The Fall of Gods (XBLIG): "An Epic Chapter Based Action RPG"

The Fall of Gods is an XBLIG action RPG that follows an epic tale of good versus evil. The story unfolds through panel style artwork, and is very similar to the biblical tale of Genesis. There are some noticable differences though. This tale involves 9 Gods who each have different views on how things should be created. Esther is the God who creates man, and woman but encounters interfernce from the other 8 Gods regarding her plans for mankind. Another difference in the tale invovled mankind being given free will to create as they pleased. This event ended in the creation of man-like creature hybrids. The entire creation process began with darkness, and was ultimately halted by it as well. When the 9 Gods faced this evil threat (the darkness) it came at a high price which nearly destroyed everything they created, and them as well. Using the last of her powers Esther once again breathed life into her creation (mankind), and gave him the ability to use magic. Following this the Gods fell into a long slumber, and the world was slowly reborn from the aftermath of the Gods' war against darkness. When the game begins, Heric the descendent of the man Esther breathed life into finds himself to be the world's only hope against the incoming darkness. He yields the same magic that his ancestor once did, and must utilize his powers for mankind's sake. He is guided by a helper that Esther has sent along with him on this journey to face the darkness.

The Fall of Gods is a lot like the classic RPGs such as secret of mana, and even sports a similar look. The game is divided into multiple chapters that span a length of 10 hours each. This chapter sets the pace for the game with the epic story intro that is presented through picture panels. You get to play as 'Heric' on his 16th birthday as fate intervenes in his life. He meets Esther after finding a runestone and is sent on a quest to recover 4 magical items that are scattered across the land in different locations. You'll likely be familiar with the gameplay elements that involve talking to villagers, and people of interest to trigger/complete certain events. You can search houses, and even find items hidden throughout them in a manner similar to the classic RPGs of old. The combat in the game isn't turn based, but instead uses an action RPG approach. You can learn spells which aid you in your many sidequests, and in combat as well. I also found that the game had a night, and day cycle that effected when you could interact with certain characters as well as the type of creatures you would encounter. As you play through this game you'll likely recognize the similar RPG gameplay elements from previous classic RPG titles that you may have already played. Everything in the game is easily accessed, and controlled. I would definitely say that the control scheme is very user friendly.

During my playthrough of 'The Fall of Gods' I found some good, and not so good things about it. I actually liked the look that 'Geex (the developer)' decided to go with. The visual story that was shown through panels at the beginning was also really neat. I think Geex actually did a good job of making a mythology that was unique even though they seemed to have borrowed some elements from the biblical Genesis. On the downside there were massive amounts of loading time each time you (Heric) entered a new area (house, location on the map, cave ...). I definitely think the loading was quite excessive. I also found an issue with a certain part of the game that sort of tells you that you may be playing the demo, and that if you are your gameplay time is limited. I didn't think this was a good addition to the full game, and it ended up confusing me a bit. The final issue I encountered is that this chapter of the game would end abruptly once you entered a certain area even though you had not completed the entire 10 hours length of the game. These were some pretty significant problems in my opinion. Considering all of this I can't honestly recommend this game.