GODS
I’ve known the Bitmap Brothers from the very beginning of their career with the release of Xenon, a topdown shooter, and each of their games was memorable because they had something unique about them. Gods is another game which pushed the technical abilities of the machines at the time to the limit and added some unique features. The game features you as a Greek hero who has been send to do the gods dirty work, four huge worlds await you filled with monsters and puzzles to solve. Armed only with a simple knife and whatever you can find you must clean up all worlds to claim your reward and become immortal.
The first part of the game will easy you into the game a bit and you will find controlling the hero is a piece of cake. He is armed with a single knife that can be thrown (altough he has a seemlingly endless supply). You can pick up more knives so you can throw multiple in one shot but later on you will get a vast array of weapons like spears, axes and even explosives. Most of the levels consist of platforms and ladders with switches regulargly thrown in that form the basis of the puzzles. The enemies are a weird bunch and altough most will stay on the ground some of them are flying enemies and are more difficult to take out. At the end of the level there will be a big bad boss waiting for you and you’ll have to defeat him to go to the next level.
The technical aspects of this game were much praised when the game was released and some were indeed very impressive. First off the graphics are very good and they have that distinct Bitmap Brothers look and feel. The scrolling is smooth as silk but on some occasions when the action gets really intense you will notice some slowdown. Actually before the game was released it was said DOS based systems were incapeable of such scrolling but the Bitmaps proved them wrong! Another point that was much hyped was the A.I. because it let the computer ‘learn’ your strategy and change the behavior of the enemies accordingly. Also it would give less potent players more powerups and items over time, the addition of this feat is debateable but it is quite unique.
Gods was and is a very nice platform game and altough it does have some flaws you cannot deny that it’s something special. You will have to adjust your pace to the game something because unlike most platformers this is definately not a twitchy fastpace game, your character walks and jumps real slow. Another thing to watch out for is when you want to go down a ladder you will sometimes miss it and fall down, since there is no way to grab a ladder while falling this can lead to death and frustration but will a little practice you can overcome this. I know some who criticize the game for the things I just mentioned but I still feel the game is good and well worth checking out.
Overal rating: 7.5/10
This game was released for many different systems here are some notes:
| Amiga | Released in 1991. The system of choice for the Bitmaps but in this case the ST, DOS and Amiga versions are almost identical. |
| Atari ST | Released in 1991. |
| DOS | Released in 1991. Probably one of the best sidescrolling platform games released on this system. |
| Megadrive/ Genesis |
Released in 1992. The pace is much fast in this version but it seems to be added in a hurry as it looks a bit like fast forwarding a movie. Other than that it’s mostly the same. |
| Super NES | Released in 1992. Similar to the Genesis version but because of the lower resolution the playing area is reduced which is not good. |
| Date added | May-24-2006 14:23 |
| Name | GODS |
| Developer | Bitmap Brothers |
| Publisher | Renegade software |
| First released | 1991 |
| Genre | Action |
