Developed by Crescent Moon Games
Published by Level 77 Pty Ltd
Reviewed on PlayStation 4 (also available on Xbox One, PC, iPhone and Android)
Simple premise and excellent execution is the unspoken mantra of The Deer God. As a hunter in the woods facing divine retribution, you’re born again into the world as a fawn, told to survive and prosper. Only when you reach enlightenment can you become a human again – if you wish.
The Deer God‘s graphics are primitive but use the pixel medium to excellent effect, tackling 3D parallaxing with foreground and background sliding in procedurally generated land. Even while using a limited pixel count in this art style, attention to detail is preserved, from strands of ferns sticking to your old antlers, to lighting and shading effects turning a underground hallway into a dank and foreboding cave tunnel. Coinciding with the in-game day counter, days and nights come and go, painting the sky with rays of light as the sun rises and falls.
Sound in The Deer God aims for mood instead of a striking soundtrack, often times keeping so low that it feels like a dead silent forest with only living creatures to stir the sound. When things get more intense, like a hunter shooting at you, or during one of the boss fights, the soundtrack ramps up to a tense stirring of your speakers. It’s tense, but not particularly memorable.
Gameplay is a mix between action platforming across a randomly generated world and survival meter-management as you try to balance your health, stamina, and hunger in this world. Various abilities you gain transform how you tackle puzzles and harder enemy encounters, from telekinesis on puzzle blocks to tossing fireballs.
The game excellently portrays the pixel-minimalism style in a vibrant living world of cubic little blocks of color. It really steps a viewer out of their head space for a short while. Difficulty can spike at times due to the nature of randomly generated environments, but overall is forgiving enough to keep you from getting frustrated.
