"You wanna be a servent or caretaker?"

For all games, just to be even they must have at least 1 or 2 bad reviews. Otherwise something just seems screwy...that being said I must give mine :). First of all I do own the game, you can sometimes find me posting out help for how to play on some B&W boards, that being said, on to the review.

Game Overview
Well the idea is simple..your a god, litterally. You come in when two people pray for any god to help them at that part your born and you answer their prayer. Unusual concept but interesting. To give a basic of the storyline, you spend the first of 5 parts (split up into 5 islands) basically learning how to be a god..and getting your creature (explained later). From there your taking into a war with the purpose outlined from the beginning, kill another god who is getting too big for his britches.

Thats the storyline..not really too much, but thats not the focus of the game either. The focus of the game is twofold, you first of all have a creature...a sort of virtual pet who can do anything you can do..but you gotta teach him how to do some things..and you gotta teach him what to do and when.

The second focus is that your a god and you got followers. There are two extreems. A good god who caters to their villagers every need. And an evil god who dosn't care about their villagers for anything more than the power they grant him.

You can also cast miracles, but you need to have your people worship you, which will build up power.

And that is the basic of the game.

Graphics 6
Let me explain something here. I don't look at graphics too much as an important part of the game. As long as they don't detract from the game (IE make it even worse) the game will get a 5 auto...thats average.

Now why arn't the graphics too good to me? They ar too..how should I say this...realistic I guess. I know some can't believe that..however I can look outside at the scenery and mountains and see most of whats in the game, ahh the advantages of living in the country. But still its decently realistic. So if you like realistic graphics..I guess you could bump the score up. But to me they don't add to the game, they just help show whats going on.

Sound 7
Same as graphics, 5 is auto if it dosn't detract. Anything above means it has made the game more enjoyable, or I would just stop just to hear the sound.

Well the sounds as you move around, the sounds of your pet, etc. All of these are average..even the spell casting. What really got me to listen though is some of the extra's. Like a cutscene with 3 sailors...that song either annoys you to death (and you kill said sailors) or you enjoy it..like me. The voice acting is also decent..for the bits that exist. However my favorite parts has to be the chants the worshipers do for you at the temple...I've honestly ripped the music out of the game (not hard considering winamp can play their media types, just gotta find the media) just to hear it.

Controls 7
They would have a higher number if I didn't have to customize the controls to make it good.

To put it simple...screw the mouse for all but interacting and looked around. I then reset the poorly done controls to something that resembles what is known as WASD. Basially quake controls.

Once you get that..not really too hard. Left mouse for any moving you do with the mouse. Right mouse for interacting. Hold it down to pick up (or punish/reward creature) click to just on something/attach leashe to creature.

The other bad parts? The clicking can be rather imperfect. Things can EASILY get in your way..so you click on the wrong thing...you know that person you ment to pick up? Well you got the tree behind him..and just squashed him when you put the tree back down *sighs*.

There is also the gesture system. No hotkeys of any sorts...except a few. Switch leashes, attach/detach leash to hand (for the creature), repeat last miracle, access miracle list..to name the most useful.

Otherwise you do everything miracle and leash related by gestures. Need to switch leashes? Make a squared clockwise spiral, leash menu up. Now do a heart, a 3...or something else for the final leash.

Need a spell? Do a normal clockwise spiral..now look at all the symbols on the lower right and pick the one for the desired miracle. A S, a heart, a w, and several non-letters.

And then either Do an R, or go through all that again just to repeat the miracle (or push the repeat button, my prefered method)

Gameplay 4
Ok this is kind of hard. You see the game is really the creature and then there is the village. So I'll refer to the creature in his own section. This is for taking care of the village.

This is rather annoying at times if your good (or trying to be good) if your evil this can be enjoyable..but you can't do all you want to.

If your good..your basically catering to your villagers every need. Need Food? Better get it or your evil, need wood? Get it or you'll loose belief. Housing? They want to have children? You get the idea. If your good this is a headache..specially since when you drop one of their need..another need will rise no matter what...and some needs never drop. Also you need to keep your worshipers well fed or else they'll die and you'll be evil that way.

