Godville: A ZPG huh?

OK, so it's been well over a month since my last blog post, but hey, I'm not a blogger, so what do you expect? Did I also mention this blog doesn't particularly represent anything? So here I present to you, my first Android App Review on my blogger blog!

What is it?
The developer calls it a ZPG; ok, so they've invented a genre. For those not in the know (and why would you be?) a ZPG as described by the developer stands for Zero-Player Game. Sounds like a pretty dull idea, huh? Yeah.

Godville is a spoof of many different games, the main genre victim being RPGs. Utilising the structure of an RPG, Godville does it's best to provide an app which is somewhat a cross between a game and an ebook, with humour which, whilst occassionally brings out the odd smirk, isn't particularly something to throw a party about.

How does it work?
So you download Godville, and the first stage of the game is to name your player, and name your god (This is you, by the way. You are god.) That's pretty much it; the most interactively critically intense part of the game.

From here on inwards you have the ability to send your hero (who's sole purpose of existence is to honour and worship you) either Encouragement or Punishment. You have a Godpower bar; this is similar to your magic/mana/stamina/willpower bar you'd find in a standard RPG, and decreases by a set percentage when sending commands, encouragement or punishment to your hero. Oh yeah.... You can also send your hero commands; these are easy to come by online, however they don't seem to work very well when I try them. I'm guessing these may differ between iPhone and Android versions. This reminds me a lot of the old text based RPGs.

Your hero keeps a diary, and on his/her travels, will update his diary to inform you of what exactly is going on. Here's a little extract from my hero's diary in it's current state from the most recent enteries to give you an idea of what to expect:

12:56pm A wandering paladin poured a handful of sacred soil and let me touch his holy hand grenade.
12:55pm The sabertooth Squirrel was shredded into tiny stripes. I picked up a lovely bunch of coconuts and 27 coins.
12:53pm Heard a horrible scream from the other side of the forest. I hope it wasn't real...

You can get the general idea of the quirky sense of humour used when creating the game. It's also worth noting, along side a lovely bunch of coconuts, there are other comical item names, such as the Holy Sock my hero is currently equipped with. Hand in hand with this is the quirky titles given to the antagonists within the game, i.e. Neck Romancer.

The Story
I can't help but feel the story is very shallow and doesn't have much depth to it at all. Whilst I understand the humour in the game is what drives it, lack of story line really does loose my interest in half the game, my characters inventory, who my hero is fighting, my coin ballance, etc.

In a standard RPG you would visit towns and shops, speak to NPCs for quests, etc. This is all lost in the ZPG. I have one quest at a time, the current being "Take the lost kitten to the Temple of Bast". This means nothing to me, because whilst you're not playing, your hero continues to live on. This means I've lost a lot of the story from time I've not been playing, and have lost complete interest in the quests.

There is however a main goal, and to expand on the sole purpose of your hero, the main goal is for the hero to collect enough golden bricks to build a temple in your name. This makes me chuckle, though it isn't referenced too often.

Gameplay Statistics
My hero is 2 days old; I had the app running whilst I was doing other stuff for a few hours on day one, but didn't play at all yesterday. Remember however the game does continue whilst you're not playing. I mention this because I'd like to present you with a series of statistics, and their impact on the 'game'.

The quest I am currently on is 50% complete. There is no way to tell, however this is the 2nd quest I have seen my hero on. There may have been quests yesterday that I can't account for, however the quest meter does run through extremely slowly.

I am level 8. My character is fully equipped with weapons and armour. For the hours I were playing on day one, by the end my character was equipped with one (out of seven) item only, and on level 2. Upon launching today, he is fully equipped.

Conclusion
So the key question here is, does the game serve it's purpose? The game is built to mock RPGs and similar games with levelling up and inventory systems, however it describes itself as being the game we're all used to, minus the boring bits. I don't know, I really enjoy getting locked into an RPG and getting heavily gripped on the story, this however just didn't cut it for me. The lack of anything to do in itself is boring as hell.

On a positive note, glancing at your phone and being able to chuckle slightly, just from that split second glance is always a positive aspect in any app (for the best kicks I recommend the FML app with widget).

You should play this if...
You should play this if you like boredom, or don't have much time on your hands to play a game, and would rather the game play itself for you.

You should leave this alone if...
You like games, gaming, playing games, either or all of the above.

Out of 5 naps, I give this: