“Animal Gods” — First Impressions of a Strange Indie Adventure

I first heard about Animal Gods when I received a PR email about it recently and after looking at some screenshots and reading about its odd, abstract story, I was hooked and wanted to give it a try. Naturally, a review code was provided and off I went, diving right into the game on a live-stream I did on October 28, 2015.

I agree with some of the reviews on Steam: the artwork and art style of the game is appealing and captivating and the story is minimalist but just enough to leave you wanting to know what happened. The game’s strongest suit, though, in my opinion is the OST, which is relaxing and very fitting for the areas you explore as you play.

Yet, after having played around an hour of the game (approximately half of the total experience), I find that I really don’t have a desire to continue it. While on some level I definitely want to know how it all wraps up and just what is going on in this strange world in the game (and who the characters referred to in the diary entries are), the gameplay really just isn’t enough to keep me interested. Frankly, it’s boring, and in some cases very tedious. Also, the mechanics are weak and I found myself dying in situations that I really should not have died in.

Some people have claimed that the game simply isn’t complete. Others say that it just isn’t all that good. And yet, there are also people that say the game is amazing and that they loved every moment of it.

It certainly is divisive, and yet, I would rate this game as:

“Flawed”

Jessica Brown

Retro Games and Technology Editor. She'll beat pretty much every Mega Man game without breaking a sweat.