Gods Will Fall Review – Falling Short

Gods Will Fall on PS4

Gods Will Fall has one of the most interesting gameplay premises I’ve seen in a while. The game gives you eight randomly generated Celtic warriors to control, tasking you with leading them to defeat the gods that are terrorizing their world.

Each character has unique stats, with some focusing on speed and others on strength, and a handful of weapons that can be equipped that correlate to each of them. Fast characters can use items like dual-wielding maces, and strong ones can whip around hefty spears and swords.

Combat is also simple, as warriors can use quick or strong attacks, dodge, parry, and even throw items you pick up off the ground. Enemies vary slightly, with some having armor and others dealing more damage, but all end up being defeated the same way: stick them with the pointy end.

While that sounds like a pretty straightforward plot and gameplay structure, what makes Gods Will Fall stand out is how it chooses to execute this setup. Instead of controlling a handful of the group simultaneously or swapping between them mid-dungeon, you’ll select one at the start and send them in alone.

If you get that warrior out alive, they receive improved stats and some loot to help them in later battles. Fail to make it to the dungeon’s final boss –by either running out of health or falling off the map– and that character will be trapped.

The only way to rescue your brethren is by completing the dungeon, which is only accomplished by defeating the boss at the end of it. While I avoided being trapped in the tutorial area, it wasn’t long before I lost my first character by getting knocked off the map.

“No biggie,” I thought, sending in a woman with speedy stats so I could avoid that fate again by way of a faster dodge. Well, then that character gets taken out by adds while I was fighting the main boss.

Five different failures later, and I was left with my last warrior standing. The pressure of knowing that it was all over if I failed this time was both nerve-wracking and invigorating.

When I actually managed to defeat the boss that had trapped the rest of my team, I screamed with excitement. After regrouping, the next goal is much of the same, as the game tasks you with completing every dungeon on the map and the boss at the end of it in order to beat the game.

A few of these bosses follow the patterns, staying in the same general position and spamming short-range and area of effect attacks throughout multiple phases. Overall, though, there is a fair amount of variety spread across each encounter.

My favorite fight was with a boss that’s carried around in a tub held up by his minions. In order to beat him, you had to kill the minions holding him up while dodging the lightning that was shifting around the water below your feet.

Once defeated, the boss comes at you himself, so you now have to avoid his attacks and lightning that continues to circle the area. Since you get your health back by attacking, it’s a risky game of cat and mouse, as you need to go on offense to have a shot at preserving your health and defense.

Another awesome mechanic is that bosses can be weakened before you fight them. In most cases, their health bar would deteriorate with each enemy that was killed while progressing, but there was also one instance where you could weaken a nature god by killing bits of nature in their dungeon.

With each passing encounter, though, Gods Will Fall’s structure begins to unravel. Enemies that were once difficult with lower-end weapons get shredded like paper when facing one of your characters that has higher stats and a stronger weapon.

Despite different backdrops and settings, each dungeon feels repetitive as well. Even with a few split paths that can be taken to reach the end goal, the result is always the same traversal of following a linear path and defeating enemies until you reach the final boss.

Outside of hunting down different objects tied to the boss in the dungeon I mentioned before, there are no side stories or really any form of exploration in Gods Will Fall, so tedium can set in pretty quickly. The world, in general, seems a bit lacking.

There are only two spots to visit in the hub world outside of the dungeons: the Munlock Well and the Graveyard. Of the two of these, I was only able to figure out how to interact with one of them, which resulted in me sacrificing a character only to get a handful of useless weapons in return.

The hub world feels very barren, serving little purpose other than getting the characters from point A to B. If nothing else, I was hoping for this area to feature exciting bits of lore or storytelling that lead up to each dungeon, but there is barely any build-up at all.

The only thing that comes close to doing this is when Gods Will Fall tries to tie certain warriors to the dungeon bosses before you choose who to send in. While this seems like a cool incentive at the start, as you think you’ll see a unique relationship between the foes, those stories simply end up being “this character had a nightmare that he’d have to face this god.”

I think the most disappointing thing is that, at the moment, there is very little replayability. After only about five hours, I beat the game, which included the three extra DLC dungeons and gods from the Valiant Edition.

Once the game is over, there is no New Game Plus, continuation, or even dungeon replay option. I couldn’t even load before I beat the last God I faced so that I could explore a little bit.

My only option was to start the game over, with no incentive to push me toward wanting to.

Despite its faults, I did enjoy the brief amount of time I spent with the game, and I feel like it has a lot of potential thanks to a distinct premise. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough in Gods Will Falls world or gameplay that warrants me giving it a glaring recommendation, at least in its current state.