Developer: Still Games
Publisher: Still Games
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux
Tested on: PC
Animal Gods – Review
Animal Gods is a beautiful Indie adventure game that has a Legend of Zelda feeling to it. You take on the role of Thistle, a young female priest that has to free the Animal Gods in the world called Sky Mirror. Put on your cloak to take down the lion, hold your sword to tame the snake and clutch your bow to go against the spider. This adventure promises light puzzles, clear thinking and a dark story.
Story
On these strong lands our gods have fallen.
On these cursed lands our gods are dead.
Look West, find mourning.
Look East, find terror.
Look South, find hope.
And in the North, a gate.
You play as a girl named Thistle, a hunter and priest, who wants to free the three Animal Gods. You need to travel the cardinal directions West, East and South to eventually open the gate in the North. Along your way you will find notes that reveal more of the game’s story. These include diary pages from Juliette and Laboratory notes from Steven. They are however out of order and it’s your job to piece them back together.
The game’s goal seems straightforward: free all Animal Gods and save the world. The purpose doesn’t seem clear at first, but the more pages you collect, the more you find out about the dark story where human sacrifice seems imminent.
Graphics
The illustrations and art are simply amazing. The landscape might look abstract, it’s simply stunning. The developers have made use of geometric shapes: trees are groups of green circles, roads and buildings are made up of rectangulars in different shapes and sizes. The waterfall and poison streams are well-animated. So is the poison and polluted air you meet in some worlds. Even the rain is visually stunning. Thistle, your main character is made up of golden and red triangles that simply looks adorable as he walks across the screen with two tiny feet.
The animal gods remind you of the actual Aztec gods drawn by geometrical lines. They don’t do much, but they look imposing nonetheless as you try to free them from their chains. For the Avatar: The Last Airbender fans, there air symbol appears whenever Thistle has to progress further to another level. A nice touch.
Sound
Animal Gods has a New Age ambience that makes it relaxing to play. You can actually buy the soundtrack, should you wish to listen to the gentle tunes on your mp3 player. The soft sound of the waterfalls or the chirping of birds leaks tranquility. When battling the first god, the rain and thunder sound amazing and the rumbling sounds as you free the deity make you shiver in delight. The effects as you swing your sword or shoot your arrow aren’t bad either. Thistle doesn’t speak and that might be a good choice the developers made. Adding a voice might have lessened the peaceful vibe this game has going on.
Gameplay
This 2D adventure and top-down game reminds you a lot of Zelda. Thistle’s hat resembles Link’s as does the golden hair. Link too swings his sword and shoots arrows, although Thistle cannot learn other moves than just the one swing.
As the developers of Still Games explicate, the game was designed to play with a controller, but a keyboard and mouse work just as good. As the options menu explains, there are a limited number of keys to use. Arrows to move, Space to warp, right-mouse to shoot arrows and left-mouse to swing your sword. These three skills are not part of Thistle’s basic commands. Each skill is required for each temple/world. For example, you can use the ‘Cloak of Fire’ to warp through streams of purple poison. This might seem pretty easy, but the difficulty level sure rises as you need to time everything correctly. There are no actual enemies, except for blue squares and sturdy box-like squares. Here, your sword and bow will come in handy.
It’s sad to say there are some negative points to this game. The challenges and puzzles are basically alike and you get the feeling it’s all repetitive. The weapons and enemies change appearance, but your mission remains the same: to defeat them all. Because of the low-difficulty level it doesn’t take long to finish the game. Three hours is all it takes. Afterwards you can choose to play the 09 Lives Mode. This mode tests you to complete the game with nine lives or less, making it more challenging to finish.
Conclusion
As 2D top-down games go, Animal Gods is definitely one that pops out because of the beautiful art style. It’s all too clear that these graphics are the strongest feature of the game. Despite these positive remarks, the developers of Still Games could have done so much more with this game. For example: more challenging enemies, a combination of skills instead of being restricted to use them separately and of course a longer gameplay. Even so, if you’re looking for a relaxing game with pleasing visuals and an easy gameplay, Animal Gods might be just what you need.
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