The videogame industry prides itself on its ability to rehash ideas.

Mediocre ideas, bad ideas, worse ideas — it doesn't matter how little thought you've put into something, chances are there is at least a trilogy in there somewhere.

I mean hell, if an Italian plumber from the Mushroom Kingdom can star in 35 games, the bar is pretty low as far as ideas are concerned.

Despite this proud tradition of unoriginality, one struggles to think of a game that is as far removed from creativity and inspiration as 'Demigod'. Not content with simply ripping off a proper game, 'Demigod' bases itself almost entirely on the popular 'Warcraft 3' mod, 'Defence of the Ancients' (DotA).

So in effect we have a game based on a mod, which was based on a game, which was based on the two games that came before it. With such an utter lack of anything even vaguely resembling a creative spark, it is not much of a surprise to find that 'Demigod' is just a bit dull.

The basic idea in 'Demigod' — as in DotA — is that you take control of a hero and run around a map trying to capture flags and kill other heroes. You'll also fight for command of portals that, once you control them, will spew out reinforcements. Somewhere along the line you level up and collect gold with which you upgrade your abilities and buy new stuff.

It's all very simplistic and the overall concept is sound, even if it is a bit mindless.

The problem is that you never actually feel engaged. Your army consists of about forty billion minions, but you can't control any that you don't summon yourself (which is never more than about a dozen).

Your NPC hero allies also seem to be utterly unaware of you and simply wander off to do their own thing. In fact, your presence doesn't seem to make much of a difference at all. At one point I drifted over to the television for about fifteen minutes and when I got back to the computer I realised that I hadn't paused the game, yet somehow in my absence my team had conquered almost the entire map. And this was on the normal difficulty setting.

Even if you do pretend that you are an indispensable part of the process, there isn't much fun in levelling up and buying new equipment. It actually becomes a bit of a nuisance. You see, each time you want to upgrade your abilities, you have to drag yourself back to your base in order to do so. Combine the fact that your hero moves at a glacial pace, with the reality that you level up every other second, and you will find yourself groaning every time you see your little general gain a level.

Another problem is the lack of content. The game only ships with a handful of maps, which become very old very quickly. There is also no single player campaign, which is quite surprising since they do try and establish a "story" during the game's intro.

The gods are hiring, you see, but it seems they are also being hit by the recession because they have only the one position to fill. As a result we find all the demigods battling it out for the honour of becoming the newest member of the holy fraternity. Alas, we never see who gets to go to the big office in the sky because there is no damn story campaign!

The multiplayer is quite entertaining though, especially if you are playing with friends. Unfortunately, however, even this cannot be thoroughly enjoyed because of significant connectivity problems. Being dropped for the twentieth time in the middle of an online match might be just a tad too much for some people to handle. It certainly was for me.

Even at its best moments, 'Demigod' never quite seems to convince the player that it is anything other than a glorified mod. There is just too little content and too many issues for it to be taken seriously as a major release.

One also cannot help but wonder who the game is aimed at. DotA fans might enjoy it but they are all so obsessively dedicated to their first love that they will never abandon it. Gamers who don't like DotA certainly won't be interested in 'Demigod' for all the reasons I've already mentioned.

Honestly, it's hard to see who it will appeal to. In the end it's just real-time strategy without any strategy, and no amount of Italian plumbers can save a game like that.

6.1/10

Buy this game: PC

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