Godhood Review
After about 12 weeks, the protests against racial injustice and authoritarian violence continue in America. I’m probably naive for thinking it, but I imagined that after this much time things would start to get better. Things very much have not gotten better thanks to those both inside and outside the American government opposing the march of progress. In the face of this, continuing to protest and keeping these issues in the front of our minds is important. In the mean time, it’s important to take a break from the chaotic world and unwind in a space more under your own control. So I figured what better way to be in control than to become a god and decided to take a look at Godhood, a new release from Abbey Games.
In Godhood, players take on the highest office known to humankind: divinity. At the beginning of the game, players will decide what the core virtue of their faith will be, choosing from War, Peace, Pleasure, Purity, Greed, Generosity, and Madness. This choice affects not only the difficulty of the game, but also changes how their followers will develop and interact with the world as well as the traditions and tenets their faith will add as time goes on. With that decided, the player is then loosed on the world and tasked with becoming the One True Faith. To do this, players will have to send their disciples out into the world to convert members of other faiths to the player’s own through competitive religious Sacraments. In these Sacraments, anything is a viable strategy to gain religious converts, from pleasant acts, like sharing food and sensual massages, to violent methods, including sorcerous mind-wipes and savage beatings. As the player’s congregation grows, so too will their faith as their power and influence grows and as new worshipers bring in fragments of their old faith. But faith outlives the faithful and missionaries succumb to old age and disillusionment, meaning players must balance training new apostles with nurturing proven ones, all while dealing with increasingly powerful opposition. Eventually, the player will gather the six piece of the mystical Sun Stone and ascend to become The Truth.
The feature that drew my attention to Godhood was a rarely used mechanic in god games: limited control. In most god games, players are able to directly interact with the world in a number of ways, including affecting the weather, dictating the actions of their followers, and moving physical objects, but Godhood limits how much influence the player has, or at least tries to. I like the idea that gods have difficulty communicating with mortals because of the vast differences in their natures and Godhood reaches for that ideal but doesn’t quite grasp it. The main way players are limited is that they have no control over the followers participating in a Sacrament, who instead act based on AI using the methods players have taught them. Because the player decides what skills a character has but not how they use them, it really feels like they’re a guiding entity who can nudge them to the right path. Another cool way this theme is conveyed is through the game’s dream system. Before each sacrament, players are able to send dreams which apply bonuses to followers for the upcoming conflict. By causing a follower to suffer a dream of pain, the player causes that follower to be suited to dealing with pain in the Sacrament, meaning they get a boost to defense against physical attacks. Unfortunately, players have direct control over almost every other aspect of the game, which is hugely disappointing. The faithful only ever build new buildings, adopt new traditions, or take on vocations the player dictates. This totally destroys the idea that the player is somehow distant from their followers, and instead makes them feel like omniscient puppeteers. Though it might have frustrated some players, I would have preferred much less control over my subjects and the game would have a much stronger and more pleasing theme.
Another idea Godhood has but fails to totally follow through on is the limited information they provide to players. The game’s tutorial explains to the basics of the game to players, including how Sacraments work, what their followers’ various stats affect, and other building blocks of playing the game, but goes no further than that. At first, I enjoyed this because it meant I could discover new aspects at my own pace and have a unique experience with the game. When I instructed my followers to make sheltering the less fortunate, ill, and old a tenet of my faith, the game didn’t tell me it would lead to my religion making a Community Elder religious office and I’m so glad Godhood kept that information from me because the discovery was so fun. Unfortunately, there are also a number of things I still don’t understand after about 10 hours with this game. Once a follower passes the age of 65, I had the option of sending them on a final pilgrimage, using a divine ability called “Take Soul,” or simply letting them continue to serve me as their age increased until they passed of natural causes. As far as I can tell, the only difference between these option is that the first two gets rid of the older follower faster. Because players only have six missionaries at a time, the loss of one and subsequent introduction of a new follower is disruptive, so it’s baffling to me that there is so little information around it.
I think there’s a lot to like in Godhood thanks to its relaxed mechanics, new twists on the god game genre, and the unique Mesoamerican art style. Others might also like the degrees of control that pushed me away. But there’s enough lack of polish to make the $27 price tag just too big of an ask.
Buy this game on sale
It’s worth playing, just not at the price they’re asking
