Once the adventurer fumbles around enough with the interface to achieve motion, the next thing to notice is the graphics. The graphics are down-and-out ugly to behold. Structures are completely square and blocky and most objects follow the scheme. Terrain is blurry with a very low polygon count. Trees are pyramidic, with a smattering of textures to represent leaves. The non-player characters are the absolute worst. Low polygon counts, bad texturing, and repeated designs makes GODS look like an adventure in Army Men. This is especially true in combat, where the polygon count is lowered even further, and looks like a scene from Quake, rather than a 2007 title.
Combat brings the frustration of GODS to a head here. One would assume that the premise of a game like this would be to really hit home with some first-person claymore slashing action, but no. GODS offers one of the strangest combat systems in relation to the general mechanics of the game to date. Instead of a real-time first person combat system, the player is unceremoniously jerked into a top-down turn-based combat system with a little smattering of tactics involved. Moves and stats are determined by a 2×4 grid on either force’s side, but forget all that. It’s pointless. The combat is so absurdly easy that a player could put the weakest unit in front, or in back, and it won’t matter because the AI will always attack the weakest first, then the second weakest, and so forth, while the gamer pummels the hell out of the opposing force. The combat animations are pathetic, to boot, with attacking units moving so quickly that they appear to "warp" to the target’s location, make a sudden shuddering motion that resembles swinging a sword, and then warp back. When combat is concluded, the victor is greeted with an inane zoomed out homage of Final Fantasy VII‘s victory animations – a long pan around the party, then nothing.
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It’s usually in the tradition of ACG reviewer’s to say at least one thing nice about the title being reviewed. Even in the worst of the worst franchises there is at least one redeeming value, because, let’s face it: something had to have triggered Strategy First to give GODS: Lands of Infinity the green light. That being the case GODS: Lands of Infinity will not format the player’s hard drive, the water reflectivity effects are pretty, though they completely stand out in a realm of blurry dithered textures segmented by polygon lines and texture boundaries. There. It’s been said. Those are two good things to look forward to in GODS, though that’s like looking forward to a sticker after getting a root canal.
Stay away from this title. It cannot be said enough. Even at a retail price of about $15, there are no redeeming qualities about GODS: Lands of Infinity. If a gamer is looking to ogle at Kyla Cole there are other ways to do it. It’ll save money, aggravation, and will probably supply a higher entertainment value than this pile could ever.
