There are times where we have to admit that sometimes a game isn't for everyone. This is one of those times. Gods Will Be Watching draws heavily from classic LucasArts point-and-clicks, but this is purely window dressing. What lies beneath is a masochistic exercise almost unlike any other game I have ever played, in which the puzzle sequences involve extreme micromanagement in order to avoid crashing headfirst into the game's many, many fail states.
Nothing is explained, so the best way to describe it is "meter management." Take the hostage situation in Chapter 1. Every interactable entity is a potential timebomb waiting to send you back to the start, and you must efficiently sequence your actions to avoid this. Indications that things are about to go horribly wrong are very rarely overt. A hostage might say "I need to run" which signals that you need to beat them up and keep them in line, but more likely it's a barely noticeable shift in their posture. You have 4 hostages that you need to juggle, with tons of options in how to handle them, and no way of judging the efficacy of said options without (imo) tens to hundreds of attempts. This approach to trial and error would make NES developers combust instantly.
But, I get it. Micromanagement can be fun, theoretically. I myself have never been partial to it, but I can see the appeal of this sort of application of the formula. High stakes situations where you cannot afford to be hard or soft, forced to make split second decisions lest everything burns to ashes. Fun! An adrenaline junkie's dream. Let's take it a step further then: you also need to deal with things failing because of completely random events out of your control.
This is the "intended vision" the developers had for Gods, per the description of the default difficulty level. The hostage situation can go to shit because something goes entirely wrong with zero indication. It's just out of your control. And you would have no way of knowing that. If you claimed that you understood intrinsically what's up to random chance and what's not, I would just not believe you. You would need some sort of telepathic link with the game, or something. During my dozens of attempt, I have no idea whether or not I was playing it wrong or I just got screwed over. The game is not even content in cold indifference- it gives you an analysis of your actions at the end. I was "too soft." Alright, sure, maybe? I kicked the shit out of innocent hostages and even shot one in the leg, but I also calmed them down cause the game explicitly told me to make sure they don't freak out. How do I know whether or not I'm being too soft? How do I know it's not because one of them just randomly snapped? I wasn't going to stick around and find out- but suffice to say, I find the ranking system obnoxious and poorly explained.
It's just not my thing. I spoke about this somewhat in a prior review of For The King": I don't think difficulty through random chance is compelling difficulty. So, when I consider that this is the intended mode of play from the developers, I already know I am not in the target audience for this game. Overall, it does feel a bit like an ivory tower I couldn't scale. I am okay with admitting that I probably don't have the right stuff for this game, but I am similarly okay with saying I don't find this sort of thing appealing.
There are alternate difficulties that either remove the random elements or allow you to just enjoy the narrative. I'll be honest, I wasn't interested enough in the narrative to want to do that- because I couldn't get past the first chapter in however many hours I spent, so I had no damn idea what was going on outside of the opening cutscene. It's a nice cutscene, sure. There is a compelling premise to it- but that's just it. It's a premise and then I had to play through a RNG-fest meter management simulation and fail 50 times with no idea if I am improving or what. So I have no compulsion to just play the narrative mode, cause I wasn't sufficiently hooked by what I had already played. It could be great, in fact I'm sure it is based on several reviews I've seen. Yet, I was already turned off.
There is also the puzzle mode, which just offers the puzzle aspect with no element of random chance. Ultimately, the core gameplay loop just wasn't satisfying. For much the same reason I have never been into real-time strategy games, I don't personally enjoy a mix of heavy attention to detail with time constraints. It's something that asks for specific things from specific people, and I feel like I'd need to pop several Adderall in order to be that specific person.
While it is obvious to me that Gods Will Be Watching is a competently constructed game, I have come to terms with the fact I just don't like this sort of game design. It is deeply cynical at best, malicious at worst. I know it's all in service of the narrative, and I know people find value in difficult games like this. More power to you, if you do.
Nothing is explained, so the best way to describe it is "meter management." Take the hostage situation in Chapter 1. Every interactable entity is a potential timebomb waiting to send you back to the start, and you must efficiently sequence your actions to avoid this. Indications that things are about to go horribly wrong are very rarely overt. A hostage might say "I need to run" which signals that you need to beat them up and keep them in line, but more likely it's a barely noticeable shift in their posture. You have 4 hostages that you need to juggle, with tons of options in how to handle them, and no way of judging the efficacy of said options without (imo) tens to hundreds of attempts. This approach to trial and error would make NES developers combust instantly.
But, I get it. Micromanagement can be fun, theoretically. I myself have never been partial to it, but I can see the appeal of this sort of application of the formula. High stakes situations where you cannot afford to be hard or soft, forced to make split second decisions lest everything burns to ashes. Fun! An adrenaline junkie's dream. Let's take it a step further then: you also need to deal with things failing because of completely random events out of your control.
This is the "intended vision" the developers had for Gods, per the description of the default difficulty level. The hostage situation can go to shit because something goes entirely wrong with zero indication. It's just out of your control. And you would have no way of knowing that. If you claimed that you understood intrinsically what's up to random chance and what's not, I would just not believe you. You would need some sort of telepathic link with the game, or something. During my dozens of attempt, I have no idea whether or not I was playing it wrong or I just got screwed over. The game is not even content in cold indifference- it gives you an analysis of your actions at the end. I was "too soft." Alright, sure, maybe? I kicked the shit out of innocent hostages and even shot one in the leg, but I also calmed them down cause the game explicitly told me to make sure they don't freak out. How do I know whether or not I'm being too soft? How do I know it's not because one of them just randomly snapped? I wasn't going to stick around and find out- but suffice to say, I find the ranking system obnoxious and poorly explained.
It's just not my thing. I spoke about this somewhat in a prior review of For The King": I don't think difficulty through random chance is compelling difficulty. So, when I consider that this is the intended mode of play from the developers, I already know I am not in the target audience for this game. Overall, it does feel a bit like an ivory tower I couldn't scale. I am okay with admitting that I probably don't have the right stuff for this game, but I am similarly okay with saying I don't find this sort of thing appealing.
There are alternate difficulties that either remove the random elements or allow you to just enjoy the narrative. I'll be honest, I wasn't interested enough in the narrative to want to do that- because I couldn't get past the first chapter in however many hours I spent, so I had no damn idea what was going on outside of the opening cutscene. It's a nice cutscene, sure. There is a compelling premise to it- but that's just it. It's a premise and then I had to play through a RNG-fest meter management simulation and fail 50 times with no idea if I am improving or what. So I have no compulsion to just play the narrative mode, cause I wasn't sufficiently hooked by what I had already played. It could be great, in fact I'm sure it is based on several reviews I've seen. Yet, I was already turned off.
There is also the puzzle mode, which just offers the puzzle aspect with no element of random chance. Ultimately, the core gameplay loop just wasn't satisfying. For much the same reason I have never been into real-time strategy games, I don't personally enjoy a mix of heavy attention to detail with time constraints. It's something that asks for specific things from specific people, and I feel like I'd need to pop several Adderall in order to be that specific person.
While it is obvious to me that Gods Will Be Watching is a competently constructed game, I have come to terms with the fact I just don't like this sort of game design. It is deeply cynical at best, malicious at worst. I know it's all in service of the narrative, and I know people find value in difficult games like this. More power to you, if you do.