Godfall test: and Olympus gave birth to a mouse!

Remember, in December of last year, the Game Awards ceremony unveiled the first trailer for a certain Godfall who also had the honor on this occasion of being the first to be announced in the catalog of the future PS5. A quarter of an hour of glory at a heavy price to pay for the small team of less than 80 people at Counterplay Games, who therefore had to shoulder a hell of a responsibility, especially since the game is on the console's launch line-up. at the painful price of 80 euros. We'll make it short: the accounts are not good.

Godfall test: and Olympus gave birth to a mouse! See the prizeLire the conclusionGodfall

A solid combat system rich in possibilities
Extensive skill tree
Spectacular boss battles
Visually, it throws...

... but the game does tons of it
The Valorplates cast in the same mold
Barely three playgrounds
Sadly repetitive missions

Counterplay Games is a very young independent studio to which we owe the friendly Duelyst, released four years ago. For its second production, the small Californian team, now backed by Gearbox Publishing, has chosen to explore a completely different direction. Godfall presents itself as a loot slasher, in other words a third-person hack'n'slash infused with loot to collect from the still hot corpses of its opponents and thus play to the fullest on the player's greed for more gear in addition to the point. On paper, the program of the festivities was therefore enough to make the followers of “grobillism” salivate, but in reality Godfall is as ostentatious in form as it is stingy in substance. Explanations.

Jean-Radde and Jean-Fais-Trop are on a boat

On the “have you seen me” scale, Godfall easily rises to the level of a concentration of racing enthusiasts. From the first moments of play, Counterplay Games displays its madness of grandeur like a Euromillions winner for its first night in Ibiza. A bit as if the studio had wanted to reassure new purchasers of PS5 and owners of high-end PCs about their investment: "yes, your machine has some in the belly, look at everything you can do with it" seems to mean the studio. It's simple, from memory, we had never seen a game so flashy and proud of its big means. And go ahead and I'll pave your way with gold bars, dazzle you with multiple light sources, budget for a July 14 grand finale with each explosion.

And there are plenty of explosions. You can't slay the slightest mob without being sprayed with particles of all colors. So yes, visually, we must recognize that the game is impressive. It is undeniable, we take full eyes. But it's too much, too much. The title adds to the disgust and a consultation at the ophthalmologist will perhaps not be ruled out for those who are keen to make their investment profitable. It's a question of (bad) taste, of course, and it may appeal to some, but it causes some problems of readability at the heart of the action, especially for many since the title also offers to go hunting for loot in multiplayer . But we will come back to that.

Apart from its unreasonable use of pyrotechnics, Godfall can still count on a rich and neat design. The borrowings are certainly too numerous to list them all here, but Godfall has style, from the design of the armor called Valorplate to that of the bestiary, through the architecture of the gigantic buildings overwhelming us with their majesty. The title thus gives to see some splendid panoramas and its sense of excess is sometimes good. Too bad however that the technique does not always follow since micro freezes are quite frequent. Nothing unbearable of course, but to choose we would still have preferred a game with impeccable fluidity rather than a debauchery of means tainted by these few addicts.

Acheter Godfall

The diversionary strategy

So all that is fine, but not enough to blind us to what it hides and yet it is not for lack of trying. Indeed, this bombast of means does not delude you for long and you quickly realize that the content does not follow. Take the famous Valorplates for example, these gleaming armors to craft over the course of the progression and which we were promised that they would each be characterized by a different style of play. Well in fact, we are very far from the mark.

Apart from a single specific characteristic (better chance of critical hits, poison damage, increased resistance to physical attacks, etc.) and variants brought to Archon's Wrath - special ability common to all armors, nothing distinguishes one Valorplate from another, if not its design. There is the possibility of customizing them by means of amplifications, but that is about the only leeway we have. Despite their different morphologies, there is no difference in their mobility, for example. We won't even have to slog too long to acquire most of them since the materials to make them litter the ground at the slightest swing of a sword swung at random.

It's a shame because there would have been material to considerably increase the interest of the game. A bit like a Monster Hunter, whose title is inspired in many respects, we could have had fun to imagine many variations of builds, combining the style of each Valorplate with different equipment and customizations. But it is not so, everything is desperately similar, or not far. These sumptuous Valorplates sadly lack singularity and the game offers us very little space for creativity.

