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Gods Of Olympus - The Best Mobile Co-Op?

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When Aegis Interactive put out a mobile app about the Gods Of Olympus, it looked at first glance like just another attempt to use mythological characters to enhance a video game. It's not as if this isn't successful much of the time, but we've actually seen pretty regular rollouts of mythology-related games for a few years now.

The obvious counter to Gods Of Olympus would be the fighting game about the Roman gods that was released by Gameloft at roughly the same time. This game followed the traditional style of fighting games, pitting the user against a CPU character Mortal Kombat-style and going from there. But given that a fighting game can be cloaked in just about any theme or set of characters, this one made full use of Roman gods, titans, and soldiers in addition to captivating ancient world backgrounds to seize the attention of potential players.

The other clear example, at least in very recent gaming, shows up in a set of games about the ancient gods that's being featured online. Designed as real money, jackpot games, these titles (of which there are three, so far) actually invoke a surprisingly diverse array of godly figures from the Greek and Roman mythologies. Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, and plenty of less influential godly character all populate brightly designed slots with rich backgrounds depicting Olympian (or Olympian-like) settings.

Even beyond these particularly recent examples, we've seen themes of ancient mythology quite frequently in gaming. Ryse: Son Of Rome invoked "spirit gods," the God Of War franchise is set for a return (albeit with Norse gods), and even the forthcoming installment in the Civilization franchise is being advertised with a cover featuring a massive image of Atlas holding up the world. There have just been many, many examples.

If all of these games might make you inclined to dismiss Gods Of Olympus as just another game in an increasingly active genre, you might want to look again. It may look like Clash Of Clans cloaked in Greek imagery at a glance, and there are certainly some similarities. But upon a deeper observation, you might find that this is actually one of the more engaging co-op games available in the app stores.

What makes this game unique, really, is how its offensive combat works. Structurally, it's a city building, defense, and conquest game in which your goal is to create a glorious empire and defend it with buildings and armies that you amass over time. In those respects, it's no different from dozens, if not hundreds, of other mobile games (though one nice perk is that there's no waiting time on building construction). But beyond defense and construction, Gods Of Olympus puts forth a pretty unique style of attacking enemy cities: you control a team of gods.

Basically, the gods function as giants, each with different special abilities, and with them you get to rampage through enemy territory to your heart's content. It's a lot of fun, and certainly makes the game feel different from others that are otherwise similar. And as you've probably figured out by now, it all works in co-op mode as well. You can actually team up with allies in real time to attack enemies together or to help each other defend your cities.

Ultimately, the combination of a fine strategy game, unique combat features, and co-op gameplay make this a very intriguing game, and one that reviewers have said changed the way they think about co-op gaming in general. It's just a lot of fun to interact with others in Gods Of Rome, even as you conduct your own single player mission to build the best little empire you can muster.