Golem Gates (PC) Review

The basics of Golem Gates are easy to explain, but does not tell the story of how good the entire game actually is. The basics come together in an easy and fluid way, yet leave enough depth that players can get quite deep into various strategies.

Revolving around a unit called the Harbinger, the goal of each level is to kill the enemy Harbinger. Every second mana is slowly generated and this is used to 'build' units to go into the fight. On the map are various resource nodes that speed mana regeneration, giving a sort of 'king of the hill' feeling to the matches. The last basic point to understand is that every unit or spell is a specific card the player selected in a pre-made deck for battle that is randomly drawn as time goes on.

This last part is how the CCG aspects fit into the game. From the start, the player only has very simple cards, a few weak units, a fire spell, redraw cards, a defensive building, and so on. As they progress, they get new cards, ranging from new units to better buildings, new spells, and then the strategy starts to diversify in options. Do you have a huge deck with a wide variety of options, or perhaps have a very thin and focused deck in one direction?

The real meat is building the deck for battle. As more games are played and more cards unlocked, there is a satisfying, addictive element to wanting to try out new cards and combos. There is not a clear 'best' option, either, thankfully. A player could focus on just a few core units with a bunch of support cards that are hard to stop, or in direct contrast go with a heavy defensive building approach to lock down the resources.

Actual gameplay is typical RTS fare with a unique exception that the Harbinger can summon/build units anywhere you currently have vision. This means that it is possible to summon straight into the group that is attacking. Often, there are small battles across the map trying to grab the resource nodes, so it's not as 'blob'-y as a lot of RTS' become, or this mechanic would suggest.

There are bonus modes, such as survival, or types of puzzles that normally might be skippable, but not in this case. They both provide an interesting, and often fun, challenge and they also give actual card rewards for the player's deck, giving an impetus to do them.

The major hang up from Golem Gates is, like many, it depends on the player base to truly succeed. The single-player is quite interesting trying to figure out the story but the whole thing would really come alive in multiplayer. It will be interesting to see what happens, because if enough players pick it up, they will find a pretty fun end product.