Review: Goliath – crafting, crushing, and great big minions

Goliath logo title screen
Name: Goliath
Developer: Whalebox Studios
Publisher: Octopus Tree
Release Date: May 12,2016
Price: 19.99

I found this game in a Top 5 article and thought it looked awesome so I bought it and tried it out. The game is an action RPG from indie developer Whalebox Studios. After 12 hours of playing, I’m still liking the game and looking forward to playing again after I write this.

In Goliath, you get to build big goliaths, which are creatures that you can craft from materials you get from trees and rocks found in the game world. You use the goliaths to harvest things faster and to battle creatures as you explore the game world. Up to three goliaths can travel with you, which looks really cool as you wander around and fight things.

You also have a base that starts with a campfire, teleporter and three storage chests.  You can expand it with Workbenches that can be upgraded to build more things and better things. There is a Laboratory workbench for  making mines, goliath oils (potions) , and metal bars.  The Goliath Construct is for building, rebuilding, and deconstructing goliaths. The Weapon Crafting workbench is for making weapons.

The site mentions fortresses, factions,  and multiplayer gameplay but I’ve played for about 16 levels and 12 hours and have not found any of that yet. Anyway, here are some pros, cons, screenshots, and a trailer to give you a good idea of what Goliath has for you.

 

Pros:

  • Runs smoothly on my Inspiron 570 with a GTX 750 graphics card.
  • As a new player, it was easy to learn the game and get into having fun.
  • Many combinations of parts to build your goliaths.
  • At $19.99, it’s a good amount of game for the money.
  • Procedurally generated world with weather effects and day/night cycle

Cons:

  • Not many guides, so finding info on where to get things (like “bones”) took  some doing.
  • Sometimes targeting is a problem when fighting near trees because of the auto-targeting. Sometimes you just end up targeting the wrong things and other times you set trees on fire.
  • Could use more inventory space because the three chests fill up fast.

 

Related links:

 

 

  • Graphics – cartoony style graphics, which I like more then the realistic graphics.
  • Audio/Sound Effects – not as THUMP THUMP CRASH as big goliaths should be in combat and stuff
  • Gameplay – feel like I’m learning new stuff as I go. feels balanced, not too hard, not too easy.
  • Replayability – no manual save. either play a new game or continue from the last 6 autosaves

Summary – 4 out of 5 stars

Goliath so far lives up to what I was hoping for from the game. It has a nice amount of story, crafting, and combat to keep it fun. If you’re looking for a PvE action RPG, and you like things like robots and golems, this is a good game to take a look at.