When playing Gods Will Be Watch, It's important to remember that not every game is for every person, and that not every game fits neatly into the catagories we've created for games.

If you are interested in it because it is described as a point and click adventure, you should reconsider. On the surface this looks to be true, but under the hood sits a different beast. Instead we find a survival sim, ala Oregon Trail, with almost no forgiveness in it's computerized soul. There are strategies and ideas that work, but quite often you have to roll the dice and pray.

At any point, a single wrong decision or unlucky break at the wrong moment can send you screaming back to the begining of a chapter undoing half hour worth of work. The more mercenary you are, the more wiggle room you are given. Kindness may or may not be rewarded, and sometimes will be acts of futility or suicide. Soon it becomes a balance of risk and failure, of cost and rewards. You are forced to buy time more than once at the cost of your own flesh. People will die, and you never know who you really want to save.

Thrown into this mix are a set of metarules that neither the player nor the character know about until they are stumbled across. You'll stumble across them at the worst of moments, wasting time you never really have but serve as puzzle pieces to the larger narative.

That said, the question becomes: is it worth it a playthru?

My answer is a cautious 'yes' to those who like creative and harsh gameplay or those looking for a different experience.

For a bit of context, I've finished my playthrough on Original (hardest) difficulty while completing all chapters without killing any non-mandatory characters. I think any review for this game needs to have two sections - first impressions, and then a second look after completing.

My initial response was that Gods Will Be Watching is not fun. It is not difficult. It is not challenging, or clever, or engaging. It is a grueling grind against a random number generator with a thin layer of plot plastered over.

However, having completed the game, I can say that every decision the developers made was justified. There's a kind of elegant brilliance to the story, and the characters become really fleshed out both through their actions and how you interact with them. An overarching purpose ties together chapters that initially appear disconnected, and it's rewarding to see all the pieces come together in the final (free) DLC chapter, which is the capstone of the whole game. To put it simply, the epilogue is a masterpiece.

So why the negative recommendation?

The game is it's own greatest enemy. Most of the dialogue is really well-written, but it completely loses it's impact when you've seen it ten or twenty or fifty times. For every chapter that is balanced but difficult, there is one where random chance will punish you again and again. The narrative itself is a unique experience, but demands grueling hours of repetition to discover.

The hardest part about the above is that everything works exactly as the developers intended it, and once you've finished it you can see why they wanted it that way; but the gameplay itself is never really "fun". Gods Will Be Watching would be a great game for the way it integrates its gameplay into a compelling narrative, but it's a missed opportunity because so much of that gameplay is frustrating or rage-inducing.

The experience is too bipolar for me to make a recommendation, although if you have the patience to beat it, it might be worth considering on sale. That said - once you start, I highly recommend you commit to finishing. The tunnel is long, but there's light at the end of it.

I initially preorded the collector’s edition of Gods Will Be Watching with a friend because I’m a huge fan of another game Devolver Digital produced, Hotline Miami. I expected to pick it up for a few hours, beat it in a day, and never think much about it after that. I was wrong.

For one, this game is hard as hell. Even after the mercy update which added additional puzzle and narrative only modes that remove some of the chance, I spent honest to god hours trying to beat some of the chapters. The results were rewarding, don’t get me wrong, but every death sent me back to the beginning and with no checkpoint saving that meant every decision I made had the potential to send me down a different path within the level. There were many times that I would have ditched the damn thing, as I’m not a patient person and honestly, point and clicks rarely interest me. But this one did, because it isn’t really a point and click. It’s more of a resource managing survival simulator with a really killer soundtrack.

You follow the life of a man named Burden and direct him in seven different levels; a break in, a torture chamber, a laboratory, a desert. In every chapter, lives are in your hands, and there are often few repercussions for deciding to end those lives or choosing to save them. Do you inject a trusting pet with a poison to find a cure to save your whole team? Do you kill a child to get a security code that might save an entire planet? There’s nothing really stopping you from turning Burden into the most callous antihero you can imagine except that at the end of each level you can see how every other player did and what choices they made.