Ontop of that, want a new village to believe in you? Well...cater to their needs...if you don't you'll be evil..you can't rain holy fire down.

If your evil..you still need to make sure your people don't die too much, or else you won't have any power. Although you can go after villages using aggressive miracles and good miracles (the good and evil don't cancel..much good must be done to counter little evil). And you can impress that way also.

Oh did I mention the impressing part? Ahh yes, to have a bigger area you can do your wonders in (you have a limited range to be a god..otherwise your an observer) you must have people believe in you more. This is done by doing godly acts. Pick up stuff and chuck it...do favors..cast miracles. But don't repeat too often or it stops being so effective. If you do nothing belief goes down and the area you can influence goes down.

In the end..it ammounts to the town of an RTS game. Only buildings and peons that is. And you can help gether resources faster, or hinder it.

Creature 10
The second part of the game. This is the creature..your virtual pet. You teach him what to do and when to do it. He has an advanced AI...umm to a degree. And starts off with a random personality. Your then able to mold and shape this creature if you spend time. You are given the choices of either punish or praise the creature. Unfortunately you can't praise a creature for picking an item up...you see praise + item in hand = eat item. But you can teach your creature miracles, strength train them, affect how they battle, encourage little quirks, etc. Sometimes you'll find yourself laughing and such. But in the end...he just comes to an advanced virtual pet who you can teach to fight...and you can teach to run a village (or more) if you wish, but not really much of a helper than a pet or child you must watch over and reinforce every so often. Still its a wonderful virtual pet if you like em.

Blending of game types 1
Big bomb here, I've been saying its two types of games. This is because the two, the poor sim city clone..and the advanced virtual pet don't get along too well. You find taking care of one can be a trouble as you do the other. Especially if you want to focus on the virtual pet.

Storyline 5
They didn't want to work on this much. The storyline is just basic..and is just there to give you a reason to keep going. But other than that feel free to ignore it. Basically you should just stick around on a level for as long as you want..there is no rush to keep going in reality. Although you may have NPC's yelling at you to go on like mad anyway (sigh). Sides there are only 5 levels in all.

AI 10
The AI here has been worked on much. The villagers can learn from you..being more lazy as you do more for them (leading to you doing even more from them). They also become less lazy the less you do for them. There are certain newaunces. And I've already mentioned your creatures AI..which is a very good learning mechanizm. Very realistic..and I'd suggest a degree in child psychology afore you get angry at how 'bad' it is. This sucker is designed to learn as a normal human would...so if you teach bad..it may not do as you wish. Just wish there was more for it to learn.

Multiplayer 5
It has potential..but it sucks. If you can connect..you can have your creatures fight if you want (fighting is useless for the most part) or interact in other ways. However competeing is rather boring...a game where you try to win can take 4 or 5 hours of non-stop repeated tediousness. Supposedly there is supposed to be updates and such. Like more than 3 maps..and a map editor, along with other things to do with your creature.

Requirements 3
The box requirements are rather flakey. Some people who are well over the requirements have it running horibble. Some that run at min have it going wonderful. Basically its more of a hit or miss if you got the right hardware that it'll work with. You've been warned.

Bugs 4
Ok I know all games have bugs..but this one has bugs that ruin your creature...or that make it impossible to get the creature you want. These are bugs that should have, by all rights, been found before the game was reliesed. The quest to get the wolf CAN'T be completed...how do you miss that? Plus there is a bug in land 5 where a curse that weakens your creature dosn't always get properly removed...so it stays weakened and never gets stronger. There are a few others..but those are the most outstanding. Plus Multiplayer is bugged to death. Yes all games have bugs...but this one has too many that ruin the game.

Overall 5
This isn't a compilation..for one graphics and sound arn't realy counted in this score. Although sound did bring it up just a bit.

Suggestion on buying.
If you can, try before you buy. This isn't a game for most people. If you like virtual pets..you'll love messing with the creature in the game. Really you should wait to see what patches do for the game. But as is...I hope you like virtual pets...or running a village.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/21/01, Updated 04/21/01