Gas Powered Games are one of the most respected developers of strategy games, with Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation both classic and iconic titles in the genre. While the company has been known to delve into other genres from time to time (most notably RPG), with games like Dungeon Siege and Space Siege, the company has proven that they are capable of more than one genre.

So - what happens when you combine the two genres? You get Demigod. With an online focus and an amazing art style, Demigod is essentially an imitation of the incredibly popular Warcraft III map, Defense of the Ancients.

While this may seem cheap to some people, there's a lot of content in Demigod that makes the game an incredibly rewarding and worthwhile experience, especially if you're into tactical RTS and also enjoy some role playing elements in games.

In Demigod, players choose from a pool of would be gods. There are two types of gods, Assassins and Generals, with each type having a different play style and skill set. In addition to different play styles, each playable character has vastly differing abilities, with some characters focusing on support, while others concentrate on dealing damage to the enemy.

Depending on your chosen Demigod, you will have a specific focus. If you choose an Assassin, all you will be controlling is your demigod, who is able to take on an army of regular warriors without any assistance. Assassins, as their names imply, are capable of dealing large amounts of damage on the enemy, and as a result, are able quickly dispatch opposing demigods.

Generals, on the other hand, have a different play style, with the ability to command several minion types to assist them in combat. This makes Generals a little bit more difficult to play, but also makes them more versatile, as their minions are able to fight on a different front.

While it isn't really needed, Demigod has a loose plot surrounding the game. Each of the heroes featured in the game are vying for a recently opened spot in the Pantheon, which means they can ascend to the state true godliness. In order to do this, the demigods must fight against one another in spectacular arenas.

Demigod features eight maps and eight playable characters, with support for up to ten players. This means that the largest game you'll find is a 5v5 - this can be hectic on the smaller maps, with most maps able to facilitate three or four players comfortably.

Each map is compatible with four different game types. Conquest is the most popular mode online, pitting two teams of demigods (the forces of light, and the forces of darkness) against one another, with the ultimate goal being destruction of the enemy citadel.

Other modes include slaughter, domination, and fortress. Slaughter is basically Death Match, but is made much more complex by the numerous strategy elements. Domination requires the teams of demigods to capture and hold flags that are spread out across the map, while fortress is a battle of attrition, in which several enemy fortresses need to be destroyed in order win.

Each of the maps and modes are fun to play, and the game is fairly well balanced. As is the case with any online centric game, numerous balance changes have been implemented since release, and many more are likely to be made in the future.

The strategy and roleplaying elements in Demigod complement one another nicely, with experience, gold, and favour points being the main resources. These are gained through playing the game online, with favour points the only persistent resource that follows your demigod from game to game.

At the beginning of each game, players are given a small amount of gold to spend on items which can then be used to purchase items, upgrade the citadel, and to purchase artefacts. As the game progresses, players gain more experience and gold which can then be used to purchase better items to enhance their combat abilities.

As all items, gold and experience disappear at the end of a battle, no player is able to gain a massive advantage over another simply due to playing more, with the exception of favour items, which remain persistent.

Favour items can be purchased using favour points, and are items that give your demigod a slight boost in the game. These items are similar to those that can be purchased from the in game item store, and can be things like armour, rings, staffs and boots.

While some alarm bells may start going off, the bonuses granted by the favour items are fairly minor and will generally only give a 5-10% boost in effectiveness for any given demigod trait, meaning that the game remains somewhat balanced, even if you encounter people online who have been playing for some time and have gained enough favour points to purchase awesome items.

The strategy and actual gameplay elements of Demigod are sound, but there is a number of areas where the game could be polished or optimised to make it a much more enjoyable experience.

The first of these relates to the interface, and the way in which minions are controlled. When players use a General demigod, it can be difficult to ascertain which of the general creatures running around the map are yours to command, and which of the creatures running around the map are part of the general reinforcement wave which comes from team controlled portals.

A change here to make the character models of minions and troops would make playing generals a little bit easier than it is currently.

While a few bugs can be preset in the game, with abilities not firing off properly, it saddens me to say, that for Australian audiences of the game, the netcode and player base just doesn't seem to be as active as those in the US and Europe.

This means that many online games can be laggy (if you're not kicked the moment you join a game due to a high ping). While most strategy games can be played comfortably at a ping of around 350, Demigod's netcode seems to like players (optimally) having a ping of around 150-250 to one another before anyone starts to notice any potential slowdown.

While there's a lot going on in Demigod, it seems that its netcode could use some tweaking, but the truth of the matter is that the game is very latency dependent, with special abilities, the use of items, and other things in game very reliant on timing. This can make the multiplayer component frustrating at times.

Even though the game is multiplayer-centric, there is a singleplayer mode. These consists of Skirmish, in which players can jump onto a map and create two teams of demigods to fight whatever battles they wish.

The other single-player mode is tournament, a series of eight battles in which demigods are randomly assigned to teams ad fight for individual favour points in a bid to gain their place in the Pantheon.

While the single player content seems very feeble at first, the AI can be challenging enough to remain entertaining, but sadly, doesn't offer the same level of variety and teamwork that you tend to see from human players online. In essence, Demigod isn't the sort of game that you buy to play by yourself – it is an online game through and through, and the inclusion of any single player content can be seen largely as a token gesture to sate those without a decent internet connection or the desire to play online.

There are many positives to the actual game experience though. The truth of the matter is that there is nothing else out there (with perhaps the exception of DOTA) that is truly like Demigod online. The art style, characters, and music are all superb, and the game's depth is reflected by the experience of Gas Powered Games with Supreme Commander and the Dungeon Siege series.

While Demigod is far from perfection, the game is fun with friends, and while online play can be frustrating at times due to latency issues or a lack of players the game is for the most part enjoyable and relatively bug free. Still, it is difficult to recommend Demigod to any one demographic of players, as it can appeal to both fans of strategy games and RPGs, while offering something new to those who aren't fond of either as well. Demigod is a strange beast, but a solid and fun title if you're into RTS or RPG.