Info about Shadows of Forbidden Gods:

Official game description:
A strategy game in which you attempt to bring about the apocalypse, by moving covert agents through a complex fantasy world to accomplish a wide range of schemes, plots and rituals. You start the game by bribing guards and infiltrating minor farming communities and slowly build up your forces until you are bringing about ice ages, eradicating entire nations with plague, summoning volcanoes and commanding city-devouring snake-gods.  
You play a set of agents and corrupted heroes against the forces of good, the rulers and heroes of humanity, lead by the Chosen One. They may be stronger than you, and could eliminate your agents with ease, but you have the advantage of secrecy, and humans are easily turned one against each other. Why fight a war against a unified empire when you could shatter in into civil war and clean up the pieces with orcish hordes?  
Complex AIs power the forces of good, and you can, if the mood takes you, play on their minds. Rulers can be driven to gold-obsessed lunatics, who will cause their people to rise up in anger at the insane taxations, dukes can be tricked into turning on their Kings by a carefully placed personal item which implies a court scandal, heroes can be driven insane by the maddening tales read in The Laughing King's Tome and the shadow can corrupt your enemies to the point where they start funding your agents instead of their own people.  
Designed as a very flexible apocalypse simulator, Shadows of Forbidden Gods allows you to mix and match your toolsets with unique agents and varied effects, with the human forces responding dynamtically, levelling up their heroes to face what they believe to be the major threats.

Release date: 15 Jul, 2023

Categories: Strategy, Management Simulation, Turn-based Strategy, Single-player, Mod Support, Resource Management, Sandbox Creation


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Unique and Engaging Gameplay (weight 0.98): Players consistently praise the game for its unique and engaging gameplay, highlighting its depth, replayability, and overall fun factor. Many find it highly addictive and a refreshing take on the strategy genre.
- Diverse Elder God Playstyles (weight 0.27): The game offers significant replayability through its diverse roster of Elder Gods, each providing unique mechanics, playstyles, and victory conditions. This variety encourages players to experiment and master different approaches.
- Emergent Storytelling & Chaos (weight 0.26): A core strength of the game is its ability to generate emergent narratives and chaotic scenarios. Players enjoy orchestrating world-ending events and witnessing the satisfying, often humorous, consequences of their actions.
- Varied Corruption Methods (weight 0.21): Players enjoy the diverse and often devious methods available for world corruption and destruction. This includes spreading plagues, inciting wars, manipulating characters, and raising armies of undead or orcs.
- Authentic Evil God Fantasy (weight 0.2): The game excels at fulfilling the fantasy of playing as an evil, eldritch god. Players appreciate the immersive experience of being a malevolent entity, corrupting the world and bringing about its doom.
- Deep Strategic Options (weight 0.19): The game boasts impressive strategic depth with multiple paths to victory and a wide array of tools and mechanics. While there's a learning curve, players find the depth rewarding and appreciate the freedom to choose their approach.
- Robust Modding Support (weight 0.09): The game benefits from strong modding support and an active community. Mods are noted for fixing issues, adding content, and improving overall quality of life, enhancing the game's longevity.
- Customizable Map Sizes (weight 0.07): Players appreciate the customizable map sizes, which offer varied gameplay experiences and challenges. Larger maps, in particular, are noted for increasing difficulty and enjoyment.
- Appealing Art Style (weight 0.07): The game's art style and overall visual presentation are consistently praised by players, contributing to its immersive atmosphere and unique charm.

