God of Thunder

"Got GoT?"

I've always preferred Norse Mythology to the better-known Greek and Roman versions. It concentrates more on humor, and there are fewer bad books and poems based on it. Plus there is only one version of the names of Norse gods--no Greek/Roman cross-ups. It's also a way to feel against the establishment when there's no establishment to nail you(hey, if those gods ever existed, they'd be upset at just being discussion topics. They were jealous violent sorts.)

The game God of Thunder is anti-establishment in one way we all are sure to like, though. It's free and not too lengthy, though others will feel the 2-d top-down view is a bit too B.C. You play as Thor, rescuing a land in trouble that is surprisingly idyllic and free-flowing and even incredibly forgiving if you die. Being a deity has its perks.

The game is divided in three segments. First you have to seek out a serpent, Jormungard, before you move to a weird skeleton Nognir. Finally you'll have to take on your rebel brother Loki who has taken over and enslaved a town. In fact oppressed towns taking half a quest are a theme, along with the occasional mild quip. Stocky, triangular people moon-walk around randomly, arguably kept enslaved by guards whose very predictable rounds at least reveal a minimal devotion to order.

Aside from the towns there are areas that would be a combination of Zelda and Lolo while not really getting the puzzle detail of either. Magic items not to be used or traded in town will allow basic spells like healing or a radius zap. Often you'll have to push a few barriers aside to make it to them or a new area, and purple and black globes alter the terrain. Touching purple toggles wooden stakes that block your way and black switches one-way arrows. There are also keys to find, squares you need a certain amount of jewels to pass, and assorted nasty monsters the worst of which will shoot you once you're lined in sight.

The monsters aren't hard to beat and regenerate each time you re-enter their screens, meaning you can just beat up a particularly vulnerable enemy continually to find apples and potions which recharge your hit points and magic, although the treasure that's already visible doesn't bounce back so easily. The quest areas are about thirty screens each with some dull brown caves that would be quite boring without large blue cockroaches or bats zipping around diagonally. They can turn up anywhere from behind tough monsters and several locks to under a barrel in a house, but they're largely cheap constructs of stairs, long platforms and purple-globe barriers and excuses to let you pile up on treasure. You can glide easily through them with the arrows although the diagonal number pad would have been awesome.

But there's enough convenience as, if you should die, the game restores you to where you entered the screen. You can even reset block-pushing puzzles. And as it's none too difficult to win a fight and you even have areas to recharge magic and hit points directly, you can probably put up with the dying noises you'll hear which, let's face it, are godawful. They really drown out the splats and clinks for the general killing and looting, but I guess they make a strong case for marginal prudence through this game.

Yet what makes GoT more than just a pleasant, solid RPG that tests basic mechanics and skills is Thor's weapon--the hammer. Not only does it get squigglier and shinier after each complete phase, it's a boomerang hammer, and Thor can in fact adjust its path back drastically by moving perpendicular to how he throws it. He can even get the hammer stuck behind a wall, which is not cool in combat but makes for some interesting puzzles, especially where you need to whack a purple ball that's behind an enclosure. Later puzzles and at least one boss fight force you to explore this concept heavily, and it even has a nasty tail hook where you want the hammer to get stuck--but not too much, or it will cause the pegs to go haywire. There are enough variations on the theme without anything getting frustrating--I found it was tougher to plot whom I'd talked to since there's a weird causality with NPC encounters.

Although the game isn't really long enough to get stale the whole venture is decidedly simplistic, with the monsters merely becoming faster and more likely to duck behind trees. Occasionally you'll see something important looking that you can't get to but the only distinctive challenge arises from boulders you can push that start to roll. They're half as fast as you, and you can change their direction or even stop them in their paths. It's good game action and the sort of thing a deity should show off he can do anyway.

GoT also is pretty cheery for a game with so many supernatural creatures afflicting it, and if you fight the bosses you may find that maybe they didn't really have the potential to make things too drab for the townspeople after all. By the time this game was written grass and desert and different sized rocks for different mobility were pretty standard and here it's all a bit brighter than normal, dispelling notions about the Gloomy North. And despite the dull gray inside tiling(purportedly a punishment by Loki) the houses are pretty domesticated and compartmentalized and have different paint jobs outside. With mushroom patches on the side.

And the dialog, mostly humorous, usually rises above one-offs like 'McLoki's food market.' Loki's warnings and taunts echo his mythical progenitor's mischievous habits, and Odin pops up with fatherly advice especially when you kill a townsman you're trying to save. It's more interesting than the score the game tracks, which you can probably inflate by mindless ambushes anyway. And the townspeople under siege generally regress into triviality before talking about items you need to swap. Even resistance headquarters is a neurotic shambles.

GoT doesn't do anything wrong and has plenty of puzzles you'll be pleased with solving. Its ease of play almost descends into absurdity when for instance you can talk to people by ramming them, but overall it's the sort of light entertainment that obviously wasn't meant to waste your time, and in fact the website where you get the game from even has a cluebook you can download with the game. There may not be any new tricky o's to cross and a's to dot on replay, but you'll solve this game feeling it's got a good grasp on how games should be thought out.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/03, Updated 07/06/03