The launch of the PlayStation 5 is getting closer and closer, and after the spectacular presentation last week, the wait around the new flagship from Sony is increasingly frantic. To steal the show, on the software side, was definitely Demon's Souls Remake, which in its all new guise has already sent millions of gamers into raptures. The progenitor of the “Souls” family will in fact be one of the most important launch exclusives of PlayStation 5, accompanied by other exclusive titles of sure interest. Among these Godfall certainly stands out (which will actually also be released on PC, therefore console exclusive), the "looter-slasher" - as the same Counterplay games defined it - made under the protective wing of Gearbox.
Over the course of the months, the title has been able to demonstrate that it has good cards to play, net of all the doubts arising from an apparently "flat" and not very innovative structure, becoming one of the most interesting and enigmatic products of this new generation day after day. console that, by now, is really around the corner.
Let's try to take stock, therefore, postponing any kind of conclusion to the next few months, when we will finally be able to really touch the wrath of the gods.
An interesting structure, but already seen?
If you have had the feeling that Godfall is a fundamentally "caciarone" product and super focused on continuous and obsessive combat, you are probably not very far from reality. However, we must make some necessary clarifications.
It is no mystery, in fact, that the beating heart of Godfall is strongly linked to its playful structure, a structure that rests its foundations on two typical elements of the genre: the progression and the obsessive search for the loot. Hence the definition of "looter-slasher" that is a title that is strongly based on clashes, fast and "aggressive", and on the dynamics of loot so dear to productions like Diablo, Destiny and the like.
The core of the structure is therefore linked to the continuous search for progress understood as the development of one's own armor, an element that is incredibly central to the production. The so-called Valorplate, the armor of the knights protagonists of the story, namely the Valorian Knights, are in fact legendary armor, able to give the wearer incredible powers, almost divine. The differentiation, management and, indeed, the development of these armors seem to be one of the keystones of the launch title of PlayStation 5 and of the exclusive Epic Games, since they give the player powers, skills and playful mechanics in general completely. different from each other.
Is a weapon forever? Better not!
Hand in hand with the importance of the Valorplates, which help to differentiate and increase the power of one's alter ego, another fundamental element is linked in the construction of a varied "build" and, above all, for all tastes: let's talk about weapons, clearly available also by killing hordes of enemies that once again promise to be a fundamental step in the construction of a playful imprint not necessarily very original but still very sparkling.
Variety seems to be precisely the keyword of Godfall's playful offer, also because the developers have already confirmed the presence of many combinations related to both Valorplate (at the moment twelve different have been announced) and precisely to weapons, in turn diversified according to development and different skill branches.
From the first game sequences everything seemed not very fluid, we admit it, especially the combat, in which the weapons give the impression of being all a little heavy and the feedback of the shots appears slow and not very reactive. From a game heavily focused on combat we clearly expect a different and varied experience, but the first sensations - clearly all based on relative impressions - have left us with some too many doubts.
All this while remembering that the title can be used in the company of other online players, indeed, with the developers who have emphasized the importance of the mechanics of cooperative multiplayer, fundamental for the purpose of a more complete and varied experience.
A fascinating story
While not exactly a masterpiece in terms of originality, the story of Godfall seems to have all the elements to be of an excellent level.
In fact, we speak of the genesis of a world in ruins, battered by chaos and destruction that are expanding visibly. The title of Counterplay Games is heavily based on some literary works of great depth, such as The Cycle of the Asimov Foundation and The Chronicles of Lightning by Brandon Sanderson, which give the game that identity that we have begun to glimpse in these months that separate us from the launch.
We are talking about a world, Aperion, headed towards what seems to be an inevitable apocalypse, and whose soil divided into four macro areas based on the elements is destined to be crushed by the overwhelming power of the destructive God known as Macros. It seems clear that the Knights are thus the last bastion of hope for Aperion, but we will discover further details on the narrative sector only in the future.
Divine glimpses
It is no mystery that Godfall, being one of the very first games shown in the next-gen, immediately aroused great interest in players also from a technical point of view. The aesthetic and audiovisual nature of the game, however, is to be discovered: we have objectively seen very little, but just enough to make us have a very first impression of what awaits us in the coming months. The settings we have seen so far seemed to us not very original and even exploration appeared to us perhaps a little limited and not very permissive in terms of exploration.
We cannot therefore say that we have been faced with a technological miracle, at least so far, but we have not a little appreciated, for example, the particle effects that accompany some combat sequences. Those, combined with a number of more than valid shaders (which help to increase the appeal of the lighting), contribute to the creation of an image that is overall valid, but unable to scream a miracle, net of the generational change.
Godfall continues to seem like a bivalent product: on the one hand we find a fun and potentially interesting play system, combined with a progression system that seems to have excellent ideas, linked to a very interesting “looter-shooter” structure; on the other hand, however, everything seems imprisoned by an abused and not very original playful style and by a technical sector that seems slightly subdued for a new generation title. Doubts remain but on the whole we are confident about the production, even if we do not yet have enough elements to be able to unbalance ourselves. For a complete examination, however, we will have to wait a little longer: the next gen is now around the corner.
► Godfall is a RPG-Action game developed by Counterplay games and published by Gearbox Software for PC and PlayStation 5, the video game was released on 12/11/2020
Version for PlayStation 5 from 19/11/2020
