or that probably two out of five games I try to play don’t ever launch.

Oh, and before you go, oh well, I’m just going to play it single player…there isn’t a tutorial either. Now, that’s not a killer and I got around it and learned the game (it is a simple game at its core), but it’s one more thing to scratch your head about. There are a few things like that, head scratchers. For instance, how Stardock (the publisher and hosting service) and Gas Powered Games (the developer) decided to go with Peer to Peer networking…which they are still working on getting right. Or what about the poor UI for multiplayer? When you’re trying to connect to a game and it finds one, it gives you a blank box with a Cancel button. That you stare at for many minutes (see above) if you don’t notice the other, minimized, box below. There are definitely some questions to be answered and more than a few issues that should be addressed (including people being unable to register or get updates in some rareish cases).

You should probably buy it.

So, now, you’re most likely thinking you’re not going to run out and buy it all. That may be for the best…except well, this game is so good, my suggestion would be that if my description of play above interested you at all, it’s worth it. As long as you don’t run into the technical problems. If you can buy it a place you can return it to (a luxury most of us don’t have these days), run out and buy it right now. If not, you’ll have to decide for you. I don’t regret buying it. I haven’t run into being unable to register or patch or anything like that. And multiplayer games do eventually start…

I really do hate to suggest buying a game that could be broken for you. So if you’re unsure, wait a bit until it gets patched. Whatever you do, buy it at some point. The game changes RTSes something fierce and definitely expands the genre. And does it well.

What Would Matt Do: I’d buy the shit out of this game. I’m actually considering getting another copy so I can convince my wife to play with me and she isn’t really an RTS gamer. The game is just that good. Also, I can’t help but to link Three Moves Ahead by the ever awesome TroyG. It’s getting better every episode AND this week is especially relevant with Brad Wardell (CEO of Stardock) on to Demigod.

I’m not sure Wardell wouldn’t have held back the expansion if it needed more work, Gamer’s Bill of Rights (3mb .pdf) or not. Whatever the reason though, I can’t but be happy with developers hold off release dates to tweak the game a bit more. Not every developer has that option and I really appreciate it when the ones that do have the power exercise it…as needed of course.

Today, the company has decided to hold off on the launch of Entrenchment, the expansion pack for Sins of a Solar Empire. This is to extend the open beta period so as to add more polish to the title through player feedback. “We want fans to get the most of this expansion and are making sure we’re delivering the best content possible,” says Stardock’s chief executive officer, Brad Wardell.

I actually haven’t purchased Sins of Solar Empire yet. It got lost in the shuffle of the mess of games released last year. I shall be most likely picking it and the expansion up when it releases. Maybe it’ll even be good! (loved the demo)

One last note..if this hands on preview of Dragon Age doesn’t make you salivate, you’re doing it wrong:

Muzyka expands on that. "Dragon Age has got that optimistic side, but it’s got a dark side. Every choice has a consequence, and you need to feel that there are no safe or perfect choices. No choice feels purely good: you’ve got to think about what you want, and how your choice might move you towards that. So you’re going to get a very different experience, depending on what choices you make."

So, I’m assuming you won’t get to see much of the game just playing through it the once? "It’s very replayable – right from the six Origin stories, which are several hours of hand-crafted gameplay, depending on which Origin you’ve chosen, from there, right away, you’ll get to start making choices, and deciding how your player’s journey is going to be different from everyone else’s. And your own, if you’re going to replay it." It’s all, he says, about the internal debate that reasonable options cause. 

What Would Matt Do: You know what I’m doing? I’m looking for one Little BigMountain. I want to take some his classes. As of yet, I can’t find shit about him online other than a recent event he was in. Is this not the internet age? Don’t Native Indians (as they called themselves… I have no idea what the PC term is) use the internets from their Tipis? Also, were any of these games actually made (especially Ratchet and Crunk), I might buy a PS3.

I’ll admit it, I played the shit out of Dawn of War 1. I played the single player most of the way through (even though it was often boring in parts) in OC and two of the expansions. I also played more multiplayer online with random internet assholes more than I’d care to admit.

