Thank you Iceberg-Interactive for giving us this game to review.

Craft of Gods is a fantasy MMORPG based on Slavic mythology. Like many religious  systems there\'s the good guys, the bad guys and those who don\'t care. Craft of Gods is no different.There are six races; each race is either a follower of Svarog (Light), the Great Black Snake (Dark), or they remain neutral. Every race starts off in its own area and is sheltered from the realm battles until they are ready to venture forth. The race you choose will have some unique attributes, including the ability to turn into a werewolf, a bear, or a giant. There are also Light, Dark and neutral humans, along with wolf, serpent, and bear hybrids. The characters are not bound by a class, and you can boost your attributes and learn any class spell as long as you have the ability points to spare.

You can choose to play on the free server or the subscription-based server. The free server has most of the same content, but there are limitations that can be removed through microtransactions. You have the option to spend real money to buy Kun, the in-game currency. For example, the ability to tame animals requires that you buy a book of taming. If that pet dies, you have to buy it again. The paid server does not have this limitation: it offers an unlimited number of guild members, teleportation scrolls are free, and housing can be bought with in-game gold.

Gold can be obtained by selling loot or items that you craft (hence the title Craft of Gods). To craft items, you\'ll need a specialty, or a profession. There are several available professions for your character to undertake, including craftsmen work, like blacksmith and carpenter, or more peripheral jobs, such as tailor and jeweler. Players can also work as a tanner and herbalist, if they choose to. Your character can partake in two of these professions.

At any point, you can change your profession, but any experience you have earned will be lost. To learn your trade, you can talk to a master, buy recipes from merchants, or exchange information with other players. There are several key elements to making a successful product: You have to have the proper tools, location, time of day, and the weather must be cooperating. If you decide not to use your creations, you can sell them or hire an NPC to sell them for you.

Many ingredients for crafting can be found in the wilderness. For example, you can mine raw ore and harvest fresh herbs. When you kill an animal, they often have a wide variety of loot. For instance, a hare can give you meat, fur, a tail, and a foot. Each of these items takes up precious inventory space. Fortunately they can stack, but you will run out of space quickly regardless. To remedy that problem you can buy more space with (you guessed it!) Kun or you can charm a pet and have them carry it.

There are two problems with relying on your pets to carry it. The first problem is that if they die, your stuff is gone. Later on, you can get a resurrect spell, but until then you’re out of luck. The second problem is that I was not able to charm a creature after the training area. As far as I know this game is still in beta, so bugs are to be expected. I ran into a couple of quest-related bugs, including some trouble getting an NPC to follow me. Hopefully, these bugs are remedied with future patches and updates.

Like many MMOs, there are various seasonal quests and items to liven things up. Over Christmas, they had Santa-themed quests and reindeer mounts available. Many of the quests in the beginning involve killing various numbers of animals, like hares, goats and owls. The enemies get tougher and more unique as you progress in the game.

As you gain experience and level up a bit, you\'ll be brave and strong enough to venture out and explore. The world is separated by maps, and there are twenty-five gigantic maps to explore. Each map has two to three dungeons and two major cities, one Light, and one Dark. In these cities, you can find portals to join in realm-versus-realm battles and player-versus-player battles. I haven’t ventured that far, but I can say that the beginning areas are not that populated. I only ran into a handful of people while I played this game. There are plenty of NPCs and quests available, but MMOs are a lot more fun with people to talk to and trade with. The respawn rate is pretty fast, so finding quest-related creatures was never an issue. With nobody on, I didn’t experience any lag.

There are plenty of monsters and demons to fight. The battle system is pretty simple. You can double click on an enemy to engage them in battle. Or, if you\'re like me, cast a spell on them to get a head start. You can choose between melee-, ranged- or spell-based attacks. When it comes to magic, specializing is optional. I had many spells from various elements at my disposal. My biggest complaint about the battle system is that sometimes the camera angling would be awkward or the enemy would lose focus causing your attacks to be in vain.

As if having no one to talk to and game spoiling bugs wasn’t bad enough, let’s look at the graphics. The visuals in this game are clearly dated. The lighting helps and the scenery is pretty, but Craft of Gods is far from cutting edge. The water effects are not realistic by any stretch of the imagination. Streams of water are rigid and rain drops landing into the water produce bulls-eye or perfect circle shaped ripples. NPCs are not incredibly detailed or unique. On the other hand, playable characters have their own distinct features and can be customized a bit. Like many western RPGs, you can customize your character\'s build and facial features.

The audio is decent, and the background music is pleasant to listen to, but not memorable enough to get stuck in my head. The creatures have their own unique sound effects that you’ll hear when you’re attacking them. It’s funny how the cows in this game only moo when being attacked; they’re quiet otherwise. All of the conversations are text based: you’ll only hear groans of pain from your character while getting injured in battle. The spells have their own unique sound effects as well.

Magic is a big part of this game, and you can customize your character any way you like. You can focus on ranged or melee skills if you wish, but magic will be used on you regardless. Many of the spells are elemental including water-, air-, lightning- and fire-based attacks. Dark magic is also available, and you’re granted the ability to summon creatures from hell to fight alongside you. Pentagrams are present and appear when you’re summoning creatures. Violence is a given, but there is no blood or gore.

If the dark magic and dated graphics don’t bother you, check out Craft of Gods. You can either go for the subscription service that has a fifteen-day trial and is 9 Euros a month afterwards (around $12), or play on the free server. You can have your character moved over (for a price) if you switch to the subscription plan, too. I like how you can totally customize your character; I just wish that the demonology would be left out of it.