''Godfall'' is an

action role-playing game An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre. Definition The games emphasize real-time combat where the player h ...

developed by Counterplay Games and published by

Gearbox Publishing Gearbox Software is an American video game development company based in Frisco, Texas. It was established as a limited liability company in February 1999 by five developers formerly of Rebel Boat Rocker. Randy Pitchford, one of the founders, se ...

. The game was released on

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, it was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North Ame ...

and

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

on November 12, 2020. The game was also released for the

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

on August 10, 2021. An enhanced version of the game containing all downloadable content up to that point, titled ''Godfall: Ultimate Edition'', was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows,

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020, t ...

on April 7, 2022.

Gameplay

The game is set in a

high fantasy High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters, themes, or plot.Brian Stableford, ''The A to Z of Fantasy Literature'', (p. 198), Scarecrow Press, Pl ...

setting, split into the realms of Earth, Water, Air, where players take the role of one of the last exalted Knight's Order to prevent a major apocalyptic event. The player has 5 weapon classes to select from, based on which of their armor sets, Valorplates, they equip. These weapon classes include the longsword, dual blades, polearm, two handed war hammer and the two handed great sword. Additional Valorplates and Augments can be equipped to customize how this character class plays out. It supports single player and up to three players in cooperative mode. The game is described as a "looter-slasher" being based on the

loot shooter Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range ...

concept of completing missions and gaining better loot for further quests, the focus of the combat is on melee attacks rather than ranged ones.

Development

The game was developed by Counterplay Games, a 75-person studio in California with several developers that had worked on other loot shooters such as ''

Destiny 2 ''Destiny 2'' is a free-to-play Online game, online-only multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie. It was originally released as a pay to play game in 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. It became free-to-play, ...

'', their prior game being '' Duelyst''. Counterplay engaged with Kowloon Nights to gain funding to help develop ''Godfall'' by September 2018 as a triple-A title, and avoid some of the struggles they had with funding ''Duelyst'' through a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign. The game's world was inspired by ''

The Stormlight Archive ''The Stormlight Archive'' is a series of epic fantasy novels written by American author Brandon Sanderson, planned to consist of ten novels. As of 2022, the series comprises four published novels and two novellas. The first novel, ''The Way of ...

'', ''

The First Law ''The First Law'' is a fantasy series written by British author Joe Abercrombie. ''The First Law'' is the title of the original trilogy in the series, but is also used to refer to the series as a whole. The full series consists of a trilogy, th ...

'' and the ''Foundation'' series, while the gameplay from the ''

Monster Hunter is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fantasy-themed action role-playing video games that started with the game '' Monster Hunter'' for the PlayStation 2, released in 2004. Titles have been released across a variety of platforms ...

'' series inspired the variety of weapons and

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mechanics.

Marketing and release

The game's first trailer was revealed in December 2019 at

The Game Awards The Game Awards is an annual awards ceremony honoring achievements in the video game industry. Established in 2014, the shows are produced and hosted by game journalist Geoff Keighley, who worked on its predecessor, the Spike Video Game Awards ...

, where it was identified to be the first game confirmed for release on the

, due to be released on November 12, 2020. The game was developed with

Unreal Engine 4 Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genre ...

. At their

E3 2021 The Electronic Entertainment Experience 2021 (E3 2021) was the 26th E3, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products. The event, organized by the Entert ...

press conference, Gearbox announced that ''Godfall'' will release on

on August 10, 2021. It will come alongside an expansion called ''Fire and Darkness''.

Reception

''Godfall'' received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

Sales

''Godfall'' sold 5,342 physical copies within its first week on sale in Japan, making it the 21st-bestselling retail game of the week in the country.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Gearbox Software 2020 video games Action role-playing video games Fantasy video games Unreal Engine games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Xbox One games Xbox Series X and Series S games Gearbox Software games Multiplayer and single-player video games Online-only games