Common complaints:
- Lack of clear tutorials/explanations (weight 0.99): Players struggle to understand core mechanics due to insufficient tutorials and a lack of in-game explanations. This forces them to seek external resources, leading to a steep and often unrewarding learning curve.
- Unfinished/Unpolished game state (weight 0.9): The game is perceived as unfinished or unpolished, with many mechanics feeling underdeveloped or incomplete. This extends to the visual presentation, which is often described as basic, dated, and lacking animations.
- Player disappointment and regret (weight 0.87): Many players express significant disappointment and regret over their purchase, citing various issues that prevent them from enjoying or even playing the game. This often leads to a strong recommendation against buying it.
- Poor UI/UX design (weight 0.86): The user interface is consistently criticized for being clunky, unintuitive, and visually unappealing. This makes understanding game mechanics and navigating the game a frustrating experience, significantly hindering player enjoyment and the initial impression.
- Repetitive and boring gameplay (weight 0.85): The core gameplay loop is frequently described as boring, repetitive, and lacking depth. Many actions feel like tedious chores, and the overall experience is not engaging, leading to quick disinterest.
- Unsatisfying victory conditions (weight 0.12): The victory conditions and the act of winning are consistently described as anticlimactic and unrewarding. There is little impact on gameplay after achieving victory, making the end-game feel flat.
- Poor and repetitive music (weight 0.08): The in-game music is widely disliked, described as dull, repetitive, and forgettable. This negatively impacts the atmosphere and overall player immersion.
- Imbalanced game mechanics (weight 0.05): There is a significant imbalance in game mechanics, particularly with 'enshadowing' being vastly superior to other strategies. This leads to repetitive gameplay as players are incentivized to always pursue the most effective, albeit boring, path.
- Shallow combat system (weight 0.05): The combat system is criticized for being overly simplistic and lacking tactical depth. It often boils down to stat checks with minimal player input, making it unengaging.
- Limited god/faction variety (weight 0.04): While different 'gods' offer unique gimmicks, their actual impact on gameplay often feels similar, leading to a lack of meaningful strategic variety. The forced progression with specific gods is also annoying.
- Underdeveloped specific systems (weight 0.04): Specific game systems, such as the Deep One Cults, Orcs, and religions, are seen as underdeveloped and requiring excessive micromanagement without providing significant strategic impact or depth.
- Lack of varied random events (weight 0.03): Players desire more variety and meaningful impact from random events. Current events are often negative and do not significantly alter gameplay, leading to a lack of dynamic experiences.
- Tedious Orc faction mechanics (weight 0.03): The Orc faction mechanics are criticized for being tedious and requiring constant, repetitive button presses. This makes playing as or interacting with Orcs a chore rather than an engaging experience.

Gameplay feedback:
- Agent-Based Indirect Control (weight 0.35): Players primarily interact with the world through a small number of agents. These agents perform various missions, including infiltration, spreading influence, and causing chaos, acting as the player's indirect control over the game world.
- Deep Strategic Sandbox (weight 0.25): The game offers a deep and complex strategic experience with multiple paths to victory. It functions as a sandbox where players can experiment with various approaches to achieve their goals, requiring significant planning and micromanagement.
- Spreading Shadow & Corruption (weight 0.19): A core mechanic is the spreading of 'shadow' or 'darkness' to corrupt the world. This influence makes people and places vulnerable, eventually allowing players to convert kingdoms into dark empires.
- Dynamic Hero Opposition (weight 0.18): A central antagonist, the 'Chosen One,' actively works to thwart the player's plans. This hero rallies nations, heals corruption, and tries to unite the world against the player, creating a dynamic counter-force.
- Plague & Pandemic Strategy (weight 0.17): A prominent strategy involves spreading plagues and pandemics throughout the realms. Players can use agents to incite disease, cause revolts, and decimate populations, often as a core path to victory.
- Dynamic Character Interactions (weight 0.16): The game features a dynamic world populated by characters with family trees and personalities, similar to Crusader Kings. Heroes and rulers interact, creating emergent stories and a living world that reacts to player actions.
- Awakening Evil Deity (weight 0.15): Players embody a sealed, ancient evil deity who slowly awakens and gains power throughout the game. The chosen deity influences playstyle and provides unique abilities to destroy the world.
- Orc Horde Manipulation (weight 0.13): A key strategic option involves subjugating and utilizing Orcish hordes. Players can guide these hordes to raid provinces, expand their influence, and unleash destructive forces upon the world.
- Religious Corruption System (weight 0.08): The game includes a system for influencing and corrupting existing religions and holy orders. This allows players to twist faiths to their will, spreading shadow, madness, or vampirism.
- Inducing Madness & Chaos (weight 0.08): Players can drive rulers and heroes to madness, leading to civil wars and societal collapse. This involves manipulating characters' sanity and setting them against each other.
- Strict Turn Limit (weight 0.06): The game operates under a strict turn limit, typically 500 turns. Players must achieve their apocalyptic goals within this timeframe, adding pressure and strategic urgency.
- Cursing Noble Bloodlines (weight 0.06): A unique mechanic allows players to curse noble bloodlines, leading to various negative outcomes like the emergence of fishmen cults or internal conflicts within families.
- Menace Management (weight 0.06): Agent actions generate 'menace,' which increases the motivation of heroes to hunt the player's agents. Managing this menace is crucial to avoid early detection and direct confrontation.

