World of Hellreject

Ever since that Defence of the Ancients (or DotA for short) modification was released for Warcraft 3, it has had a steady stream of players coming to play the newest release of the map. Tournaments are being held, prizes are being handed out, and gamers are having a lot of fun. It has been the influence for many things, including a Basshunter song. Most importantly though, it was the inspiration for one of the most entertaining games I’ve played in a while.

Demigod is a so-called Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (or MOBA) video game, a term that I believe was coined by League of Legends developers Riot Games. At first, it looks like a very simple game, with not much to do besides a skirmish here and a online battle there. Don’t be fooled however, as this game has a lot to offer for those who want to play it online.

The game has several game modes, and your objective varies based on which of these modes that were selected during game creation. You have the classic Conquest, in which you are to destroy your opponent’s Citadel. There’s a Capture the Flag mode, where you run around capping flags and holding them for a set amount of time. Another mode lets you destroy your opponents forts, which serves as Citadel defense, and the last mode is a Team Deathmatch, where the first team to reach a set amount of kills wins.

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When selecting a demigod, you are offered eight different demigods to choose from. They are divided in to two groups; the Assassins and the Generals. The Assassins are mostly focused on doing damage quickly, with no minion control whatsoever. Two of the Asassins are ranged, the other two are close combat oriented. The Generals are quite different however, and are more focused on minion control and survivability, and less raw damage output. So whatever your playstyle is, you will most likely find a demigod most suited for you.

At the very beginning of any given game mode, you will be given one skill point to put into a skill of your choice, and the option to buy a starter item with something called “Favour points”. At first, you won’t have much to spend, so your items will be very basic, but as you win or lose games, you will stack up  “Favour Points”, and will be allowed to buy stronger items. Once you buy an item, you won’t have to buy it again though, so you will have access to stronger items very fast.

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As you kill minions and demigods during battle, you will be granted experience  points (XP for short) and gold. When you accumulate enough XP, you will gain a new level and a new skill point to spend in whatever skill you wish. Most talent builds will be effective, but the trick is to find one that suits you as a player, and building the right talent build can give you a good start boost.
The gold you earn can be spent on two different things; items for your demigod, or upgrades for your Citadel. If you’re looking to make your demigod a destructive force to be reckoned with, spend your gold on items and artifacts. These can have passive bonuses, use bonuses, and both. You can also spend your gold to upgrade the Citadels forces, which will make things easier in general for your whole team, or even things like increasing the XP you gain, or reducing the respawn time when you die.

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I’ve been playing this game for a couple of weeks now, and rarely have I been so entertained by a game as I’ve been by Demigod. The gameplay is just extremely addicting, and I can’t stop trying to find new strategies to defeat my enemies, or finding the perfect talent build with any of my favourite demigods. Even just playing against bots is great, as the games can last long and the AI isn’t completely retarded. The game looks stunning as well, and the level and character design is fantastic. Add some great sound effects and good music, and you have yourself a great game.

It’s not without faults though. The game’s only got 8 maps so far, which is fine in the beginning, but after playing for a while you’ll probably end up with one favourite map you play over and over. Hopefully, a future patch will add more maps. You also only have 8 different heroes to choose from, which is just enough to keep the game interesting. Again, more might be added in a future expansion or content patch.

Also, it has slight stability problems when playing online sometimes. It’s not as bad as some game websites will have you believe, and certainly not enough to downrank the game completely, but just enough so that sometimes you will feel very annoyed with this. Luckily, this is being worked on constantly, and will probably be fixed sometime in the near future.

Overall, the game is great. It’s actually fantastic. I’d say it’s more than worth the 40$ they’ll charge you for the digital download on their website. If you’re looking to buy one great game this summer, and you like the blend of RPG and RTS, I wouldn’t be afraid to put some money into this game. It’s certainly worth it.