My Thoughts on God Mode

Four-player, co-op shooters have become quite commonplace over the past few years– so much so that they generally come and go without much fanfare these days.

What's noteworthy about "God Mode" is that it adds a few interesting wrinkles to the formula and is priced right for what it is. What's a bit disappointing is that it doesn't go further with its unique design elements and is therefore of limited appeal beyond its initial novelty.

God Mode has some fairly impressive visuals for a budget title.

In "God Mode," one to four players traverse a series of five "mazes" that are set in Hades, or "Hell in a toga" as the game's love-it-or-hate-it announcer proclaims when the title screen loads.

The problem with the "mazes" is that they're more like linear paths through the levels with extremely subtle variation in the way players follow them in subsequent playthroughs. As a result, once you've seen a given "maze" a few times, you've pretty much seen all it has to offer. This wouldn't be so bad if they weren't called "mazes," which always made me pine for more variety and choice with regard to how they're navigated.

"God Mode's" other big shortcoming lies in its technical implementation. After a post-release patch, which took over a week to appear, it's now a pretty playable game but there are still technical issues such as events required to progress through levels occasionally not triggering, creatures rarely getting stuck in place and not disappearing after being killed, and players sometimes getting out of sync and unable to progress as a group.

These issues don't occur frequently but they happened to my group enough times in our 10+ hours with "God Mode" to be a noteworthy annoyance. The bottom line on the technical stuff is that the game is playable, but could use another patch.

There are a reasonable amount of character, weapon and ability
customization options that can be accessed between levels.

The big positive thing "God Mode" has going for it are the "Tests of Faith," which occur at fixed points throughout each level and infuse random elements into the gameplay. Enemies might for example become temporarily smaller and weaker, or larger and stronger. The level may become shrouded in mist or peppered with hazards like bombs. Alternatively, things might just get silly, with enemies wearing funny hats or sound effects playing faster or slower than normal.

The "Tests of Faith" are a great idea and some of the best ones are tied to the game's harder difficulty levels, which makes them worth experiencing just to see the new tests. They inject a much-needed dose of personality and variety into the game and their random nature helps each maze feel much fresher during multiple playthroughs than it otherwise would.

You'll fight a range of enemies in God Mode that feels
just about right given the overall scope of the game.

All things considered, "God Mode" is a good way to kill a few hours with friends. The $10 price point feels about right for the 10-15 hours of gameplay players are likely to get out of it before they've seen the bulk of what's there. If there were a bit more content or a bit more variety in the included content, "God Mode" would be worthy of a Shout Out; however, as it stands, with particular concern over its technical issues, I can only recommend it cautiously.

God Mode (via Steam)