Performance notes:
- Excellent performance on low-end PCs (weight 0.05): Players consistently report that the game is highly optimized and runs smoothly even on older or less powerful hardware. This indicates excellent performance and accessibility for a wide range of systems.

Recommendations:
- Recommended for strategy fans (weight 0.36): Many players recommend the game, especially for fans of deep grand strategy, 4X, or Paradox-style games who enjoy complex systems and don't mind a learning curve or rough edges. The recommendation often comes with caveats about UI or specific player preferences.
- Try the free demo (weight 0.09): Players strongly advise trying the free demo to understand the game's mechanics and determine if it suits their preferences. The demo is seen as a good way to gauge interest before purchasing.
- Worth buying, especially on sale (weight 0.08): The game is considered a worthwhile purchase, particularly when on sale. Its price point is often cited as a reason to try it, even if just out of curiosity.
- Mixed feelings on current state (weight 0.04): While some players express interest in a future sequel, others indicate that the current state of the game is a 'hard pass' for them, suggesting a mixed reception regarding its immediate playability.
- Wait for UI/QoL improvements (weight 0.03): Some players suggest waiting for further development, specifically for UI improvements and quality-of-life features. They believe these changes would significantly enhance the game's playability and success.
- Mixed views on DLC (weight 0.03): There's conflicting advice regarding the DLC; some recommend it, while others express concern about content being locked behind it, indicating a mixed perception of its value.
- Personal enjoyment expressed (weight 0.02): These clusters represent highly subjective and non-specific positive feedback, indicating personal enjoyment or extreme praise without providing actionable insights.
- Requires significant time investment (weight 0.02): The game is noted to require a significant time investment, suggesting it's best suited for players who have ample free time to dedicate to it.
- Follow solo project (weight 0.01): One player suggests following the solo developer's project, indicating interest in its future development rather than a direct recommendation for the current game.