The game is also incredibly story driven, carefully constructing a gritty universe through simplistic (and gorgeous) pixel graphics and dialogue. The fun part is that while the end in pretty much the same no matter what you do, the small choices you make in early chapters will effect the rest of the game very quietly. I’ve rarely felt so haunted and confused as when I killed a teammate in Gods Will Be Watching, not because what happened was scary but because it didn’t matter.

I’m not going to go too much into that because, spoilers, but if you’re looking for something to lose sleep over for a few days this game will certainly help pass the time. As I type this the game is on sale for $5usd, but it's definitely worth the $20 I paid for the collector's edition.

I was a backer of this project on Indiegogo back in 2013, and while the final product is not at all what I was expecting (i.e. it's not even an adventure game), I really, really love it.

I think Gods' has been underappreciated and unfairly reviewed simply because it poorly manages our expectations. I want to emphasise that this is a resource management endurance strategy. You don't walk around freely, examine things, pick up or combine items. There's no inventory. There's no traditional adventure game puzzles. Again, it's not an adventure game. It's just not.

Most chapters are just one "room" with a clear objective, and you must manage the people and resources in that scene carefully to survive until the objective is achieved. The interface is minimalist: You don't get direct control of your character. Clicking a person or object in the scene brings up a context menu with a list of choices. Typical choices are conversational, issuing orders or performing an action. The "puzzle" aspect comes from failure. Each chapter, you have to figure out how these actions affect the variables and only then can you develop a strategy to balance and exploit them. Because you can fail before even trying all possible actions, you'll probably fail at least once per chapter.

The reason I think it's called an adventure game (a classification I strongly reject), besides superficially presenting as one, is it's a highly narrative experience, played out primarily through conversational in-game cutscenes leading into each chapter.

• Gods' feels like a fresh and original concept.
  
• The story is an epic mind♥♥♥♥, and is the main reason I love this game. It's of time-honoured sci-fi tradition: dark, intense, existential and philosophical. It's a work of art and it makes you think.
  
• It has gorgeous pixel graphics with a mysterious ability to convey a lot with a little. There's some nice animation and lighting details which pixel art fans will appreciate. Non-pixel art fans, this may be the game which changes your opinion.
  
• The music works well, mostly ambience supporting the tension but occasionally stepping into the foreground for crescendo events. While I don't normally buy soundtracks, I do recommend the Collector's Edition for the 2h22m soundtrack in this one.
  
• The gameplay is satisfying when you succeed (frustrating when you don't).

• Marketing fail: it's a 100% strategy game thinly veiled as an adventure game.
  
• By jumping all over the place in the first half, it gives the false impression there's not much plot substance. I think the intent was to slowly build mystery and intrigue but I felt it instead failed to capitalise on one of its strongest points from the get-go.
  
• The whole premise of moral dilemma, choice and consequence is completely oversold. Choices don't carry between chapters and the gruesome, pixelated deaths of your comrades appeal more as black comedy than weighing on your conscience. Make no mistake: you're now a psychopath and your loved ones are an expendable resource there for exploitation in achieving your goal. You will regret their deaths solely for loss of their usefulness.
  
• The easier difficulty modes added in the 'mercy update' were poorly implemented and diminish the entire experience. I implore you to play in 'Original Light' mode, because by eliminating the element of chance, the newer 'Puzzle Light' and 'Story' modes undermine the most engaging aspect of God's gameplay; the factor of risk when making decisions (it should be noted that even in the harder modes, outcomes are still primarily based on odds and not completely random). The new modes not only rob you of a sense of accomplishment, but make the game feel too short (it stands at a respectable 8 hours in Light mode by my clock, though I'm a poor strategist).
  
• Gods' is definitely not for everyone: (a) There's no voice acting. (b) Gods' is minimalist and subtle in every aspect from gameplay to art, sound, animation, storytelling & characters. While this feels like a deliberate stylistic choice, not everyone will see it that way. (c) It's a resource management game and therefore involves many repetitive actions. (d) You are left to figure out the basic mechanics on your own, through failure. Meanwhile, it's only fun if you play on the harder difficulties. Gods' was designed to be cruel.

