Product Info

Platform

PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC

Publisher

Gearbox Publishing

Developer

Counterplay Games

Genre

Action, Adventure

Players

1-3

File Size (Minimum)

50 GB

Release Date (NA)

Nov 12, 2020

Purchase From

Amazon

Best Buy

Walmart

Target

GameStop

PSN Store

Epic Games

Godfall is developed by Counterplay Games, a small studio that itself has not released much. However, the team involved has been in on some large-name games: God of War, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Diablo III, and Titanfall 2 just to name a few. As such, this is not a new style of game for them, but while there are some great games in their arsenal, this one may not fall amongst them. Godfall has the potential to be great, but unfortunately, its lackluster areas stack into a contribution that falls short of what it can be. Despite its shortcomings, this is definitely a game worth looking into if you enjoy a good dungeon grind.

To God or Not To God?

Godfall takes place in a world of Aperion. A gorgeous land of knights and monsters that is split into three realms: Earth, Air and Water. You play as Orin, one of the Valorian Knights, once the protectors of the realm with incredible combat prowess. Together with his brother, Macros, they fought for their order. As per the norm for the superpowered warriors, Macros betrays Orin in an attempt to become a god. Orin loses the initial fight and almost his life. Determined to kill Macros before the betrayer becomes a god and Herald of Destruction, Orin begins his quest to stand against Macros while gaining certain, convenient allies along the way.

Let’s Fight, Bro

The story itself is good in premise but a bit underdeveloped, which is not necessarily unexpected for this type of game. It is typically listed as a looter/slasher, but with the style of combat it feels a bit short of “slasher.” While it is something that can be accomplished, the combat style makes the God of War-style slasher description a bit difficult. The controls feel good and responsive with some exceptions. When traveling about the temples, the terrain is what you would expect. The obstacles you think will interfere in your route generally do, with exception to a few specific rocks or walls. The way the camera reacts to terrain lets you know where you are. It jostles up and down as you climb stairs and sinks when you jump off a ledge. It is a nice feeling when you use a port crystal and the camera zooms right along with you, instead of sending you to the distance and catching up after. 

There are five types of weapons (longswords, dual blades, war hammers, polearms and greatswords), and there is a learning curve to each as expected. Each weapon swings differently, and special attacks do different things with different animations—all to be expected from one weapon to the next. A greatsword whirlwind and a polearm jab should never take the same amount of time; a polearm feels different in combat compared to speedy dual blades. However, in addition to the standard learning curve with weapons is the lack of animation cancelling. There is also a (at times painful) lack of action queuing. Essentially, that means that if Orin is swinging a nine-foot sword, he cannot suddenly stop mid windup and instantly block the now-onscreen baddie that joined the fray. It also means that during that intrepid swing into the corpse that doesn’t know it yet, if you decide to throw a shield slam as a finishing touch, it needs to be timed into the attack. 

This type of thing is both good and bad. In many slasher games, an instantaneous parry/dodge or special skill is an easy task; there is no need for anything other than reaction. Without the ability to do that, some actions need to be planned prior to the big windup. This can also be frustrating due to the abnormally small indicator that says that some off-screen putz is taking a swing at you. That, in essence, is the problematic potential of combat. Do you want instant gratification, or do you want to plan some things before you go? To be honest, there are enough moves and ways to slash through; just don’t expect that it will feel the same as many other slashers. Some adjustments are necessary, but once the change is accepted, it feels spectacular.

Both minibosses and bosses have some specific elements to the fights that keep things fun (bosses more so, as is expected). Slight changes in the mechanics keep it entertaining, and the fact that a miniboss carries similar gear to Orin keeps the moves relevant. They take the traditional “red” (unblockable) attack and amp it up to Orin-size weapons, as well as throwing a few twists in that play off the same concept. Bosses are done on a larger and grander scale: new mechanics, new moves and no lack of size. The bosses themselves are not necessarily hard to figure out, but be prepared to potentially die a couple times figuring out each stage of the bosses and the new parts to the fight at each respective stage.

Look at Me!

Not enough can be said about the looks of this game. In lieu of rambling about, here it is, short and sweet. It is just downright sexy on so many levels. The levels are dynamic with a painful attention to detail. If you want to look into a puddle to watch a torch burn as the actual light flickers shadows on the landscape, that’s totally a thing. This game shines (pun intended) as to the potential of gaming in the future.

The visuals, unfortunately, are let down by much of the audio. There are intermittent themes that fit the godlike nature of the game, but they seem to be restricted to mainly specific parts of objectives. The rest of the game is oddly quiet on the music front. It just feels like there should be more of an ambiance while crawling through a temple. Even during the main fights, the crescendos are not quite fulfilling in an overtly satisfying way. At least the weapons make up for a small portion of that. When you dedicate to the swing of a hammer with a head as big as Orin or of a sword he drags behind him, the result is fantastic. Each weapon has its distinct sound and feel, but the larger weapons have a whoosh as they pull through the air. You can feel it as they slam through enemies and seem to shake the world. Tossing enemies with the shockwaves after a visceral slam through their face is captivating and, to be frank, never gets old.    

Gear of War

Swords and hammers and Valorplates, oh my! Valorplates are the armor of Orin. They look like raid gear from the get-go. No leather bracers for this god-fearing brother killer! While not much variation exists in the skills of the Valorplates, you can go from a sleek water demon look to a monster rhino in the span of running across the room, and both are ornate works of art. Weapons have a general look until you gear into the “epic” and “legendary” tiers. And again, few things feel better than jumping through the air to smash a heavily armored, shield-toting atrocity with something that looks like a pendulum out of the grandfather clock of doom!

A fairly wide array of combat skills and upgrades are also available in a skill grid to fit several playstyles. Stat builder? Build yo stats, boo. Just look in the middle of each edge! Shield thrower? They got a few tricks for that shield hero in the bottom left! Ninja masters? Dodge your heart out and counter down in the bottom right! Just want to swing big things? All you could ever want to try to slash your way through Macros lie across the top.

Participation Trophy

It’s always nice to be noticed! Godfall features a merit system, which is essentially a trophy list for certain combat styles. The nice thing is they are not difficult to unlock. Many if not all of them can be completed just through the normal gameplay and grinding your way to Macros.

A Moment of Silence

Despite the wonderful things about this game, it does have some (Go)downfalls. (See what happened there?) The levels themselves are limited and painfully redundant. You do a mission in one level, move on to the next mission to progress, and go back to…the same level with the same bad guys and perhaps a small, new, open area. Follow an arrow and move on through the map. It leaves very little to the imagination and makes it hard to commit. It is a dungeon crawl through the same dungeon, except that it isn’t quite as big as you hoped for in a dungeon crawler. Between this and the story, it is an unfortunate truth that these areas were shorted on what could have been a glorious release to the PlayStation 5.

The Final Draw

Godfall drives home the dungeon crawl mantra on an unfortunately small scale, content wise. It does, however, boast a fun, albeit different, combat system, mountains of monsters, exciting minibosses, and actual boss fights. Godfall as a whole is a beautiful example of what can be accomplished through the glory of stunning environments, combat and gear. It offers different players different ways of playing, edging them all together into one cohesive, god-killing machine. All in all, it largely depends on the gamer themselves. Can you commit to grinding a would-be god out of existence?

A PlayStation 5 review code provided for this review and gameplay footage.