God Mode

God Mode is a 2013 cooperative third-person arena shooter developed by Old School Games (a subsidiary of Saber Interactive) and published by Atlus. Released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, it was designed as a pure, budget-priced throwback to mindless, fast-paced 1990s arcade shooters. Stripping away heavy narratives and cover-based tactical mechanics, the game focused entirely on four-player cooperative survival against endless hordes of mythological demons.

Core Concept and Story

The premise is delightfully ridiculous and paper-thin, existing purely as an excuse to hand you a minigun and drop you into Hell.

You play as the deceased descendant of an ancient Olympian god. Hades has stripped your family of its divine powers, turning you into a mere mortal and banishing your soul to the underworld. To reclaim your immortality and achieve literal “God Mode,” you must fight your way out of the Maze of Hades, mowing down legions of skeletons, minotaurs, and harpies along the way. There are no deep cutscenes or character arcs—you simply spawn in, grab a gun, and start shooting.

Gameplay and Features

The gameplay is essentially one massive, continuous “Horde Mode,” heavily prioritizing run-and-gun movement over taking cover:

• Tests of Faith (Mutators): This was the game’s standout mechanic. As you progressed through different arenas in the Maze, the game would randomly apply environmental and gameplay modifiers called “Tests of Faith” on the fly. One round might grant everyone infinite ammo, the next might shrink the players down to half their size, turn friendly fire on, randomly swap everyone’s weapons, or cover the arena in blinding fog. This ensured that no two matches played out exactly the same.
• Oaths: Before a match began, players could equip personal “Oaths.” These acted like the Skull modifiers in the Halo franchise, intentionally making the game harder for yourself (e.g., lower damage output, weaker armor) in exchange for massive percentage boosts to your Gold and XP payouts at the end of the round.
• The Upgrade Economy: As you survived arenas, you earned gold and experience used to buy and upgrade new weapons (ranging from standard SMGs to buzzsaw launchers) and customize your character’s rather limited aesthetic appearance. You could also purchase “Olympian Upgrades,” which functioned as powerful, deity-inspired special abilities like throwing down a healing ward or activating a protective energy shield.
• The Gold Room: To add a little bit of friction to the cooperative teamwork, after surviving a full level, the portal would occasionally drop the four players into a bonus treasure room. The co-op immediately ended, and the players had to aggressively compete against each other to vacuum up the most gold before the timer ran out.

The R.I.P.D. Connection

While God Mode received a mixed-to-average reception from critics (largely praised for its fun, mindless co-op but heavily criticized for its lack of content and repetitive nature), its biggest legacy in the gaming industry is what Saber Interactive did with it next.

Just three months after God Mode launched, Saber Interactive released R.I.P.D. The Game, a licensed tie-in for the Ryan Reynolds/Jeff Bridges movie. The developers notoriously took the exact same engine, the exact same animations, and the exact same core gameplay loop of God Mode, slapped a quick coat of movie-themed paint over it, and sold it as a brand-new title.

Quick Note

God Mode is a frantic, budget-friendly love letter to the era of quarter-munching arcade cabinets. At the moment, the game is anavailable for purchasing.

In short: It lacks the depth, polish, and content of modern cooperative shooters, but if you treat it as a mindless, chaotic way to spend an afternoon shooting minotaurs with three friends while the game actively tries to sabotage you with random modifiers, it delivered exactly what it promised on the box.