Almighty: Kill Your Gods – developed by RUNWILD Entertainment and published by Versus Evil – is a solo or cooperative hybrid of third-person combat and resource-grinding. It’s only been out in early access for a few weeks and, despite some potential, still feels rough in many respects.
After a lengthy cutscene narrates the rise of a wolf-like species against their brutal Gods, advances in technology slowly reduces their stature and the mythical Alphas – which rose up to destroy their prior masters – went extinct. The player is reborn as an Alpha after an attack by an elder God decimates your home island.
This is followed by a series of tutorials – with hints and tips from an ancestor spirit that sounded more bored than enthusiastic – which establish the basic combat, upgrade, and crafting loops. Your home island, you’ll soon discover, houses several basic resources and demon mobs to grind, but to progress at a decent rate, you need to travel to other islands and hunt larger monsters or Gods.
On your home island, there are several structures to develop and upgrade, the most important being your central tower. Each level that you construct – requiring an increasing amount of resources – improves your characters base stats and gets you closer to true “Almighty” status. The other structures either passively generate resources, provide shops for character gear and upgrades, or defence against incursions.
Naturally, hunting demons, monsters, and gods means a lot of combat and impressions are mixed. Your Alpha can run, sprint, double-jump, and glide massive distances, making basic movement feel great. Unfortunately, lacklustre animations and floaty physics means your character never feels grounded in the world. The same can be said for combat, in which wonky attack animations and clipping diminish any sense of immersion.
Almighty: Kill Your Gods offers several ways to dispatch your foes both up close or, preferably, at range. In a pinch, you have standing- and and sprinting-melee attacks but your magic gauntlets are far more effective and entertaining. As the game cycles between mobs of smaller demons and larger creatures, your right gauntlet is primarily used for single, high damage attacks, while the left can be used for defensive spells or charge-up area-of-effect attacks. The more you play, the more you loot, and the more you craft, the more you can tailor your loadout to your preferred playstyle.
Combat can look and feel rough but has its moments of fun. I grew fond of the explosive attack, herding basic demon enemies into a clump before hurling a fireball into their midst, then following it up with a ground-slam attack to wipe out the survivors. On top of your basic melee and gauntlets, there’s both gear and spell-casting amulets to craft, increasing your survivability and providing even more tactical combat options.
Much like an MMO, just because you can travel to a location doesn’t mean you should explore every inch of it at first. Each island is home to a range of enemies, many of which will slaughter you in seconds if encountered early on. On my very first hunt, I decided to investigate a massive crab-looking creature thinking it was some impressive local flora. The result was dying in a blaze of fire, stuck in place by an organic gloop.
When it comes to the resource grind, enemies drop basic loot, while the targets of your “hunts” drop body parts. Either way, you need to successfully “extract” from any given island to claim that loot. Playing solo, this means avoiding foes, careful pathing, or simply running like hell. Played cooperatively, the same strategies work but you have companions to keep you alive by drawing aggro. This ability to avoid foes and find unconventional paths make for a more strategic experience, rather than the typical combat gauntlet.
Talking of cooperative play, you can invite or join other players on their hunts (up to 4-players in total), or help them defend their home island from incursions. It also helps that your companions can revive you, whereas dying while playing solo sends you back to your chosen spawn point on the island.
I was impressed by Almighty: Kill Your Gods’ audio, with meaty combat sounds and a “tribal” soundtrack – think twangy strings and percussion drums. However, by far the roughest element of the current build is the visuals and performance. Your character and enemy models look great, and the environments can dynamically change once a God has been provoked (think elemental weather effects). However, they still look generic, with visual flourish relying on post-processing effects rather than the artwork itself. It also runs terribly, with lurching framerates seemingly unrelated to on-screen action, on every visual setting.
Overall, Almighty: Kill Your Gods has potential for those looking for a combat-heavy resource grind, with a focus on quick, cooperative hunts and frequent upgrades. Having friends along for the ride improves the experience immensely and results in more tactical battles, rather than battles of attrition. Unfortunately, the game is still in a rough state technically, and both traversal and combat animations need more work to make them feel more impactful.