God Mode is the newest release from newcomer developer Old School Games and publisher Atlus USA. The release is truly unique as a third-person shooter that thrusts players into the bowels of purgatory where countless hordes of monsters are waiting to be blasted away with an array of firearms in possession of the player.
God Mode immediately places players in matches either offline or online against waves of enemies that need to be cleared with the weapons given in order to level up and progress. What the game lacks in narrative and a variety of game modes, it more than makes up for with a plethora of unlockables and customization options. The game can be as easy or difficult as a player wants with three difficulty settings and passive Oaths that grant players bonus experience points and gold while hindering their statistics and pickups. Several limitations and bugs keep the game from reaching truly Olympian levels of success, but
God Mode is a bargain at the ten dollar asking point, and fans of shooters will want to try the new release today.
Storyline is an afterthought in
God Mode casting players as a lost soul in Hades. You are a former god who has been stripped of your powers and thrown from your home on Mount Olympus, finding yourself awakening in purgatory armed only with a Double-Barreled Shotgun and an SMG. With the help of a helpful but often annoying spirit guide along for the ride, you must fight your way through the game and its five various stages to attempt to regain your god powers and escape the hellish prison. The game does a poor job of explaining all of this to you, and often times, the spirit guide will ramble on before the start of a match telling you useless information on a killer he met on an instant messaging service rather than giving you an objective and reason to be fighting. The guide's omniscient presence can be equal parts funny and frustrating at times with many jokes getting recycled very often. In the end,
God Mode is a game that doesn't need a storyline for players to have a good time, so get used to jumping into countless battles just for the fun of it.
Players are outfitted with two primary weapons of choice and a special activated ability that can be triggered in matches after going on long killing sprees. The weapons in the game range from a simple SMG up to a Minigun or Buzzsaw that can make quick work of enemies, and each weapon has various upgrades that can be unlocked when the player has earned enough money and is a high enough level. Special abilities are even more varied beginning with a more durable shield and a healing ability to calling forth a powerful hammer of the gods to fight with for a limited duration. Finally, the game allows further customization of your character through various faces, tops, bottoms and accessories, and there are plenty of these unlockable to gain throughout your time with the game. When you complete a match, you'll be able to battle it out with other players in a match to see who can grab the most gold before the time runs out and use this money to purchase even more upgrades.
God Mode is all about leveling, grabbing cash, unlocking more upgrades and repeating; it's a very addictive process that makes
God Mode one of the best games in its price range on consoles or PC.
God Mode only has three difficulty settings and five arenas in which to battle, but a random Faith generator and branching paths ensure no match is ever the same. If you've ever played
Gears of War Horde Mode or similar game modes, you'll know the core mechanics of
God Mode right away. You'll be locked inside an arena while fighting off waves of monsters, but each wave has a randomly generated Faith that can make things easier, more difficult or add superficial settings to the game. Faiths are changed after each wave is cleared, and they can range from something as simple as all enemies are wearing top hats, to random, cycling weapon, to increased shields for players to tougher and larger enemies. You never know what will happen next in a match of
God Mode, and it will keep you on your toes through every match that you play. The game is built for online cooperative play for up to four players, but our early tests at launch had the game glitching up and freezing often during online matches, which forced us to play offline in solo games to actually finish matches. Assuming these minor problems get fixed with a patch soon,
God Mode is definitely a fun game that is a blast to play online with three other players and would make a great addition to any gamers' library of games.
God Mode is now available for PlayStation Network, Xbox LIVE Arcade and PC via Steam and can be purchased for $9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points.
God Mode is rated M by the ESRB for Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Suggestive Themes, Partial Nudity & Drug Reference. For more information on the game, check out the official
God Mode website.
Game Features:
Online Multiplayer 1-4
Earn Additional Experience Points and Gold with Oaths
Defeat Monsters to Fill Bestiary
Online Leaderboards
Trophy/Achievement Support
Game Information:
Developer:
Old School Games
Publisher:
Atlus USA
Platforms: PlayStation Network, Xbox LIVE Arcade (reviewed) & Steam
Release Date: April 19, 2013
Score: 8 out of 10
