Goliath (PC)

Oh robots, you are a gaming delight. Whether I am destroying you, building you into an unstoppable killing machine to unleash robo-death on my enemies, stopping you from taking over the world or just casually sending you to robot hell, robots are always welcome in my gaming library. Goliath has you creating and upgrading your own customizable mechs made of wood, stone, metal, and more as you fight to survive in a harsh climate with scant resources and monsters everywhere. With me so far?

Where Are We Now?

After murdering a few rabbits for no better reason than it’s my God-given right as a man to do so, I collected the coins rabbits are notoriously known to carry and spoke to my co-pilot Dave via, radio who had some convenient fill-in-the-blank information for me. Turns out we aren’t on planet earth anymore (what?) but luckily there are easily repairable teleporters strewn about the planet. Also, in Goliath, simply uttering the phrase “It would be great to have armor, because armor protects people” apparently enables me to suddenly create large mechs out of a variety of materials. Seems like a bit of a stretch, but I was too eager to build my first mech to really care. In fact, that’s a good mentality to hold on to, because there are quite a few moments in the story where they just sort of present things and say “here ya go”. Overall I wish that the story would have been a little stronger in general, but luckily the writing is witty and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny enough to keep you cruising along past the glaring gaps and plot holes.

Mechanical Machinations

The gameplay itself is simplistic but fun. You unlock attacks and abilities for yourself and your mechs as you progress, leveling up your robot stable and discovering new ways to annihilate your enemies. The exploration is helped greatly by a mini-map that automatically shows you the path you need to take, and it auto-corrects itself like a GPS when you head off the path it has chosen for you. The combat is good but a bit repetitive at times. I can’t fault the devs much here as obviously a lot of thought has gone into each mech, their attacks, passive abilities and special moves, but I still wish that there was a little more to the fighting than kiting enemies and clicking the attack button like crazy as you wait for your special moves to regenerate. Don’t get me wrong, the mechs are a blast to pilot and fight with, but the combat can get repetitive, largely because of the enemy AI. Enemies, be they some kind of yeti-creature, giants, charging pig-rhinos, or monstrous spiders all seem to have two modes; blissfully unaware or headlong swarming death charge. Once you find other enemy mechs to fight, the combat can get pretty crazy, but too often I found myself running away from a fight, putting a hill or obstacle in between me and my pursuers, waiting for them to forget me, then running back at them and unloading my special attacks before repeating the process. It’s fun, but I wish there was a little more finesse to the combat, or maybe just more intelligent enemies.

Larger Than Life