Independent video game developer, Laser Guided Games released Golem Gates back in 2018. A year later and Digerati helped to publish it on the big 3 consoles at the moment. Knowing nothing about the game, I went in blind but ended up being enlightened by the experience.
At the gates
In Golem Gates, you are the Harbinger. You alone can save your planet from the ancient warrior machines spawning from the Golem Gates. As Harbinger, you can command Nanites from The Ash to cleanse your world one battle at a time. As the game progresses, you’ll learn more about the many mysteries of your world. Furthermore, you’ll grow stronger and stronger towards a form which can withstand the bigger battles you’ll face.
Two for one
Golem Gates mixes real-time strategy with card collecting. You collect glyphs which are essentially spells to conjure troops, defensive machines, and buffs to your existing army. These glyphs are mixed in a deck. The first 6 cards are chosen at random to start the battle with. After gathering enough energy, you can select a card to manifest on the battlefield. As time goes by and if there’s room, new cards get drawn from the deck.
When you are victorious during a battle, you’ll earn rewards in the form of new glyphs. A deck builder system lets you make your own custom decks. Using the most suitable deck for each scenario is key to a victory. Tweaking your deck to find the best combinations of types of troops, defensive units and buffs will be a vital part of your time with Golem Gates. Finding the right balance between costly heavy hitters and cheap cannon fodder is what it’s all about.
Random
I loved Golem Gates more because of the Card Collecting Battle aspect than the RTS part. Although I’ve played and enjoyed my fair share of RTS games in the past, I’ve grown a bit tired of them. The random nature of the glyphs makes for a fresh take on the whole RTS thing. With many RTS games I found once you crack the code, you’re more likely to go the rinse and repeat the approach. Feeling safe that your perseverance will work in the end. With Golem Gates you’ll have to think out of the box when your playable hand doesn’t have the perfect cards.
Unreal Avenger
Another thing I was really impressed with are the visuals. The team behind Golem Gates consist mainly out of 2 programmers, 1 designer, and 1 audio director. Creating these kinds of graphics with such a small team is an epic achievement. If you look a bit closer to the resumé of the development team you see some nice references popping up. Unreal Tournament, Gears of War, The Avengers, Spider-Man: Homecoming, … are all mentioned.
Conclusion
The epic look of the Harbinger in Golem Gates encompasses the feeling I got while playing this game. The randomness of the cards makes each battle interesting enough. The addition of online matches makes this a potential (sleeper) hit.