Some of the first PC games I played, around 25 years ago had this magical and mysterious air about them. They seemed so creative and imaginative and just so... out of nowhere. I don't really get that feeling these days, but I got it from Gods Will Be Watching. By chapter 5, I was totally sold, and after completion, I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. That's why I'm proud to have supported this game, and have featured it on my Steam profile ever since.

While it's far from perfect and I can completely understand why some people even go so far as to loathe it, to me, Gods' is an absolute treasure and is close to my heart. This has nothing to do with nostalgia and everything to do with artistic merit. There are many better designed games but somehow they're just not as memorable.

If you're planning to buy this because you saw words "point & click" or interesting pixel art and expected an old school adventure game - stop for a moment, please. Although Gods Will Be Watching is played just with your mouse, and even has a decent story to boot, it's not really an adventure game. This is a time management puzzle game.

Each of the game's chapters is a static screen with a specific task you're required to complete - hack to computer while keeping hostages safe/alive (while preventing the breach of your position) or create a serum while also digging a tunnel and multitasking the hell out of your characters. What underlines this game is a combination of statistics, database and some RNG elements that will not be explained properly to you, nor you'd be able to understand them on your first try. Yes, you'll fail these scenarios, most likely you'll even get stuck on the FIRST SCENE, especially since the gameplay relies so heavily on trial and error.

You will always have to juggle several factors in this turn-based puzzle game, yet none of it is really what can be considered "fun". Words "tedious" and "unfair" are more likely to go through your head while playing Gods Will Be Watching, as your progress may (or may not) get halted just because of the bad luck, especially in the second chapter. Also, you only get a limited number of turns/moves to complete everything that's been asked of you, so it's mostly about optimization instead of experimentation and immersion. This is a game where not even a walkthrough can help you sometimes, and it's highly recommended not to play on normal or original difficulty the first time unless you're a masochist.

Story? It's intriguing, that's for sure, even if slightly on a silly side (what serious organization would call themselves Xenolifer?). Too bad you'll only get the bits of information and world/character building in non-interactive scenes inbetween long puzzle sequences.

I haven't completed the game. I might do one day, when the bitter taste of bad game design vanishes from my memory.

Be aware of what you are buying before you purchase this.

I think it's rare that a developer has something interesting to say with a video game that could not be said just as well (or better) with a novel or a movie. Gods Will Be Watching is one of those rare cases; unfortunately it's also kind of inaccessible. It's not a bad game, but it's not the game you might assume it is at first glance. It looks like a point-and-click adventure. It's not. GWBW is a game about fate and meaning that can only be won through repeated trial-and-error. This is not an oversight, it's intentional and integral to the game. I'd go so far as to say it's the game's reason for existing. If you play to the end, you get to understand why. Getting there is not always fun though, it can be frustrating and annoying. Again, that's the point.

I know this sounds kind of pretentious, and I guess maybe it is, in the way only real art can sound pretentious until you experience it and it moves you. In its defense, the developers have added several new play modes (including an "easy" mode and a "puzzle" mode) that make the game much less difficult while still preserving the story and soul of the game. WIth this change, I think they have successfully solved the only real problem with the game which was that the heavy amount of RNG really obstructed the enjoyment of the narrative.

Read a couple other reviews and see if this sounds like something you're interested in. If it is, don't pay full price; put it on your wish list and pick it up on sale. If you go in with your expectations set correctly, I think you will be pleased with this well-crafted but conflicted little work of art.

My feelings about this game are mixed. I love the presentation, I love the idea and the execution is all right -- but the story feels a bit stock, the characters are pretty bland and the difficulty is brutal -- for the wrong reasons.

I don't mind a difficult game, but here it feels very uneven and punishing. I don't always need my decisions to go my way, but it often feels like it doesn't matter -- making it feel like my input doesn't really play any part in the game at all. I might as well flip a coin.

Another issue I have with the game is that the outcome of one scenario won't affect the next one, so if my partner dies during the very intense torture sequence he'll still be alive and kicking as if nothing happened as the story continues, which takes away any impact from what happened.