Other player notes:
- Promising Early Access Title (weight 0.12): The game is recognized as an early access title with significant potential, despite its current unpolished state. Players should manage expectations regarding AAA production values.
- Active, Consistent Development (weight 0.09): Development is active and ongoing, with the developer consistently patching minor bugs and improving the UI. While progress might be slow, the commitment to updates is evident.
- Solo Developer Project (weight 0.07): Many players noted that the game was developed by a single person. This context helps explain certain aspects of its development and scope.
- Engaging Unique Theme (weight 0.04): Players are highly engaged with the game's unique theme, particularly the concept of being an apocalyptic monster or an eldritch old god, which fills an underserved niche.
- Crusader Kings-like Gameplay (weight 0.04): The game is frequently compared to the Crusader Kings series, particularly the first game, suggesting a similar grand strategy experience with unique twists.
- Reasonable Price, Adult Content (weight 0.03): The game is considered to have a reasonable price point, making it accessible, and its content is deemed suitable for adult audiences.
- Interesting Origin Story (weight 0.03): The game has an interesting origin story, with the current developer being a former backer of a similar, failed Kickstarter project, adding a unique narrative to its creation.
- Appeals to Niche Interests (weight 0.02): Reviewers often express their appreciation for the game by aligning it with their preferences for grand strategy, eldritch horror, and indie games.
- Enjoyable Mayhem & Destruction (weight 0.02): A core appeal of the game is the ability to cause chaos, instigate wars, and destroy humanity, providing a satisfying experience for players who enjoy mayhem.
- Unique Indie TBS Experience (weight 0.02): The game is praised for being a unique indie turn-based strategy (TBS) title that deviates from conventional genre norms, offering a distinct gameplay experience.
- Wordy Hint System Aids (weight 0.02): The game's hint system, though wordy, helps compensate for any shortcomings in the tutorial, guiding players through mechanics.
- Mixed Asset Visuals (weight 0.02): Some reviewers noted that the game's visual assets appear to be a mix of purchased Unity assets and public domain historical paintings, rather than custom-made sprites.
- Supportive Community (weight 0.02): The game benefits from a supportive community that is willing to offer tips and assistance to new players.
- Fills Niche Subgenre (weight 0.02): The game fills a gap in the market for games focused on political manipulation and devious schemes, a subgenre that is currently underserved.
- Outdated Demo Version (weight 0.01): The game's demo might be outdated compared to the current version, potentially not reflecting the latest improvements and features.
- Minimalist Hex-Based Visuals (weight 0.01): One reviewer described the game's visual presentation as primarily a 'mass of hexes,' indicating a minimalist or abstract graphical style.
- Easily Overlooked Game (weight 0.01): The game is described as being easy to overlook, suggesting it might not have high visibility despite its qualities.
- Subjective Player Experience (weight 0.01): A reviewer acknowledged that personal enjoyment of the game might vary, recognizing that others may have different experiences.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.27): Players feel satisfied by the game's unique concept of being an evil god, its strategic depth, and the emergent storytelling that allows them to see complex plans unfold. The game's replayability, mod support, and the feeling of achieving a powerful, destructive impact contribute significantly to this positive emotion.
- Frustration (weight 0.17): Frustration primarily stems from the game's poor and unintuitive user interface (UI), which makes navigation and understanding mechanics difficult. Issues like unclear progression, repetitive micromanagement, and game-breaking bugs also contribute to player annoyance.
- Disappointment (weight 0.12): Disappointment arises from unfulfilled potential, particularly due to underdeveloped mechanics, a lack of polish in the UI, and a perceived abandonment by developers. Players also express disappointment with repetitive gameplay, unengaging combat, and anticlimactic endings.
- Excitement (weight 0.09): Excitement is driven by the game's innovative core concept of playing as a dark god, its diverse mechanics, and the strategic depth that leads to dynamic and unexpected outcomes. The potential for creating compelling narratives and the addictive nature of the gameplay also contribute to this feeling.
- Appreciation (weight 0.06): Players appreciate the game's unique asymmetrical strategy, its deep and complex simulation, and the overall quality of its design. The active developer support and robust modding community are also significant factors in fostering appreciation.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.06): Enjoyment comes from the game's fun and engaging nature, particularly the variety of strategies and options available for scheming and causing an eldritch apocalypse. The emergent stories and the addictive 'one more turn' feeling contribute to a positive gameplay experience.
- Joy (weight 0.03): Joy is experienced through the core gameplay, the unique gods, and the successful delivery on the fantasy of being an evil entity. The emergent stories created by the game and the overall fun of manipulating events contribute to this positive emotion.
- Admiration (weight 0.02): Admiration is directed towards the game's ambitious design, its ability to generate dynamic narratives, and the impressive depth and variety of its mechanics. The developer's achievement in creating such a complex system with limited resources is also a cause for admiration.
- Boredom (weight 0.01): Boredom is caused by a repetitive gameplay loop, a lack of challenge, and periods of waiting for turns with limited player input. The feeling of clicking 'end turn' repeatedly without significant events contributes to this negative experience.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion stems from a difficult tutorial, a confusing user interface, and a general lack of intuitive guidance on how to improve or what actions to take. Players struggle to understand the game's mechanics and objectives.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Players are pleasantly surprised by the game's unexpected strategic depth, its novel concept, and the discovery of new aspects and complexities with each playthrough. The game's ability to be surprisingly fun also contributes to this emotion.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is caused by critical bugs, a feeling of deception regarding the game's state, and perceived overpricing. The use of 
- Hope (weight 0.01): Hope is expressed for future improvements, continued development through early access, and ongoing developer activity and engagement. Players look forward to the game's potential being fully realized with future updates.
- Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement arises from the game's unique blend of genres, its madness mechanic, and the humorous antics of the 'nutty heroes' and the resulting political/religious chaos.
- Engagement (weight 0.01): Engagement is driven by the game's depth, its trickiness, and the uncertain outcomes that keep players invested. The addictive nature of the gameplay also contributes to long-term engagement.
- Intrigue (weight 0.01): Intrigue is sparked by the game's paradoxical appeal, its complex and emergent gameplay scenarios, and its unique premise involving a dynamic world simulation. The core challenge of the game also contributes to this feeling.
- Addiction (weight 0.01): Addiction is caused by the game's compelling nature and the classic 'one more turn' effect, which makes players want to continue playing for extended periods.
- Awe (weight 0.01): Awe is inspired by the vast scale and impact of player actions, the cascading effects of their decisions, and the complex chain of events that lead to unexpected and grand outcomes.
- Sadness (weight 0.01): Sadness is felt due to the game's abandoned state and its unplayable condition, indicating a loss of potential or a frustrating experience for players.
- Neutrality (weight 0.01): Neutrality is observed when reviews adopt an analytical tone, primarily focusing on describing the game's concept without expressing strong positive or negative emotions.}