God of Rock Review: Stomp to My Beatdown

You know that old candy commercial from the 70s (or the Family Guy spoof of it) where they dramatically mix peanut butter and chocolate together to make an entirely new creation? Sometimes games can be like that too — with varying levels of success. As in, sometimes you get that perfect blend of peanut butter and chocolate together, whereas other times there’s still a little too much peanut butter drowning out that chocolatey goodness. Naturally, this wouldn’t be an issue for those who prefer peanut butter, but where does that leave us chocolate lovers?

In plainer terms, God of Rock tried to mix rhythm and fighting games together and did a decent job of it on the fighting side, but the rhythm aspect leaves a little to be desired.

Developed by Modus Studios and published by Modus Games, God of Rock is a fighting/rhythm game where players “battle to the beat by hitting notes in rhythm and unleash harmonic attacks against opponents.” Available on console and PC, God of Rock features familiar rhythm gameplay with a brand new purpose: to kick absolute ass on beat. If you’re coming from the fighting game side, chances are you’ll find something of interest here, but rhythm game aficionados may struggle a little for one small (yet important) reason.

God of Rock’s premise is simple: all the greatest musicians have been gathered in one spot to battle for musical supremacy thanks to the God of Rock himself. These 12 (un)lucky musical artists will now have to moonlight as martial artists as they crack some skulls in the name of honor (and rhythm). Who will emerge victorious and who will get that comically oversized hook that will pull them off the stage and into silent obscurity?

I want to talk about God of Rock’s positives upfront, which largely pertain to the fighting aspects. I love that the AI is reactive to the players and their abilities, so for those dipping their toes into the genre, this is a game to grow with. I think the rules make sense in that whoever is most on beat deals the most pain. I’ve touched upon this previously, but I want to state again how cool it is that the rhythm and fighting portions do play out almost as two separate games simultaneously in a very streamlined manner. I have hope that God of Rock will find its core audience within the fighting crowd because, although the game still needs a little bit of work to truly shine, the fighting portion is the aforementioned peanut butter from earlier.

Unfortunately, God of Rock will struggle to please rhythm gamers for a few different reasons. First, the rhythm portion doesn’t use arrows, rather the action buttons of choice (XBox, Dual Shock, Dual Sense, or Switch). This isn’t a dealbreaker on its own because you can choose which control scheme you want to use regardless of the controller plugged in (I used the Dual Shock setup on my Steam Deck, for example). However, the buttons scroll only halfway to the screen before their terminus in the center, giving players very little time to read what’s coming next and plan to act.

Rhythm games typically give you the entire length of the screen — even in multiplayer mode — but placement preference in God of Rock goes to the fighters and their move animations. Coupled with the fact that you have to simultaneously pull off fighting movesets while hitting all the right notes accurately makes for a lot of moving parts all at once. And the music? It’s not bad — at all — but it’s not all that memorable either. Alas, as a rhythm gamer, I feel there’s not enough of that previously mentioned chocolate in this mix to really pull of something sweet.

God of Rock has some solid ideas with some really cool gameplay elements that will certainly interest the fighting genre fans; however, I fear there wasn’t enough attention given to the rhythm aspect to equally draw the music games crowd. I’d be curious to revisit God of Rock after several rounds of updates to see how it improves over time, but as it stands I don’t think it’s going to be anyone’s favorite game right off the bat. Once God of Rock gains its balance, however, it’s over for us bitches.

Final Verdict: 3/5

Available on: PS4, PS5, XBox One, XBox Series X|S, Switch, PC (reviewed); Publisher: Modus Games; Developer: Modus Studios; Players: 1 – 2; Released: April 18, 2023

Editor’s note: This review is based on a digital copy of God of Rock provided by the publisher.