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Gods and Heroes Hands-On

Part Three of Four

I Will Love Him and Pet Him and Call Him George

My minions - at least in the early levels - had a few “extras” that I could choose from, but for the most part my minions controlled themselves. When you gain your first minion, which comes around level three or four in the game, a new UI window appears in your screen. Inside this window are several orders that you can give your new teammate, with some basic commands along the lines of “attack”, “heal”, and “stand down”. While those commands are available, your minion actually has a high-quality AI system built in, and users can preset the AI to “aggressive”, “neutral”, or “defensive”, depending upon the sort of minions that are in your squad.

Minion combat, to me, felt very comfortable. Although it’s similar to the standard pet systems in other MMOs, the minion AI allows for the player to take care of themselves first and worry about their minions later. If your minions die, they can be easily resurrected by your character, who has the ability to resurrect any of their minions from the beginning of the game. You don’t want your minions to die, however, as they incur a stat and skill debuff when they are resurrected, and it takes some time to have those abilities return to their status quo.

Unlike most other MMOs, the minions in Gods and Heroes shouldn’t be classified as “pets”. In fact, most have a personality and history all their own, which is a tremendous example of the amount of time and effort that Perpetual has put into their Roman world.  Minions can range from other Romans to monsters you fight to special characters handed down by your god. When asked about it Hedlund rattled off a list that included, “Cyclops, minotaurs, and centaurs”. Wanting to experience this in the game, I right-clicked on my minion to see what he had to say. My healer minion, Ralphus, told me that “It looks like it might rain today,” as I walked towards the nearby hunting grounds. We then proceeded to kill boars.

“Every minion will have a different culture, history, and personality,” Hedlund said, as we journeyed through the world. “You’ll get to know your minions and after learning about them, you won’t want them to die.”

Players can trade minions as well, allowing players to find just the minions they need for particular quests. God minions (allies granted to you by your god) will not be tradable, and select others will not be tradable either.

The other major aspect that was displayed in our hands-on demo was the god system. Throughout the development of Gods and Heroes, it has always been a major point by Hedlund and McKibbin to showcase the gods and accentuate the versatility that choosing a god gives to players. By selecting certain gods, players open up abilities that may not be in the same lines as their previous abilities. For example, my 10th level gladiator of Jupiter was obviously a melee-oriented, damage-dealing machine. But with Jupiter’s powers, I could occasionally call lightning down from the heavens to smite my foes and send them to Hades to rot.

The first time you encounter a vision of your god is perhaps one of the most awe-inspiring events I’ve ever encountered in an MMORPG. While you’re still a young adventurer you go on a seemingly inconsequential quest, but after completing a certain section of the quest your chosen deity (your actual paternal deity) comes before you in all the booming grandeur associated with gods. Feeling like Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments, you are bathed in golden glory and the booming (or supple) voice of your father/mother god speaks to you. It would be an epic moment in any MMO, yet having your god speak directly to you really establishes the connection between you and your god in G&H.

After receiving this initial vindication by your god, you’ll begin to receive certain godly powers. “This allows for players to be more versatile, no matter their class,” McKibbin said. “For example, even if you’re involved in melee, you can still call down destruction from the heavens via your gods.”

Each and every time you receive a new god power, you’ll have a moment similar to what you see in God of War. “We call this your Highlander moment,” McKibbin said, referring to the Quickening that occurs in the Highlander movies and series. Like your initial view of your god, the first god power moment is just breath-taking and really brings you into the lore of the game.