As far as role playing games go, this ones rating should be a little around the mid-point. Gods-Lands of infinity has the looks, the feel of a game that wants to be grand in its appearance, gameplay and so on, but doesn’t quite get there. That said, fans of the genre will enjoy the game, depending on their tolerance level though as the game has dated visuals, corny storyline and a total lack of innovation by Cypron Studios. However, bearing in mind the Cypron studies is a small independent company, much can be forgiven. Having said that, the quality of the game will depend on the player. You will either enjoy the game immensely or not at all.The storyline for the game is one that follows gods at war, in a ruthless effort to claim the throne of the murdered lord of the gods. But it’s obvious that the conflicts wont be solved even if one of them claimed victory, that is of course till one of the gods, the god of darkness Mortagorn, discovers a weapon that cant be beaten. Mortagorns minions have been stomping down on the opposing forces of Bellarion, so it is important that a counter weapon be found. And so, the god of fire Arswaargh creates an avatar from his own body called Vivien, who is sent to a distant realm of Antasion. Of course, there’s the age old cliché of hero-with-amnesia gimmick as Vivien is stripped of her powers and goes on a mission to regain them and, by doing so, carry out the mission to find the gods of the land and ask them for help in finding a weapon to stop Mortagorn. It’s a pretty basic story line, and you’ll be thinking more then once that it was probably constructed by some guys in a basement while playing Battleship. It is an action/adventure game that gives you an array of missions and side quests and all the quirks you’d expect from a typical RPG. Its primarily a first person turn-based game where you have to talk to as many people as you possibly can, accept quests and open up more and more areas as your character gains experience. Along the way you’ll get the chance to upgrade your weapons and armour depending on how good you are at trading, you can buy or trade potions and expand your magical skills through learning from different teachers. The goal is simple, you fight, you gain experience, you level and gain new skills and then utilize them to your extent. Although the game is played through a first- person perspective throughout, expect for when you enter a battle, then you’re given a third person perspective turn-based mode.

You’d think, given the goal of averting apocalypse, you’d have more interesting missions then escorting merchants, trading goods and fetching things from one town to the next, but you’d be wrong. This is as interesting as it will get, but the slightly more interesting aspect is the free market that runs through different towns. Hints are given out about the different merchants who sell low and who buy high, so if you want to play the trader, you can make a fair bit of gold doing things like running pottery to the beekeepers or buying fish from one merchant and selling it to one in the next town for a higher price. However, there will be many who wouldn’t think of trading as the most interesting aspect of the game and will look for other activities. Unfortunately, trading is a necessity because of the amount of cash on offer in quests, as well as the high amount of cash needed to buy weapons and supplies. The gameplay is very linear, as you’re given a series of maps that continue to be revealed as you explore more of the game. These maps are all linked on the “ingame” world map so you can travel between them. Once they have opened to you, the process is pretty quick and simple. All that needs to be done is to find a signpost, click on it and you’re basically a click away from your next destination. This is a bright aspect of the game because unlike other RPG’s where you have to spend ages going from one town to the next, you can just click your way all over the map. The game auto saves every time you enter the map so you don’t have to.

Other parts of the game are just as time consuming as the traveling trader stuff. You need to constantly replenish your food supplies. Drinking and eating is a necessity everyday because hunger and thirst slows you down and prevents you from resting to regain hit points. The game has a full day/night cycle so you’ll need to replenish your energies often. You’ll get weak in terms of your carrying capacity too, which makes it hard to carry around the large amount of food you gather over time and after different quests, enemies also drop items after each battle, which you automatically pick up even if doing so makes you so encumbered that you can no longer move.

Combat is a little slow compared to other rpg’s. Battles are carried out in turn-based mode centered on action points. In battles, you either pick an attack method or choose between casting a spell and downing a potion during every turn. After going through that,you must endure the enemy’s attacks. Despite the presence of repetition, the developers didn’t think it a good idea for the player to just fall into a trance and repeatedly hit the maximum damage attack option, which is a good strategy and goes with the feel of the game. The battles are held quite strategically and after every third turn or so, you have to defend your position which enforces you to think tactfully about the next moves. Enemies don’t necessarily have to take pauses so you have to think smart to make your moves if you don’t want to be slaughtered during those down times. Once you start encountering serious opposition, battles can seem pretty interesting because your whole focus is on your next move. A lot is riding on each decision you make so it almost feels as though you’re solving puzzles during every battle to max out the damage you’re dealing out and minimize the damage you’re receiving. There’s a limited amount of magic involved in combat mode as well, but its only in combat mode so you cant heal or resurrect a character after the battle is finished. It also only opens up properly when you’re about a third of the way through the game. Spells are stored in crystals, which you purchase and add to your spell book, which progresses levels as the game moves along. However, the magic is a little underwhelming even if seen only in battles. Physical attacks seem to do more damage to your opponent then attack spells and using a summons to absorb attacks and to cast healing spells is more effective then using destructive spells.

The presentation of the game isn’t all that bad, but the biggest problem is the audio. The game has some of the corniest dialogues ever, and you’ll once again be thinking the script was written by people who have seen too many fantasy movies. Vivien is voiced by an American model Kyla Cole, but that doesn’t do much for the games popularity as the voice over sounds forced and terribly boring. Also, voice samples seem to have been provided by a handful of people, so you’ll be hearing the same voice for several different guards or merchants all voiced by the same woman. There are also several miscues and grammatical mistakes in the spoken dialogue, but that’s forgivable since Cypron Studios is a Slovakian developer. Also, some really funny sounding English can be heard throughout the game. A random man will introduce himself with an extremely bizarre “I am man, the lord of procreation!”, which is more likely to leave you in titters then intimidate you. Music isn’t quite so humorous though. It’s repetitive and more then often annoyingly flighty and too grand for the look of the game. The game would be visually pleasing if this were still the year 2000. There are some textures in the game, some areas that look very attractive and if they had a bit more detail, would look stunning and enhance the effect of the game. However, the game looks very cartoonish in its look, which is sad because a lot could’ve been done for the lush green outdoor setting. However the first person camera setting does make an effort at showing off these few graphical highlights.

Gods: Lands of infinity boasts about being a trading game, but it has several RPG aspects that die-hard RPG players would recognize and appreciate. It isn’t going to jump off any shelves as a tried and tested formula RPG, and has a few stumbles here and there, but it surpasses pre-made expectations at least. The look of the game is strong and consistent, the camera angle satisfying, the sound is a little problematic and repetitive but it pulls off the game pretty neatly. For fans and newbies to the RPG genre, the game delivers to its extent in the entertainment department, especially for those who have a taste for fantasy story lines and grand environments.