I want to love this game. The game jam scenario was incredible and I gladly support the developers. Perhaps a sequel (or a similar game in a totally different setting) might be better, but it's hard for me to recommend this with these issues.

• Developers: Deconstructeam
  
• Publishers: Devolver Digital
  
• Initial release: July 2014
  
• Genre: Adventure, Point and Click, Story Heavy
  
• #Worth/NotWorth: #AbsolutelyWorth

Gods will be watching is a meter management simulator gone wild.

This game is not for the feint of heart or the easily trifled with. There are roughly (I didn't count) 7 difficulty settings. The hardest being.. original. I played the first 3 chapters this way. I failed over and over. So, not really being super into failing I started over on 'narrative' mode. The “easiest” of them all. Now, it WAS easier, my decisions did not effect the variables as greatly but guess what.. I failed over and over probably 10-30 times each scenario. But each time with new information as to what needed to be prioritized. Believe it or not it all comes together narratively in the end and I want to tell you now; it's super satisfying.

This game is highly narratively driven. It is technically an adventure game but most of the puzzles take place on a single screen. The puzzles are very complicated and unforgiving, not because of pixel hunts or anything you might expect but because each scenario you find yourself in has about 10 or more variables that change with every decision. It is turn based and through discovery you'll find that some actions are free and give a better handle on the situation. Each time you fail you come back with more knowledge of the previous attempt. Do I focus more on keeping people alive or moving forward? Do I focus more on getting the information I need or staying true to my allegiances? Each time you'll find through experimentation what makes what tick and how much it'll take before it pushes back.

I mentioned it was a meter management sim, only, not until later on when things get really sticky do you have concise information about where the meters are or even what your actions will produce as a result. That is, until you find out their consequences first hand. But until that comes you've no idea what position those meters are in or how much your actions do or do not affect them.

Each scenario puts you in charge of multiple people or rather one person delegating orders. And to this games credit, every time something bad happens, every time someone dies, despite the very real fact that it may have been another character doing the action possibly due to your inaction. It feels like its your fault, as if you are entirely responsible and had it not been for your indecision or blatant lack of thought during the making of your decision things could have worked out so much better for everyone.

Each decision due to the fragile nature of things adds that much more meaning to it. I hate to go on and on about how great the ending feels and how it all collides together. But I'm going to, the mounting frustration due to the failure of each puzzle and how rewarding it is to finally overcome such adversity and impossible situations is truly rewarding. Easily one of the most frustratingly beautiful games I've played in recent years.

Not for everyone/10 but truly rewarding for those that do complete it.

More here — Station Argus

5/28/15 EDIT: I've been meaning to update this review to reflect the changes introduced by the game's extra difficulty options an I apologize for not having done so sooner. While I haven't spent a lot of time playing the new modes, all evidence points towards them providing acceptable alternatives which fix some of the issues highlighted below. I will leave my original review intact as the main difficulty hasn't changed any, and will hopefully have additional thoughts up eventually.

Original Review

As I sit here and enter the same commands over and over again, I feel a certain autonomy take over. My mind has numbed to the plight of those whom I hold at the end of my gun. Empathy has long since ejected from the escape pods and crash landed onto a dead, sandy planet nearby. Common sense jettisoned eons ago. I shoot them in non-vital locations, I punch them repeatedly ‘til their faces look like the meat Rocky used to practice with. They beg me not to do anything crazy and I just don’t care. Oceans gush forth from blood stained eyes, the salty water providing no comfort or nourishment to parched souls. My finger is quivering above the trigger, its cold steel the only thing I know anymore. Lost to the hypnotic whir of densely packed computerized science equipment, I drift off in a daze in the midst of the situation. Why do I feel so disconnected from these horrific events? Have I always been this broken or has something made me this way? Why is it that, somewhere in the back of my mind, I feel like I have done this all before?

Oh, that’s right. Because I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ have.