I stopped playing though…because Relic really sucked at balancing the multiplayer. Really, really sucked at it. The game you’d play now and the game that shipped, multiplayer wise, are two completely different things. That’s not a joke. They changed everything except the artwork.

But whatever, this is the next one. The beta open to those that own Soulstorm (the last, sucky expansion to DoW1…thankfully you aren’t required to play it to get into the beta). I bought it on the cheap because I’m impatient. Definitely worth the $7 I paid to get into it…but will I buy full game? I’m not so sure.

You see, I LOVE the game as it stands now. It needs a bit of tweaking for balance and a mess of bug fixes in the matchmaking and UI and it needs about two to three times as many maps. The core game is love though. They cut out everything except tactics and strategy. No more base building, managing an economy or zerg rushing your opponent. A 1vs1 game lasts anywhere from 10m to 30m (depending on the player levels…usually less than 15m). Cover exists and can be destroyed. Suppression exists and can be countered. Retreating is often key to winning the war. Micro managing is an absolute must and it’s bad ass.

Yeah, that’s right, I said Micro Management of your units is bad ass. You’re essentially playing with 2-5 squads at a time. And your Hero. Almost all of them have special abilities that are devastating when used at the correct time and place. Facing the correct direction for your heavy gunner squads can often be the difference between winning and losing the current battle. Does all of this seem involved and intricate? It very much is. And it’s hard.

The first few times you play (maybe more than that) online, you’re going to get your ass handed to you. Much like when you start playing Chess or some other strategy heavy game, you’re going to lose a lot to the better players. But if you adapt and watch, you can easily get better. The game is very deep, but very simple too.

In other words, it’s hard and beatiful and made of awesome. And that’s where the problem comes in. See, already Relic wants to nerf the entire game. They have decided it’s too brutal and fast. Also that vehicles aren’t strong enough. Oh and that most of the races are just too strong now.

Ok, so maybe they have a different vision than I do… Well, no, I don’t believe that. I believe they have no idea how to balance multiplayer games (see CoH and DoW1). I believe they are going to fuck it up even worse in the name of balance. My hope springs eternal that they aren’t…

Ok, then, what about maybe them having lots of maps and content on the multiplayer side of things? Hmmm, maybe not:

Jonny Ebbert: and figure out what makes an awesome map
Jonny Ebbert: we learned a lot watching the beta
Jonny Ebbert: and the two maps you’re getting at launch will definitely be improvements
Jonny Ebbert: and the maps we release after that should be even better
Jonny Ebbert: in the past we’d make 20 maps
Jonny Ebbert: 3 of which wouldn’t suck by sheer chance

I can’t tell if this is a bad or a good thing. The maps they’ve released so far aren’t the best ever, but they are decent. But if we only have 3 1vs1 maps at the launch of the game…is that going to be enough to have it not get stale?

Don’t get me wrong, I love the sound of DLC, both free and otherwise. But I’ve been burned before and I don’t believe it when developers tell me they are going to support and upgrade and work with the game long term…without fucking it up. Some might call me jaded, some might call me rational.

I want to buy this game on 0 day and play the shit out of it for months to come…but other than Valve, who really does what Relic is claiming they are going to do? Burnout Paradise did I guess, but it took them so long I was bored of the game long before they released new stuff.

What I’m saying is this… if Relic can balance without completely changing the beautiful game they’ve stumbled upon now, and give us good updates, this might be a great game. But if they do balance changes like they have in the past and give us very few maps for this new, almost austere multiplayer mode (it need variety to have longevity), I can’t see it going well.

Please, Relic. Don’t patch like you did with DoW (dear god) or CoH (better here, but still has some big problems). Don’t leave the multiplayer side out in the dark. Help me help you. Help me want to buy your game. And then help me not to feel dumb doing so.

What Would Matt Do: First I’d get back on that horse again… then I’d probably listen to some Medium Troy.

subnote – Just so we’re clear, I’ll never question Relic’s devotion to their games. I’m not calling out the studio and it’s awesomeness. As a matter of fact, I’d rate Relic as maybe the top RTS developer out there right now. I just want their patching and balance process to be a bit better (at the very least). I demand improvement. Because the developers owe me everything.