Godus 2.0 Preview

Godus is still in beta and according to the splash screen, only about half way complete.  So the game is far from a review stage.

 

I had every intention of writing an article on Godus previously, a negative article about how the development team failed to deliver on it's promise.

 

However, a new version was released a few weeks ago.  I recently played the update for a few hours and, in my mind, 22can has redeemed itself with the release of 2.0.  Godus, feels like a game now.  I don't mean that lightly.  Before, Godus felt like mindless clicking with a kind of nebulous goal somewhere in the future.

 

But now, the direction you are leading your people is obvious.  What you want and how you can accomplish it is clearly seen and the game rewards you for moving in the proper direction.

 

 

 Essentially, the game revolves around a few systems that feed each other.  Flatten the land to get more followers and free chests with stickers.  More followers get you more belief (so you can flatten more land) and more stickers improves the world through the card/time line system.

 

I've only encounter the beginning parts of this game on this latest play-through so these relationships may be early game only but the rewards for your work are obvious and the goals the game sets how for you are no longer nebulous.

 

I can say with confidence that Godus is now a village builder, not in the same sense as the Anno or Settlers series but with elements of those titles that feed the addictive quality of increasing your village's size, technology, and the ability of your people.

 

One of the more frustrating aspects of the earlier beta was sculpting the land.  An activity that takes up about 90% of the game was previously an experience that required several precise clicks to get right.  The land would routinely bounce back at you requiring some Sisyphus like task to flatten the world for your people.  No longer.  The sculpting does now feel natural and behaves in an expected manner.

 

So I do recommend Godus even at this early stage.  It is still in beta and I ran into more than one technical issue each time I played but these were easy to fight through given this young form of the game's development.

 

I should mention, this is a recommendation based solely on a few hours of gameplay.  It appears, based on the tech tree, that the game will hold up over time but it will take a few more hours of actually playing to determine if this is the case or not.