Hard to Be a God Preview
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The Game The demo does not end with that, as you're given some final equipment and tasks. I skipped that because it potentially gives away a bit of the rest of the game. All in all, you only have three quests in the demo: a little bit of diplomacy (the miller quest), absent-minded shepherd, exam.
But let's head on to the mechanics. Hard to be a God is a third person RPG with real-time combat and a bit of a tendency to rely on said combat.
The RPG system is simple and straightforward. You have skills: light weapons (one-handed weapons or dual weapons), medium weapons (two-handed light weapons, like fighting staves), heavy weapons (two-handed heavy weapons, like a battle axe, or a one-handed weapon and shield (the best option for the short demo)), ranged weapons, dexterity, diplomacy, stamina, medicine. Upping the melee weapon skills will unlock a number of special attacks, which once activated can be used intermittently with a right click. Kind of action RPG-esque, if a lightweight version of it.
The inventory system is equally uncomplex. You can equip shoes, trousers, cape, armor, shirt, hat, left hand and right hand. Additionally, you will be carrying food and potions to heal, books you can read and some trinkets that do not serve any direct purpose.
Combat offers little new material. You can swing your weapon for up to 3-swing combos, right click will execute a special attack if available, the third mouse button will finish off a stunned character (characters are occasionally stunned by special attacks). On horse-back, it is much the same in theory though it plays differently. On horse, it's a good idea and quite a bit of fun to storm past someone and just hit him as you ride past. Alternatively, right click will make your horse rear up, giving a more powerful attack as you swing your weapon while landing.
In both normal and mounted combat, aiming can be the typical awkward fare. In general, this and a few other elements (like the way you do swing combos) can make combat a bit difficult to play out well, but once you get the hang of swinging and blocking, which shouldn't take incredibly long, it is not a bad combat system. And you'll notice that sometimes clever tactics or combinations of moves can give you the edge, making it a bit more than the standard point and click fare.
What simplifies combat, which can be pretty challenging until you really get it in your fingers, is the pretty bad combat AI of NPCs. Archers will keep sprinting away even if you're chasing them by horse, other robbers will keep running at you on horseback while you run past them, circle back, run past them again and hit them both times without getting a scratch yourself. The fact that you can simply block until your special move powers back up is also a bit too easy, unless you're surrounded.
I never fully got the hang of mounted combat myself, though.
And that might be because of the camera. The camera is hung up at an angle. You can rotate it while standing still, but other than that it's a bit behind and above the back of your head. That means your field of vision is terrible limited as you're not looking ahead, but slightly downwards all the time. There's not much you can do about that, though the camera sometimes jumps around to adapt to passing through buildings or under a tree.
As you're sent on your quests, the mini-map on the screens shows were you need to go with some small arrows and the full maps shows the targets clearly marked. Quests did show a tendency to have multiple solutions, as all three of the quests can be solved either through dialogue or combat. Oddly enough, the a little bit of diplomacy quest can be solved through violence. Your journal will read that the chief of imperial reconnaissance is angry with you for not using diplomacy, but the dialogue will be the same as always. And the choice to just go mad and slaughter people does not seem to be an option, as many non-hostile NPCs are immortal in the demo.
