Nothing to God

[b][i]Review copy provided by developer[/i][/b] Easily my favorite part of the indie dev scene is the wealth of creative ideas that become full-fledged games. Many of them are unique or risky enough that they’d never be caught coming from a major publisher, and yet still prove to be worthwhile experiments. Nothing To God is the kind of game that rides on a simple but unique premise, a bullet-hell game where you cannot fight back. It’s not an idea that would work in most contexts but here it’s married to thoughtful ruminations on mortality and divinity, providing a meaningful backdrop to the oddly engaging dodging you’ll be doing. The god of nothing has overstepped his bounds and created you, a husk formed for a singular purpose. He sends you forth to receive the blessings of the land’s other gods, a pantheon of self-absorbed deities who will pose deadly challenges to you before even considering your plight. As you journey forth your awareness of your existence and the world around you grows, as well as your understanding of your task. Eventually you will return to the god of nothing not as the simple husk he created, but as something far more. Bullet hell games have come up with…

Nothing to God is a slow-paced bullet-hell indie game where you don't shoot, but instead have to avoid all enemy attacks to survive and move forward. The slow pace of movement mixed with the music almost put me to sleep at the start of the game. It was almost like trying to withstand an onslaught of lullabies and the games goal was to get you to fall asleep so I would lose the game, lol. The fact that there are no sound effects mixed with the gameplay and music make this game a bit of a sleep inducer, at least in the beginning. The music changes up after a while to something with a bit more energy. I think if there was some sound effects it would break up the trance this has me in, although I don't know how this could even be implemented as there isn't really anything to make sound effects. There is lots of reading in this game, the enemies you face talk to you and their text appears at the top of the screen but it's a bit hard to read while you are dodging all the bullets and obstacles. Even before and after the action segments I found it to be a bit too much reading. I think that if the game read the text to you the game would be much easier to enjoy and it would break up the s…

★★☆☆☆ So, this is despair. Nothing to god is a bullet hell where you do not shoot. A novel concept and one that could have allowed for some interesting situations and development but ultimately did not. Few reasons for that, the music does not match the gameplay as it is very somber and captures the emotion it is attempting to invoke rather than the flow of the game at that time and furthermore the game suffers because there are no gimmicks. Bullet hell games are infamous for punishing difficulty but the good ones have an element of fairness to them in so much that if you find yourself cornered by bullets you have a move, a tactic, a smart bomb, [b]something[/b] to help you out at least a few times before you either have to get good or quit. Because we can't shoot however we cannot interact in any meaningful way so we can only dodge and because we can only dodge we become painfully aware of how stale the gameplay is. So when gameplay fails we look to story. The story is the god of nothing creates us and sends us to meet with other gods to receive their blessing and in doing so we will return to him as something worthy of his time. I assume being the god of nothing he gets bore…