14 DAY TRIAL // The Chosen One is once again trying to cleanse his favorite place of worship, with my own Courtier subverting the lord of the nearest city, spreading darkness while keeping an eye on the most powerful weapon of the light. My dark deity might be more than 100 turns from awakening, but I still have a lot to do, in terms of plagues, wars, raids, and destruction, to subvert the human kingdoms and their rulers.
Shadows of Forbidden Gods is being created by Bobby Two Hands. It is currently in Early Access on Steam, with the full release set to arrive in 2022. The game lies within the turn-based strategy space, adding a unique premise and mechanics.
The premise is surprising: work for one of these forbidden gods to take over the world. To achieve this, you can use agents and powers. The first roam around the map, interacting with locations and characters. The latter allows the deity to tweak the playing field and even clone heroes of the light and use them for darkness.
Depending on the agent and the location a variety of options opens up. The player can try to drive a ruler insane or sow distrust inside a kingdom. Shadows of Forbidden Gods offers ways to increase the power of orc raiders to destroy human settlements. Plagues can be activated, covens can be used for power, there are Deep Ones that threaten the coast. But underground work is hard and sloppy actions can make heroes aware of the situation, sending them cleansing locations or hunting for dark forces.
Progress requires a careful balance between overt big actions and careful underground planning. It’s very easy to lose a good agent because he gets a little too visible at the worst of times. The humans will even form a powerful alliance once the dark god returns, with all their characters working together to destroy it.
Shadows of Forbidden Gods focuses on atmosphere and information delivery, rather than on pure graphical beauty. The map and interaction panels are adequate although the characters are a little under-designed. The music delivers the required weirdness but needs a little more punch.
Conclusion
I only took over the world for these powerful dark deities twice so far, after falling once, but I am already planning my next campaign, thinking about synergies and agent recruitment. I very much want to see what Shadows of Forbidden Gods adds before full launch and how it can enhance its weirdness.
Preview code provided by the developer.
