After much deliberation and soul-searching, I have accquired a copy of Demigod. Admittedly for my divine self, this is a step down from Populous and Black & White - no longer is my position in the pantheons (and Pantheon) assured.
Looks like I'll have to work for it. Oh dear.
Having never played Defense of the Whatever, I've had the pleasure of approaching DG without any form of bias. That being said: I love this. It's cool. There's some good writing behind the various character stories here. My first DG choice was Regulus. It's the crossbow. I'm sure it's some form of overcompensation, but you've got to admire someone who's got his wings clipped yet still packing heat like that. Comparisons to Legendary Wings are also valid when the skill Angelic Fury fires up, as well as fond memory of Sniper of Goth in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. He seems to play similar to an Archery/Devices Blaster from City of Heroes or a Rogue-type out of Diablo. Ranged snipes and land mines - chocolate and peanut butter ahoy.
Having decided purely on the art aesthetic for my first DG, I dove into the fray without fear.
What this means is I immediately made a singleplayer 1v1 skirmish with the AI set to easy. Unfamiliar with how the game would play, I took careful note of the mention that he was an Assassin DG and the game would play sort of like a Action RPG. I could deal with that. It was familiar territory to myself, who devours them without mercy. I chose Lord Erebus as my first target because everyone knows that to hunt a vampire properly you have to carry a big frickin' stake gun. My estimation of the situation was correct, it turned out.
Lordy E (no doubt due to my AI setting) seemed unable to deal with the eventual AOE nightmare that Reg turned out to be by the end of the match. Mowing through his troops, I hammered him over and over. Run, you little fang head. I've got more Snipes where that came from. I'm aware that it probably took no skill to accomplish that non-feat, but you have to start somewhere.
Next up: more experimenting ahead with other DGs. Stay tuned.