To resume our comparison with Monster Hunter, Counterplay Games would have been well advised to analyze a little more carefully what makes it attractive. Like the loot for example. Not that the game is stingy with equipment to collect. You can't take a step without tripping over a magic charm. The problem is that their primary usefulness very often lies in the materials that can be obtained from them by recycling them, and not really in their characteristics. If we have taken care to use the forge located in the game hub, we will generally have great difficulty in coming across a weapon or an accessory whose characteristics supplant those of our current equipment. From then on, the vast majority of the loot collected will end up in spare parts to enchant and improve it. For a loot slasher, you will agree that it is rather funny.

JVFR

The forge where to enchant and improve your equipment

An unfinished game with solid foundations

Therefore, it is a good part of the interest of the game that flies to distant chimerical lands. So why go back and forth endlessly, once the fifteen hours of play that the main campaign lasts behind us, when the title rewards us so sparingly? Certainly not for its anecdotal scenario and its over-the-top narration consisting of successive comings and goings between two NPCs within the hub. Especially since with barely three play areas, we quickly go around in circles. Admittedly, each is segmented into several areas, populated by different enemies and there are even rather engaging boss and mid-boss hunting missions at first. But the problem is that, here again, the diversity of the offer is exhausted quite quickly. The same clashes in a loop with ever tougher enemies and different loots (but rarely more interesting, see above), this is not enough to renew the interest. Far from it.

And yet the heart of the gameplay is far from uninteresting. The offensive and defensive possibilities are indeed numerous and continue to grow richer over the levels. If the simple attack gradually eats away at the opponent's gauge, putting the accumulated damage on hold, a powerful attack will definitely cut it off. Often we will have better time to increase this reserve of damage by multiplying the rapid attacks and to wait for the opportune moment to concretize them with a powerful blow well placed.

JVFR

The bosses are as impressive as they are fearsome

Each type of weapon - one-handed sword, two-handed, hammer, polearm - has a power / speed / range ratio and different blow combinations that you will therefore have to assimilate well. As for the shield, it can obviously withstand enemy attacks but also parry them with the right guard timing, leaving the enemy stunned for a short time and, sometimes, at the mercy of summary execution. Dodging is also crucial to guard against certain unstoppable attacks and can also be supplemented by a slide by extending the range. Other improvements and new action possibilities are unlocked via a very extensive skill tree which allows you to develop your combat style and characteristics throughout the progression.

The clashes most often taking place in arenas and facing several opponents at the same time, it is vital to juggle all these possibilities and once they have mastered them, Godfall becomes frankly exhilarating in the heart of the action. Special mention to the boss fights, all very successful and offering a fairly high challenge. Note, however, that we encountered a strange bug in front of one of them: while we were struggling and we were getting impatient, a "slight" tension on the controller miraculously made us win the fight even as said boss was still standing in front of us.

In short, with such a solid combat and progression system, what a shame the game doesn't live up to any of its other promises. And it is not the multiplayer part that will qualify this observation. This one doesn't even come with a matchmaking feature to find playmates and just sends us beating monsters and opening side-by-side chests, and nothing more. We can always hope that Counterplay Games and Gearbox come to catch up with additional content, but as it stands, Godfall is a broken promise with charming trappings and not much more.

JVFR

Brilliant game, but not in the expected way

Godfall : l'avis de Clubic

History may one day tell us just what happened to cause Godfall to jump into battle so ill-prepared. Is the desire not to miss the launch window of the PS5 in question? Maybe. Because Godfall has all the symptoms of a game with ambitions left in the closet by its publisher's concern to meet the deadline. This can be guessed from its solid foundations, namely its combat system and its skill tree rich in customization possibilities, which we imagine have been the subject of a lot of attention. But besides that, there is everything else, or not far. What about those tasteless loots? Of these three poor playgrounds in which we quickly end up going in circles? Of these Valorplates which are not far from being just skins with no other singularity than their pretty designs? Of this multiplayer that does not even offer the most basic features? Even its grandiloquent realization will not be unanimous. We really have the feeling of having to do with a huge mess. It only remains to hope that Counterplay Games and Gearbox Publishing correct the situation with additional content, but for the moment we cannot advise you too much to keep your money and to invest it in Godfall only once all its promises kept. That is, maybe someday or maybe never.

Godfall

We would have liked to love Godfall, if only it had kept its main promises! Apart from a flashy achievement, a solid combat system and a very extensive skill tree, Counterplay Games ultimately only delivers half of the game. With barely three areas, missions that rehash the same objectives and same enemies, a story so badly told that it's almost insulting and a multiplayer reduced to its simplest expression, we really have the feeling that Counterplay Games had to put its ambitions in the closet for the sake of punctuality. Too bad because there was a certain potential. Let's hope for those who would have nevertheless agreed to the investment that the studio and its publisher will correct the situation in the future.