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The Deer God

The Deer God

Some interesting ideas and a gentle pace makes for an enjoyable journey through nature.

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There's something very relaxing about The Deer God. It has a gentle rhythm, and that doesn't come just from the soothing soundtrack, or the serene rolling 2.5D graphics; there's a pace to the action that's quite pleasant. It's a game that you can just sit back and enjoy.

The Deer God has an odd setting - unique - with you playing as a hunter turned into a deer who has been sent on a mission to atone for his sins against deer-kind. If you think that's odd, along the way you'll mate with other deer, interact with humans, stamp on the heads of crocodiles, and eat enough plants that you'd surely explode.

There's a few different elements at play here, although the design doesn't feel particularly muddled. RPG-lite features have your deer growing through the course of a game, with increasing size complemented by the growth of some impressive antlers. There's a limited number of skills to learn, but tricks like double jump, dash attack and stomp give you a few extra options when approaching the terrain and the other creatures you'll meet along the way.

It's the aforementioned creatures that make up a good part of the challenge here. From foxes to hunters via zombies and ghosts, there's a variety of different enemies to tackle, although combat isn't usually more nuanced that attack, dodge/jump, attack, dodge/jump. It's only the more dangerous enemies - bears and mountain cats - that need any special attention, and even these encounters are fairly straightforward once you've got the hang of it.

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The Deer God
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There's also a variety of different boss battles to tackle along the way, and while these are certainly more challenging, if, like we did, you amass a healthy collection of extra lives, these can be taken out without too much stress via a battle of attrition. Indeed, generous level design usually gives you a position to rest and recover in the midst of combat, further loading the dice in your favour.

There's three bars that require filling. Red is for health, green is for hunger (that is used to replenish health), and blue is for stamina. The red bar is fairly clearcut, as is its connection to the green, although to keep the green bar topped-up you need to eat insane amounts of berries and pineapples and shrubs and whatever else you can find along the way. Stamina recharges over time, but it does mean you have to attack in moderation when fighting more challenging opponents.

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You can also collect various items from throughout the world, and these items give you speed or health boosts, or allow you to jump higher or run faster. As you progress you can unlock more places to stash these handy items, and they're simple enough to deploy as and when you need them. In the same menu system there's a morality bar; attack nasty creatures and you'll get a better karma, whereas if you kill the friendly critters you'll go bad.

Karma is significant on a couple of levels. On the one hand you'll be able unlock either good or evil super powers (yes, you read that right). The light powers that we enjoyed include firing flames from your antlers; a neat trick we're sure you'll agree. Players that stick to the light side will also get reincarnated as another deer if and when they die, although naughty players run the risk of being brought back as something else further down the food chain.

The Deer God

At regular intervals the player-controlled stag will run into a female deer, at which point there's some non-gratuitous deer sex, a heavenly fawn is deposited on the ground, and play continues with the baby in tow. These babies, like the other deers that you pick up as you go, form a ludicrously stupid entourage that follow the player, but that usually end up impaling themselves on some of the many spike pits that litter this world. You can get your progeny to sit, and thus act as a spawn point if you use up all of your extra lives and run into trouble; at the point of death you are born again as a fawn.

The reincarnations and spawn points steer this away from being a pure roguelike, but there's plenty of other features that'll appeal to fans of that type of game. For a start there's an evolving world that's never the same. There are features that endure, such as the light puzzles you'll encounter as part of your quest, and the homes of the NPC characters you'll do very basic fetch quests for en route, but for the most part the world is ever-changing. This variety is heightened by the day/night cycle that also keeps things fresh as you run constantly on your near-endless journey.

That said, there's not a huge amount of variety, and despite a nice selection of enemies, environments and changing conditions, the actual experience alters very little as you progress. The powers change things up a bit, but even these do little to alter the overall impression this game leaves. There's a co-op mode that allows two players to work together, and it works very similarly to the single-player mode, however it ultimately makes for an even easier overall experience. Visually this is an eye-catching title, with breathtaking scenery and some wonderful little details, and this visual flair is supplemented by a soothing and immersive soundtrack. There's also some interesting ideas laced into the narrative, with questions raised regarding morality, reincarnation and faith.

These are the highlights in a game that entertains, but never really thrills. It intrigued us, but didn't ever manage to grab a hold of us. There's a challenge at first while you get a foothold in the world, but after a while you collect so many extra lives that there's little to no tension in each moment or encounter, which in themselves aren't particularly difficult anyway. The Deer God is a pleasant game, a nice way to spend an afternoon or an evening, but perhaps there's not enough there to draw you in for a full on addiction. Maybe you could say that this one's more about the journey, and not the destination.

The Deer God
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06 Gamereactor UK
6 / 10
+
+ Lovely visuals, decent soundtrack, interesting ideas and themes
-
- Lacks tension after a point, a little samey after a while.
overall score
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The Deer God

REVIEW. Written by Mike Holmes

"There's a pace to the action that's quite pleasant. It's a game that you can just sit back and enjoy."



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