Godstrike Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · April 16, 2021

Godstrike is a twin-stick shooter where time is your health and currency. Face off against ruthless bosses intense, 1v1 showdowns as Talaal, the last Herald.

Pros:

Decent graphics.
841.92MB Download size.
Steam achievements.
Controller support.
Graphics-fullscreen, resolution, graphics preset, v-sync, and projectile shadows.
Twitch Integration.
Four modes-arena, story, daily challenge, and challenge mode.
Full online leaderboards for daily run and bosses.
Tutorial area and a boss fight.
Twin-stick shooter gameplay.
Can use twin sticks or use face buttons for directional fire.
Arcane codex-equip up to four attacks/abilities to a button of your choice.
Occult index-equip up to four passive skills/abilities.
Boss rush style game structure.
Bosses have 3 distinct phases with each one playing differently.
Time-both health and currency.
Skills and abilities need power orbs that drop from the bosses in order to use them.
Fast-paced.
Every boss is unique.
Bright colorful arenas.
You need to replay and restart fights over and over as you learn the patterns.
Simple to learn controls.
Arena mode-you picks an opponent and you have all the codex entries unlock allowing you to have full control over your build.
Challenge mode supports seed entries so you can share them with friends.
The Challenge mode-you get a random overall effect, a random codex ability for each one, and a random fight.

Godstrike Review (Steam)

Cons:

Very basic tutorial.
Cannot change keybindings.
Difficult.
Doesn’t do a good job of explaining what’s happening which is very daunting at first.
Slow to get going.
You won’t know which opponent you are choosing in arena mode as it just changes an icon and the timer per choice.
Can’t skip the boss phase transformation cutscenes.
Big entry-level.

Godstrike Review (Steam)

8/10

Graphics - 8/10
7/10

Sound - 7/10
7/10

Accessibility - 7/10
8/10

Length - 8/10
7/10

Fun Factor - 7/10

7.4/10

Summary

Godstrike is a boss rush game with a huge emphasis on bullet hell. Each boss is unique in its appearance and attacks, in fact, it is quite impressive how each boss is almost like a game within itself. Bosses have 3 stages to their health bars and each stage will trigger a short cutscene and then a new set of attacks and abilities. OK, so the Gimmick of the game is the time! Time counts down as you play and using abilities will cost time, get to zero and the screen goes black and white and the next hit is Insta death. Playing the game is one where it’s really difficult all the time as you learn the mechanics, controls are fine as the base moves are natural with abilities mapped to buttons of your choosing each time. The abilities are all wildly different and whilst it takes a long time to get them in the story mode, arena mode has them all unlocked so you can get a feel for them but also have the optional layer of a build. I spent more time in this mode than any other for this very fact and over time I eventually learned what symbols spawned what bosses so I could learn the game and particular bosses easier. Overall the game is OK, I am not a huge boss rush fan, I liked the bullet-hell implementation and how the build system works but I just couldn’t click with the rest of it. The tutorial is far too basic, the intro boss fight is brutal and doesn’t take it easy on you in terms of having you learn the game, it’s a huge roadblock. The game expects you to just die over and over learning as you go and that’s a risky approach. It looks good and the controls are fine but I just couldn’t get into the tough gameplay loop.