This was one of those shows that I saw a preview for and immediately loved what I saw about it enough to give season one a try. God’s Games We Play features a world where the Gods challenge humans to a slew of various games where victory for the humans means rewards such as the ability to use special powers outside of the games and 10 victories means you win the ultimate prize bestowed by the gods; however, no human has reached this far because three losses and you’re banned from playing any further games. Society in this world is governed by the use of these special powers to help with survival. Our story stars Fay a fairly new player who has managed to earn several victories and no losses, to the amaze of the world around him and Leoleshea a former god who somehow is trapped as a human with weakened but still impressive powers who seeks the ultimate prize to wish her way back to her godly status.

I want to talk about the overall story first. When it comes to Fay and Leolesha both of these characters have goals that will take them some time to complete and they are very interesting goals; however, honestly there’s very little said about their motivations to the point at times I forgot there was any kind of endgame (pun intended sorry) for these characters. With that being said why I forgot is actually a very good reason. Season one focuses almost entirely on the concept of the games themselves as these characters go from one game to another with very little story in between as Fay and Leoleshea work to form a party of players to challenges the gods with and play games along the way.

These games are an incredible spectacle as each god plays with a unique game and each game has its own rules. Some games are very complex with a series of hidden rules while others are more straightforward with one or two hidden secrets but all of them have incredible challenges for our players to face. One thing I like is how the games featured, while unique, pay homage to all kinds of games we’re all familiar with. Board games, card games, video games, there’s nods to games of all kinds here and as someone who has an incredible passion for games I was elated to watch these games unfold and learn more about them as they progress. So yeah while the overarching story played little importance to season one I really didn’t care I was too busy enjoying watching the games.

One of the things I really like about the games and how they are featured it the fact that as a viewer we can try and piece things together alongside the main characters because we’re given the same information they get. It’s a lot of fun trying to understand the hidden meanings of the games not given from the start and how to use those hidden details to secure victory. For example there is one game where the goal is to make a god say a particular word; however, that word is not known at the start of the game and there are elements within the game that can be triggered to help make victory possible.

The characters are interesting because while you do have Fay and Leoleshea as the leads and they have standout moments the entire cast has moments where they have the spotlight. The games heavily rely on teamwork and that is well reflected in how the characters interact with one another and rely on each others strengths. For example Fay is clearly the more tactical character of the group so he’s often the idea guy and the guy that pieces together the hidden secrets of the game; however, he’s not great offensively so he often leans on other characters like Leoleshea when any kind of combat happens. With this process I don’t think any one character shines here as I liked but never had any particular attention to any singular one of them. What makes this cast special is how well they work as a group and the dynamic as a whole is memorable and a lot of fun to watch. I would say it’s easier to describe the entire group of players working with Fay as one unit rather than a series of individual characters as it’s the group that’s entertaining rather than the players as standalone characters.

So overall Gods’ Games We Play is a very interesting show it does have an overarching story; however, it takes a backseat to the actual games featured within the show which are incredibly vast and entertaining. The characters I don’t feel like they have main character energy as individuals but that actually works to the show’s advantage as it heavily emphasizes teamwork and the dynamic between these characters is some of the best that I’ve seen. The way they bounce off of each other was fun to watch from start to finish. As someone who loves games of all types my passion for games and how well that passion is reflected in this show made this a genuinely exciting show to watch. If this gets a season two I have to watch it as soon as possible.