From the mammoth Rook and diseased yet nimble Unclean Beast to the paladin-like Oak and the vampiric Lord Erebus – the eight included units provide almost unlimited replay value as new tactics are tested and new skills tried. The skills you choose during a match will absolutely force you down a particular play style path. If your goal is to max out Oak’s Shield ability then you’re going to play the role of protector rather than front line fighter. Oak can be played a multitude of ways – and so can most of the Demigods, which is really what makes the game so special.

This is specifically evident when playing online. This is for all intents and purposes an online game. Yes, you can play offline against the AI and, unfortunately with AI teammates, but you lose a lot of what makes the game tick – mainly because your teammates are either going to be world beaters or “Demigods in Name Only”, depending on what level you play on. If you play on normal difficulty and you lose a match then you should retire from strategy gaming. It’s just not for you. However, try a match on Hard and your Demigod brethren aren’t quite up to the task – the opposing team levels up faster, every time, and you are stuck trying to keep up. It’s predictable.

It’s a shame that there isn’t a better single player game attached to the mayhem that is the game’s multiplayer mode. The idea of an offline tournament between the eight half-gods is pretty cool but the design doesn’t go far enough. Have you ever played a game where the online portion felt tacked on in favor of focusing on offline play? It’s a common complaint. Demigod is the opposite of that.

So while offline play technically works just fine, it’s fairly shallow and is best used to learn what the Demigods are capable of doing. You’ll need to do the trial and error method because there’s no tutorial and the documentation is minimal. You’re basically thrown to the wolves. On the plus side there’s no half-assed “story” tacked on. You control a Demigod. You want to smash the other Demigods. Now, go play.

Multiplayer is where it’s at and in that regard the game is a smashing success ….if you can get it to work. While at launch it was disastrous, things are slowly starting to get better. Connection issues still remain, however. I seem to have about a 75 percent success rate in getting into a game at this point, which is better than what it was at launch but still hardly ideal.

If you do get into a game you’ll be rewarded with a hell of a good time. It’s eye opening to go from playing offline to witnessing how you should be playing the Queen of Thorns or Sedna – you are sure to have a lot of “Oh…that’s a cool idea” moments when playing online with people who know what they’re doing. Each unit has its strengths but can also be countered. It’s a testament to how well balanced this game is when you read the forums and see players fussing about how one Demigod needs to be reduced and then read another thread about how that same Demigod is useless. Score one for Gas Powered Games.