Journey of the Gods is a party-based action RPG with six player classes, randomly generated levels, and several multiplayer options. The premise of the game is that you are fighting back against the gods who have abandoned humanity in the wake of World War 3.
The developers did a good job of injecting some unique flair here. For example, one of the God powers is to cause a temporary time stop. Enemies freeze in place and you can slash away at them for as long as you desire before unfreezing time and watching them revert back to their original positions. It’s a little thing, but goes a long way in making these battles unique and more than just exchanging blows until one of you falls over.
Journey of the Gods is more than just a little bit repetitive, though. The basic loop revolves around running through each level and going from point A to point B with minimal deviation. The world is broken up into ten different biomes, but it feels like I was doing a lot of the same things over and over again. I’d have really enjoyed having seen some sub-quests here or side missions, even if they were just simple fetch quests.
The other big flaw with Journey of the Gods is that it’s not very user-friendly. There are three different control schemes to choose from, but none of them feels quite right and I found myself having to make a lot of adjustments and readjustments as the game went on. I played using two Move Controllers, but they didn’t feel like my hands were in the right place at times – especially with the shield (I would often find that half of my body was blocking my sword hand).
The default motion controls need to be tightened up; I felt like my hands were floating in mid-air rather than being firmly rooted at my chest/hip. This is a VR game, so there’s no real excuse for that, but it makes it really hard to fall into a rhythm when you’re constantly having to reorient yourself.
I think the best compliment I can give Journey of the Gods is that it genuinely made me feel like a God – and not just because of all the real-life bending and contorting required to make everything work. There’s something really powerful about seeing your giant self towering over an entire world, and throwing down lightning bolts and trees to solve puzzles never got old for me. The game is still in Early Access, so here’s hoping the devs can continue to build on this solid foundation.
Journey of the Gods Review Scores: Concept: 9/10 Graphics: 7/10 Motion Controls: 4/10 Audio: 3/5 Replayability: 7/10 Overall Score (average): 7.0 out of10