Goliath Review

A cute little set up of everyone's favorite way of getting stranded. By plane. You've crashed and the radio from the cockpit is buzzing. Someone answers back, with a tone to make a few eyebrows go up. But it's all going to be okay--you can build massive face punching robots! Ready to smashinate all that lies in your way? Perfect! You've picked the right game.

First thing you see upon loading is a beautiful title screen promising you feats of flamethrowers and giants battling mercilessly. Goliath's gorgeous artwork, and cute character design will find it's way to your childhood heart, whilst appealing to your adult one. You can certainly tell this game was somebody's baby when you see each of the amazing character designs, each faction being uniquely their own. The soundtrack is simply stunning. One to pair well like a fine wine and cheese--it captured the feeling of the game play and characters perfectly. A mixture of wild west and ass kicking, it's tailored with the best of them. They don't leave out incidental music either...when you're in trouble, you're in deep. The heavy hitting tones of impending doom as a spider creature #17 takes a whack at you is enough keep you running away if you don't have the means to fight back.

The leveling system of your individual Goliaths makes sure that you're packing all the punch you need to travel on to bigger and badder places. Each Goliath has it's own strengths and weaknesses--for example, Wood Goliaths are susceptible to fire, and when you get nicked, a depleting fire damage sets into effect. A tough one at times, especially in hairy situations, but on the opposite side of the fence, you're healed by standing water. Fair enough, if you ask me! You also gain special abilities as you level...power attacks to face your foes. It's a nice way to even the playing field, and some of the attacks are, well, just plain cool. In fact, being a Goliath and stomping around is pretty awesome. 

Each location has it's own ecosystem for you to navigate as well. Some are lush forests, others are arid deserts. With every new place to visit, comes it's own set of native baddies to trudge through. A map to uncover, and resources to gather, you tend to wander off the beaten path without even knowing you're doing it! Dungeons to pillage, and chests to find across the way--Goliath makes exploring, even when you're not questing, a very entertaining pastime.

The intricacies of the menus and their design are enough for any person to decipher. If you're savvy to it, the game works with a quest system, with a buildy Minecraft sort of twist. You have to cut the tree to get the wood. Then take that and make it into a Goliath. Take the Goliath out to smash the things and get more stuff. Sounds easy right? So go on a quest for other things and stuff and test that theory out!

Not all that glitters is gold though. Unfortunately, a main vote down for Goliath is the loading times and lag. It's a massively ambitious game, with a lot to give, but also a lot to work on. I can imagine that the game is sorting out how to render a breathtaking environment, but I've played games like that. They don't take that long. Not to mention I hop around the screen like a disappearing act from the Lagshire.

Trying not to sound mean here--as I really enjoyed the game. Is it worth the buy? Yes. Why? Because of how the team works. The good people at Whalebox Studios are striving to correct these woes we face. And they're doing it fast. Within a day of owning it, I received a message with a list of patches, playing it before they went in effect, and feeling the vast improvements on things I didn't know were a problem. The main thing I got from this all was that they were listening to us as the consuming gamer. Our opinions did matter, and that right there erased the doubt in my mind that they would see this game through. Goliath is an ambitious game, yes, but I do believe it will live up to its name.