Animal Gods Review (PC)

Animal Gods is a video game about planning, timing, precise measurements and mysterious threats, which allows gamers to move around a relatively small open world universe before venturing into dungeons that will allow them to get close to deities that have been cursed and need to be saved.

The element of the game that makes the biggest and the most immediate impression is the graphics, which manage to be clean and mysterious at the same time, but the gameplay included is also engaging, although a little simplistic at times.

The closest reference point for most gamers will be the Zelda series, but I found the game to be more focused than the flagship Nintendo franchise and less interested in world building, with the focus firmly on the challenges gamers need to overcome in order to progress.

Animal Gods is created by Still Games, an indie studio, and was funded via the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform, with a version also offered on the Wii U home console.

Story

Animal Gods is the story of a young, blonde and very innocent-looking hunter and priest named Thistle who is travelling through a world dominated by faith and magic to deal with three deities and then try to stop the actions of a powerful cultist from changing the universe he knows and seems to love.

There is no complex intro video or any cutscenes that seek to deliver the narrative to the player, and even the diaries that gamers find in the world are limited, both in terms of style and in terms of information they offer.

Thistle might or might not be linked to Juliette, the character writing them, and we never learn much about the past of the world and the way it has evolved to be linked to the gods and their power.

The hunter and priest does offer some cryptic hints when Animal Gods starts, but he then becomes silent, clearly focused more on his task than on creating a connection with the audience.

Animal Gods story

Despite their limited means, the development team at Still Games has managed to create an interesting world, even if there are times when I would have liked to find out more about the places I was exploring and why Thistle is chosen for the task at hand.

The team has been saying that the game takes place in the 15th century BC, but the game does not have a clear connection to real-world history, and I actually liked to think that this is a world parallel to the one we live in.

Indie teams need to do a lot with limited resources, and Animal Gods would have benefited from a little more clarity when it comes to its story.

Gameplay

Animal Gods is an action and adventure experience that is centered around three major dungeons, each of them equipped with a unique set of mechanics that will challenge the timing, the reflexes and the thinking of the player.

The title gives gamers the freedom to choose their own path through the world and I found myself exploring the bow-focused section of the game first, which meant shooting cubes, trying to find ways to take them down when they are protected and then dealing with some environmental puzzles that required a mix of arrows and movement to be solved.

Animal Gods also has a section built around a cape that allows main character Thistle to blink for short and medium distances and another linked to a sword that can be used to deal with threats up close and personal.

Play Video

Each of the dungeons only allows gamers to use one of the three and the selected ability also gets a powered-up version, which needs to be prepared before it is used to deal with more complex puzzles or bigger threats.

Animal Gods manages to walk a fine line between challenge and frustration in its design, and I often failed to progress through the various dungeons on my first try only to find that a little careful thinking and solid preparation made the same sections easy to deal with a few minutes later.

The most difficult areas were those focused on the dash, because they ask the player to keep in mind two different blink ranges and then combine them to get past what I thought as poison rivers, although they could also be mystical death rays.

Still Games could have been a little more generous with the checkpoints in Animal Gods, especially given that I had to backtrack a few times to deal with enemies before moving through the end of the level gate.

The platforming also feels like the most unfair of the challenges in the game, mostly because the bridge have patterns that are sometimes hard to see because of the way the developers use the art to obscure sections of the level.

“The game also feels too short for its own good and it should have included more moments where the player can mix and match the three core powers in order to create impressive combat and exploration moments, rather than focus on just one at a time.”

The development team has some really cool ideas, but they only half-express them, almost as if they are teasing the player with the possibilities without planning to ever actually deliver on them.

The Zelda influence, while strong, is not why gamers should play Animal Gods and fans of the NIntendo series will be disappointed by the more mature focus of the title from Still Games.

Instead the experience is well suited for those who want to see how some relatively simple mechanics can power challenging levels and how a lot of narrative and world building can be delivered using a unique style that meshes well with gameplay.

Graphics and audio

Animal Gods has a very unique art style, but it's not actually good looking, mainly because of the limited details that the development team at Still Games has included.

I like the way the world combines nature, ancient tribal symbols and solid use of color in order to create painting-like environments when the player explores the open world, even more variety would have been interesting.

I also appreciate how the camera zooms in when the player enters a dungeon in order to give gamers a clear view of the action and to allow them to plan the movements that will lead them past the various challenges.

But the world and the characters lack actual detail, and that makes it hard for me to appreciate them in the long-run, even if the initial impression is very positive.

Animal Gods also has some great ideas for the soundtrack, which meshes very well with the rest of the world design and is both soothing and a little unsettling.

Unfortunately, the limited resources make their presence felt and the actual amount of tracks is limited, which means that it becomes harder for gamers to appreciate the quality given the fact that the songs repeat too often.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion