Gods and Generals

Gods and Generals is a PC game centered around the American Civil War released in 2003. It was based on the book Gods and Generals and its subsequent film adaptation. It is a first person shooter and uses the Lithtech graphics engine, made popular by the more successful and critically acclaimed shooter No One Lives Forever.

Critical reception
Gods and Generals was not a well-reviewed game, with an aggregate score of 19 at Metacritic.

GameSpot gave it a score of 1.2 out of 10. It also won "Flat-Out Worst Game" in GameSpot's Best & Worst of 2003.

However, GameZone gave it a 6 out of 10. The review points out that the game is unlike most shooters. "I enjoyed this game once I got into it. It has a steep learning curve for those of us used to more aggressive shooters. The difference is refreshing and fun. It has a very professional feel to it, and vignettes from the movie. It's subtle, yet dynamic. That captures the Civil War well.

A major reason cited in unfavorable reviews was the buggy programming. Some even reported that the enemy would shoot to literally random places. The soldier models were called "clones" by GameSpot, because the game uses the same facial and body models for nearly every soldier. The only change is the colors of the uniforms to differentiate Yankees from Rebels. As Andrew Park put it, "these clones wore blue, or gray, or sometimes ... brown".

Also notable were the lack of game physics, which allow NPCs to "clip" through supposedly solid objects. The enemy AI is disastrous, as NPCs will frequently perform what some classify as idiotic maneuvers (such as running into damaging flames over and over until death or standing around waiting for the player to shoot them). Trigger issues cause the NPCs to attack when the player approaches, but fails to make them move forward, meaning that the enemies will often stand in one spot and repeatedly attack the empty area in front of them, even when the enemy is equipped with a sword, resulting in him waving the sword uselessly.

The game is labeled as an advertisement for the movie with the same name. Critics of licensed games cite Gods and Generals as a prime example of a licensed game that is sub-par to an original game.