Animal Gods (Hands-On) (PC) Preview

The short demo that's currently available shows what could barely be called a skeleton of a game; the player uses their "dash cloak" to traverse a few pits, then fights a handful of enemies using their sword, then reverts to the dash cloak to avoid timed beams of energy shooting across the screen - that's it. The only purpose seems to be to establish that the core gameplay isn't inherently flawed. Obviously this is in a very rough state - those energy beams don't so much shoot across the screen as appear out of nowhere to instantly kill players, and the combat AI is extremely simplistic - but problems like that will almost certainly be eliminated by the time of release. Otherwise, the demo functions perfectly well.

How the game will entertain, though, is impossible to guess at this point. The Kickstarter and Greenlight pages suggest it will feature an open world and equipment upgrades, but neither of those really mean much without specifics. The upgrade feature sounds more potentially interesting, as it's the only hint of depth the game has shown so far, not to mention the only apparent avenue for puzzle-solving gameplay. That's assuming there will be puzzles. After all, a Zelda clone without puzzles is basically a Souls game with much simpler combat, which doesn't sound particularly engaging.

If nothing else, the demo is as attractive in motion as it is in screenshots. The art style is basically Journey in 2D, which is never a bad thing, and the use of the Unity engine facilitates some beautiful misty particle effects, the likes of which are not often seen in retro-style indie games. The extravagant environments sometimes obscure the intended path, and the perspective seems distorted in places, but it wouldn't be difficult to improve those areas in the next two years. Possibly the most disappointing thing about the demo, however, is that it doesn't include any music, despite the fact that the trailer's wonderful genre-blended composition is one of its obvious highlights. Similarly, even though Still Games insists that the story will be a focus of the game, the demo shows no sign of it whatsoever.