Playing Around Like A Godus!

I was kind of torn about whether I should write anything about this game or not because according to the developer 22Cans it is only 40% complete, but they are selling it on Steam Early Access for $19.95 (or if you are like me you got it through Kickstarter), so I figure it is fair game.  The game is being designed by Peter Molyneux, and like I wrote before developed by his new studio 22Cans.  It returns Molyneux to his roots in god games.

What is a god game you ask?  It is a game where you play as a god, and you use your mystical powers to influence a civilization.  As you get more powers, your people get more advanced.  As they get more advanced they give you more praise, and you get cooler mystical powers.  It is a simple yet fun concept, and it is quite addicting.

Godus is billed as the reinvention of the god game, but it still feels like the god games I grew up playing, so I am not sure what the reinvention is, more clicking perhaps?  Maybe that will come in with the next 60% of the game.

The graphics have a fun layered look that almost makes the entire game look like a large paper-craft model, and the buildings and people are reasonably stylized.  The layers are also practical as well since by grabbing them and pulling or pushing you mold the ground.  You will be doing this a lot to either make suitable area for building houses, or looking for resource cards.  Changing the land costs “Praise” that floats in little balls above your peoples houses after awhile.  You can also use the Praise to build totems and statues that further alter your peoples’ abilities and motivations.

If your people are working to slow you can build one that makes them work faster.  Sick of clicking Praise bubbles?  You can build a statue to collect it all in one large bubble.  You can build one that makes people run to it, so you can move them around the map.  Pretty much all the advanced stuff is done with totems.

There are also diamonds that you can spend on upgrades if you do not want to wait for enough Praise.  I think this is where the Free to Play aspect will come in, but I am not sure.

All and all it is a fun god game, and it is a great time sucker.  I always want to flatten a little more land, find just a few more cards, or get a few more advancements, so it is already successful in that regard.  It may not be “done” yet but since there are very few new god games to play (Sand is the only other one I can think of) it is still worth checking out if you like the genre.