The Deer God Review
Release Date: April 25th, 2017
Developer: Crescent Moon Games
Platform: PS4 and Vita
Price: $15 on PSN
The Deer God has just been released on PS4 and Vita and it is an interesting game in a sea of generic titles. The Deer God is about survival, karma, and reincarnation. Join The Gamers Lounge as we play The Deer God and try to understand where it begins and ends, just like with life and death.
The Deer God was already released two years ago on a handful of other platforms including iOS, XBL, and Steam where it was priced from $5-$15. The game started as a kickstarter back in 2014 and was supposed to come to the Ouya, Wii U and Steam. A version never came to the Ouya but gamers did get a Wii U version. Why did it take so long to come to PS4 and Vita? The good news is the game seems to run without any problems on the PS4 and I didn't run into any game breaking bugs.
Despite the game's interesting origins, I became hooked on the concepts when I started playing The Deer God. The plot of the game revolves around a hunter who has reincarnated as a fawn. Gamers are tasked with roaming the world as a deer and building their karma in order to become human again.
The best way to describe this game is The Deer God is a 2D sidescroller in a pixelated 3D world. This means there are lots of interesting things in the background but most of them players will not be able to interact with in the game. The graphics are one of the best parts of the game. The lighting is well done and the weather effects are a nice touch. The night and day cycle make the game really stand out from other titles in this genre.
While playing as a deer, gamers have some freedom. Most of the actions include moving forward and jumping over obstacles and solving simple puzzles. The deer can tackle enemies. At first I thought this was a headbutt. Players can eventually use items and abilities to aid in their quest. The abilities found in the game are very random but they work well. Two of my favorites were lightning bolts and fireballs, but at the same time some of the other abilities are not easiest to find in the game.
As the game progress the enemies become tougher and later players will run into bosses eventually which helps to break up the repetitive gameplay. The best advice I can give you in this game is try not to die. As gamers progress in the game, they become a full grown stag. If players die, they are back to starting as a weaker fawn.
One of the more interesting concepts in the game involves the karma meter. Kill innocent animals and the bar goes down. Defeat enemies and players gain good karma. Players will have to keep an eye on the other meters as well. The deer needs to eat to continue to progress. The game was easy to play and the controls worked well. I would have liked to see how this played on a mobile device or with Vita touch controls.
The game has a lot of interesting concepts and should make most gamers think about the progress of life. At the same time, there could be more content and more to do to keep players coming back.
Pros
Interesting Concept with unusual themes
Great graphics and art
Easy to play
Cons:
Can be repetitive
Could use more content
This game was reviewed on PS4. Big thanks to Stride PR and Crescent Moon Games for the review code.