Gods Will Be Watching has been advertised as a game about choice, moral conundrums, and how far you’ll go for the sake of the mission. This is, unfortunately, not what the game turned out to be. Instead, it may be best to view it as a puzzle game, one in which you need to figure out the optimal pattern for shooting hostages in the leg, hacking the computer, and holding off the oncoming SWAT team, all while keeping your hostages from losing their minds or getting a little too comfortable instead of fitting tetrominos together for a high score. It had all of the potential to be a memorable, stressfully worthwhile “experience” like Papers, Please. Unfortunately, the execution of its many parts fail to come together in any meaningful way, much like the game’s choices or lack thereof.

Despite flashing choice as though you were at an all-you-can-cry buffet of nerve testing conundrums a la The Walking Dead Season 1, there’s very little in the way of consequence to anything you do. Characters whom you watch violently expire from this godless universe will magically re-appear in the later chapters, which I will cover more later, even going so far as to having their ghost speak to you. Every situation has a set of conditions that must absolutely be met in order to progress or else you will be judged by the gods as unworthy and forced to redo the entire chapter. Failing to keep a specific person alive can doom you towards the end of a segment, mismanaging your various resources could lead to an instant ‘game over’, or the RNGods may decide that on this die roll that revolver will finally go off and plaster the wall with your brains.

The skill-based deaths and resets I could forgive to a degree, but the fact that die rolls can force you to lose 30 minutes of progress requiring you to do every painstaking move over again to try and progress is mind boggling. Even more so when you realize that there are no mid-chapter saves at all. The only saves that occur take place at the beginning of a chapter, so if you have to quit the game at all you will need to either finish that chapter first or be okay with your work vanishing. To call this a shortcoming is understating how frustrating the entire lack of saves thing really is. Almost every single chapter drags on needlessly and could have easily been cut in half with progress doubled to allow each scenario to only last 10-15 minutes instead of 30-45.

I audibly groaned when the torture sequence teased that it would last longer than 20 days. The desert scenario is almost entirely centered around RNG rolls and luck deciding you were worthy. At least some of the other chapters, such as the hostage scenario in chapter one, tie their mechanics to detailed animations that give you an idea of exactly where you stand with each element of the puzzle. The Russian Roulette segment can, and potentially will, send you back to the beginning of the chapter it appears in. I mean, I watched The Deer Hunter too and I didn’t think it would make for a good idea in a video game! Thematically, it’s cool, but leave it to cutscenes like Killer 7 did.

It’s a shame too, as the story presented could have made more of an impact if people could actually make it to the final chapters to see everything tie together. Players have been noticing a lot of inconsistencies and oddities, citing the game’s touting of choice as though it would matter and being disappointed that killing off a character in one chapter would leave them alive in the next. The story does, in fact, get around to explaining why this occurs but it happens so late in the game that I worry most players will have given up long before then. I get that the story uses the cycle of repeating the scenarios over and over again but it’s just not that fun. It’s like a Coen Brothers movie that misses its own point.

Gods Will Be Watching tested my patience, caused me to do things I wouldn’t have ordinarily considered doing, and made me live out the harsh life of Sgt. Burden, with us both wondering why the Gods insisted on punishing us so. In the end, the developers’ insistence on arbitrary difficulty through randomization under pressing time and resource limits and difficulty spikes really slaughters any momentum that could build up and may leave players feeling unsatisfied. I grew so frustrated by restarts that I ended up caving and playing on easy. Even then, the game was no cake walk. Perhaps the point of the game is to break me down and wear out my ability to give a damn. But somewhere deep within myself and Sgt. Burden, we found the will to continue on. Something driving us forward despite the odds. But not many others will, I fear. And for their sake, I hope the Gods are listening as well.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check it out at http://www.rgz.ca/gaming/gods-will-be-watching-review-nihils-hymn/ along with my other reviews as they come. Thanks!

Great art style and atmosphere! Unfortunately, terrible game play.
The whole concept is basically that in every scenario, you have to figure out on wich order to do things. Or you die. Then try again. And again. Which takes time. A LOT OF TIME. It just felt boring and unsatisfying to me. '
Also, for a game that supposedly has a great story, it really should have a different text font. All the dialouge is in text, but with the 8-bit style text, it's really hard to read. Extremely frustrating. I usually fall in love with these kind of odd-but-pretty indie titles, but this was a big let down. Would not reccomend.