GodMode_TitleThe holidays are a busy time, especially around these parts. Sometimes goods news falls through the cracks, but now’s the time of year to reach deep for anything that might have gotten lost in the hustle and bustle of the season. Recently announced by publisher Atlus and developer Old School Games, a subsidiary of Saber Interactive (best known for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and most recently, Inversion), God Mode throws open the gates of Hell for some unabashed third-person cooperative action.

God Mode offers up a retro-romp through The Maze of Hades where you and as many as three friends, online or off, shoot, smash, and blast your way through wave upon wave of mythological mayhem. Moving from zone to zone with your recently deceased characters, you’ll have to finagle your way through the frenzy, fighting for health/armor/ammo pick-ups while filling your Rage Meter with each successive kill to unleash special abilities. Though the action seems fairly straightforward, collected gold and experience plays into Cadaver Customization, where you’ll be able to shop for new weapons, upgrades, abilities and an absurd array of appearance pieces.

Speaking to IGN, studio head Matthew Karch touched on the pick-up-and-play friendliness they’ve instilled, “It doesn’t take itself too seriously. It is lighthearted fun and focuses on arcade style action over a deep story. I think this makes sense for downloadable games, where players are looking for some quick, thoughtless action.” While not everyone agrees downloadable players don’t want narrative and depth, there’s certainly room for the mindless obliteration of the legions of the damned.

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Despite the emphasis on casual shoot-em-up fun, God Mode isn’t completely without plot, according to the game’s official site. “You are a descendant of an ancient god whose bloodline has been banished from Mt. Olympus by Hades and turned into mere mortals. To avoid an afterlife of eternal damnation, you must battle through this purgatory against an army of the undead and reclaim your place in the pantheon.” Sounds as good a reason as any.

While God Mode is the first downloadable title from Old School Games, it’s not likely to be the last, “[It’s] a studio that Saber started that focuses on high quality, low-cost downloadable titles,” continued Karch. “The studio uses Saber’s technology and development platform to create games that look like retail products, but we have kept it as a separate and isolated studio to allow the team to focus exclusively on these types of games.” We’ll have to wait until the “early 2013” release of God Mode to know for sure, but we could be seeing the beginnings of another great studio dedicated to the digital platform. That’s something everyone can appreciate.

Source: God Mode Launch Site via IGN