Golem Crusades
Review
Not Gollum from the Lord of the Rings
by William Thompson
reviewed on PC
Some neat ideas
The game does have a number of great features though. The missions can be completed in any way gamers choose. Depending on what natural resources are available, gamers are free to produce whichever Golem they feel would help in their goal of combating Acamantor’s hordes. Of course, a Clay Golem is required to build other Golems and must be produced first. Apart from selecting whichever Golems they require, gamers are free to choose their path to defeating Acamantor’s units on a particular mission. If you want to take out the skeleton army early on, you’re free to do so. If you want to re-transform huts back to your side, then you can do that too. The goal for each level requires you to go after the huts, but if you’re out converting huts, the marauding skeleton army will be doing the same. So destroying the skeleton army early on will mean that there will be less huts to convert in the long run.
Another great feature concerns Hasrinaxx’s firepower. As mentioned above, he can shoot small plasma bolts as well as power-up a large fireball to use on groups of enemy units. But the cool feature with his firepower relates to the landscape. His plasma bolts shoot in a straight line, so aiming at a spider in a valley will be for naught, as the shot will go high. This forces the gamer to use a little more strategy.
Poorly executed
Unfortunately for Golem Crusades, that is about the end of the cool features. Before playing the entire game, I had played the demo version and was slightly impressed by the decent quality of such a low budget game on the single level. But after playing the full game, I realised that the gameplay soon becomes monotonous, as each level is basically the same, albeit with some different enemy units. Continually clicking the shoot button for Hasrinaxx’s plasma bolts meant that the game quickly turns into a boring clickfest.
And despite the simple controls, they are not very intuitive. They certainly take some getting used to, especially the symbols showing various spells available to Hasrinaxx and the commands that can be issued to the Golems. A textual representation combined with the symbolic would have been much easier to understand. Once you get used to them, they do work well though. Other controls are simple enough with a single tap of the spacebar to fire Hasinaxx’s plasma bolt, whilst a left click of the mouse will direct him wherever required.
But it’s cheap
Despite my feeling that Golem Crusades becomes a bit monotonous after just a short time, I still feel the game doesn’t do much wrong. Sure, the visuals and audio need some polishing and some variety in Hasrinaxx’s personal spells would be useful, so that he doesn’t completely rely on his plasma bolts. But the controls are simple enough and - for the price - it is worth a look for those looking for something a little different. Also, if you have an iPhone or iPad you may want to look at getting the Golem Defense game app instead, since it comes at an even cheaper price point.
5.1
fun score
Pros
The game allows gamers to choose their own approach to completing each mission. Controls are simple.
Cons
Visually outdated and the gameplay becomes monotonous quite quickly.
