In this game you play as a deer hunter who has been killed by wolves in a storm.  A deer deity offers you a second chance at redemption and brings you back to life as a deer.  Now you must learn how to survive and gain new skills in your newfound form in this 2-D platform game.  It’s available for most current consoles, computers, and mobile devices, but reviewed on PS4 here.

As a deer you can run, jump, and attack with your antlers, but later on you’ll learn other skills like double jumping and summoning other helpful animals.  You generally run from left to right until you find someone who needs you to locate an item for them, then you keep running until you find that item and bring it back to them.

There are three meters on the left top corner of the screen.  The red one is clearly a health meter.  When this runs out you will have to start at the last checkpoint.  The two other meters I’m not sure what they do.  The game doesn’t really make it clear.  I hated to do this, but I had to go online to figure out what they were, and even then I’m still not sure.  Turns out they’re karma meters, and when you attack good animals the bad karma meter goes up, and when you fight bad animals and do other good deeds, the good karma meter fills.  Only problem is it’s not very clear what is and isn’t bad to do.  And when you do die and come back to life with bad karma, the Deer God reincarnates you as another animal, like a fox or a porcupine, who can’t jump as well or not jump at all.  Then you must sit there and wait until that animal’s energy runs out to go back to deer form, and that’s no fun.  In normal mode you get unlimited lives but in hardcore mode you only have so many chances before you must start completely over.

I do like the retro pixel graphics that are still 3-D, but that’s it.  I guess this is one of those artsy sophisticated games that is beyond my comprehension and I just didn’t ‘get it.’  The lack of clear instructions and goals just ruined it for me.  I think “Deer God” is what you’ll be saying when you play this.

Kid Factor:

The Deer God is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Violence, Blood, and Use of Tobacco.  You can attack other animals with your antlers and other things, and hunters do use guns, but the simple visuals keep things from looking too graphic.  The blood is just little red squares, too, and some of the hunters can be seen smoking.  Reading skill is required, and younger gamers may get frustrated at the high challenge and lack of clear goals.

Tags: Game Reviews