Serious kudos to Gas Powered Games for the names of their demigods. A couple are your standard-issue proper nouns (Sedna, Regulus). Some of them feel less like names than descriptions (Unclean Beast, Torch Bearer). Some seem more general (Rook, Oak), while others are very specific (Lord Erebus) or even merely honorary (Queen of Thorns). You know, I might have just psyched myself up to go read their back stories.

However, for now, I'm happy to introduce you to Oak. Which I like to say, because it sounds like someone pitching furniture. May I show you something in teak? Perhaps pine? Yew? I could introduce you to some lovely redwood later, but for now, meet Oak.

Get wood after the jump.

In Demigod, I can't keep straight who's supposed to be good and who's supposed to be evil. Err, excuse me, light and dark. I realize there are no moral absolutes in Demigod. Oak, who looks like he was on his way to Soulcalibur, is a perfect example of this. Is he a paladin, healing his army and popping off bursts of holy glowing fury? Or is he a necromancer barbarian, hewing through enemies with his outrageous axe and dragging behind him a ragged entourage of the ghosts of his dead enemies? I don't know. Good guy, bad guy, he's the guy with the axe.

The problem with Oak as a general is that he had to get in there and mix it up to be really effective. He can heal units in a radius by killing enemies. He marshals an army of ghosts from dead soldiers. He's at his best getting up close and personal with his axe, which slams into the ground with a thunk even more satisfying than Rook's hammer. But he doesn't have the Unclean Beast's speed, the Rook's survivability, or Erebus evasiveness. To defend himself, he's got an ever-so-brief flash of invulnerability, but by the time I get around to casting it, it's often too late (which reminds me, can we please have a hotkey to cast a spell on our demigod instead of having to select the spell and then pick our guy out of the chaos of battle?).

Oak gets a wonderful vengeance ability that reminds me of the perk in Call of Duty 4 to let you drop a grenade when you die. This ability lets him go on a violent rampage for a few glorious seconds after he's been killed. But any demigod worth his salt knows to just run away from a post-kill risen Oak. I've rarely been able to posthumously smite anyone. And that, by the way, just further confuses for me whether Oak is a good guy or a bad guy. In that posthumous state, is he an avenging angel or a zombie?

Tomorrow: the demigod everyone loves to hate
(Click here for the previous game diary.)