14 DAY TRIAL // 
I am playing as King, the fighter that’s designed to evoke as many visual tropes as possible about Elvis Presley, ready to use my rock and roll powers to defeat all the other fighters. I am currently battling Ziggy, a fighter that takes the idea that Bowie was an alien to the extreme.
The flow of notes starts off relatively slow, allowing me to get some early strikes in as I press buttons at the exact time to get a flawless evaluation. I don’t yet know exactly how to best employ my specials, so I am focused on simply matching as many notes as possible to take down my opponent’s HP. But I know the Ex Move will make catching notes harder for my opponent so I use one Ultra charge to do that.
The song’s complexity is steadily increasing and I start missing more notes than I would like. I hit a big train almost perfectly, which gives the King a chance to deliver a series of blows but Ziggy counters by launching one of his special moves. It takes about another half minute but I have to accept defeat.
God of Rock was developed by Modus Studios and is published by Modus Games. I played on the PC using Steam. It can also be picked up on the Nintendo Switch, the PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series X and S, and older platforms from Microsoft and Sony.
The story is that an elder god with an interest in both music and one-to-one combat has chosen a range of musicians to imbue with magical powers. He is asking them to battle each other to determine who is the greatest. There are 12 characters to choose from, some of which have very clear real-world inspirations while others are more obscure. There's enough variety for anyone to find a favorite.
And because they are musicians, everything is powered by musical notes. The narrative setup is good enough for a fighting game, with short animated cutscenes and pre-game sequences that allow each fighter to show off a little personality and strike an interesting pose.
The Gameplay in God of Rock is all about rhythm. Notes will be sliding on them and players need to hit the corresponding key or button, trying to create as long a combo as possible. It’s classic rhythm game stuff. The notes power the moves of the character.
Because God of Rock is a fighting game, there are also special moves (a list is offered on the options screen) and some supers, ready to be activated when the player needs something extra. As the difficulty of the songs increases, it gets harder to match notes perfectly while also keeping an eye on fighter health and on the strikes they actually land.
Players familiar with fighting games don’t need to play the tutorial but everyone will benefit from Practice. This mode allows players to choose their fighter and then also select the stage they want for their match. This, in turn, opens up a new selection, showing the songs associated with the location.
Focus on one character, learn the moves, and try to get as familiar as possible with the music tracks. Each of the 12 fighters has a Story mode, with a storyline that matches each against the other challenges as the deity of rock watches on.
God of Rock is nice to play against the computer, especially when learning the core ideas and finding a character to main, but it is more engaging and chaotic with another human. Split screen player-versus-player matches are an option, for those who have another fighting game fan ready to share a couch and a few brawls. The game also features online multiplayer and includes cross-platform support.
The development team has not implemented replays or lobbies but they might make an appearance in future updates if the game attracts enough players. The problem is that, at the moment, it takes quite a long time to get an online opponent, so make sure you have some buddies ready to jump in if you love the concept.
God of Rock also features a level and music editor. Basically, players who are interested in music can go in and then create their own tracks to use during combat. It’s an interesting feature that will appeal to the most dedicated fans. I like the concept a lot and plan to tempt friends to play local matches. The only problem they might have is with the user interface layout, which can take some time to adapt to for fans of titles like Rock Band or other music-driven titles.
God of Rock is a good if not impressive looking fighting game, with a clear idea of its theme. The featured characters are remixes of real-world personalities and the standouts of other titles in its genre. They all look great and have pretty cool moves, although the specials could be a little more spectacular. The stages are also decent, although there’s not much sense of place here.
The real star in the presentation department is the music that powers all the combat. There are more than 40 songs, with a number of them associated with each stage, all originals created by a range of artists. There’s a lot of variety to the tracks and it’s impressive to see what their creators managed to do both in terms of musical quality and connection to gameplay.
The Good
- Mix of fighting game and music
- Great soundtrack
- Nice character variety
The Bad
- Some interface layout issues
- Limited narrative appeal
- Music tracks can become repetitive
Conclusion
The soundtrack is also great, both in terms of quality and variety. The game does need to improve its interface layout to accommodate more players. For anyone looking for innovation in the fighting game genre, God of Rock offers a good mix of mechanics as long as players have a few friends to battle against.
A review key was provided by the publisher
