Verdict: Hack and slash your way through four mythical worlds.
Loki is a Diablo-esque, role-playing hack-and-slash click-fest. Loosely based on ancient mythology, the game sees an ancient Egyptian god of chaos wreaking havoc, and the other gods summoning you to restore order.
You do this in the time-honoured fashion: by exploring, grabbing loot and carrying out an almost continuous slaughter of enemy creatures. The battles span four mythical worlds - Aztec, Greek, Egyptian and Norse - and there's a diverse range of environments and enemies woven together to create a visually pleasing package.
Your character evolves uniquely, depending on the attributes and skills on which you spend your experience points, which you gain as you level up. As you grow in stature, you encounter more dangerous creatures and face tougher quests. Your character is able to progress to level 200, so there's a ton of gameplay on offer.
The control system is simplicity itself. A left click moves your character across the map, unless the cursor is hovering over an enemy creature, in which case your character will attack. The catch is that if the monster moves (and they do this very frequently), you can end up charging into a room to meet your doom.
Assuming that you manage to click on your target, you either move in to engage in melee combat, or pick them off from afar using a bow. The game also has a myriad of magic options (depending on how your character has evolved), which will either boost your stats or cause direct damage. The spell tree is very similar to the one used in World of Warcraft, with magic points that can be used on a set number of spells; they're limited, though, so you don't become overly powerful. Rather than just giving you skill points to spend, you gain these by tything a percentage of your experience points to your chosen deity. In the case of the Norse gods, this could be Thor, who is into two-handed weapons and boosting melee attributes, Tyr, who prefers dual-weapon wielding, or Odin, who isn't averse to casting the odd damaging spell. Other races also have various deities, and it's a clever and subtle way of developing your character.
The developer has also added the ability to craft new weapons and armour by breaking down and reassembling dropped items. However, this doesn't work very well, as the majority of items you can create aren't much better than the looted ones - it's a nice idea but poorly executed.
The game isn't bad visually, although it relies too much on special effects and, if you look beyond that, many of the maps are similar. The dialogue, while hammy, does the job, and overall, the game does a good job of bringing together the various strands of mythology without being too contrived.
Loki combines all the traditional hack-and-slash elements in a visceral slaughter-fest. It might not be groundbreaking, but it's simple, addictive fun that will take weeks, if not months, to complete. What better way to while away the months while waiting for Blizzard to announce Diablo III (don't hold your breath).
