Buddy system
Most people who are interested in Golem probably won’t be familiar with its developer. Golem is made by Longbow Games, a Canadian studio that has spent nearly 20 years making historic-set strategy titles. This isn’t like those. But Golem seems like a decent first stab at something new.
Golem is a point-and-click puzzle game in which a young girl tries to find water for her desert-bound village. She stumbles across the ruins of an ancient tower and befriends a sentient golem. Together, they traverse 10 seemingly-expansive levels in an effort to hydrate the dehydrated.
Early on, the golem seems to be more of a burden than anything else. It’s in constant need of being pushed around, maybe only useful for applying weight on switches. It evolves as the game progresses, though. It has five different stages, most of which have real-world analogs like dog and ape. Eventually, it seems like the golem might be more useful than the girl.
As for the story Golem intends to tell, it’s more than just a trek up a tower. Glyphs will illuminate in the background, and these images will shed light on the golems and the dire desert situation. Will it be well-conveyed though? Games often times struggle to tell coherent tales solely through player interpretation of hieroglyphics.
Regardless, Golem looks to have the other aspects figured out. It has that exact aesthetic and feel to it that we’ve come to expect from indie puzzle games. Longbow’s first crack at this type of project seems to be on-track, but we’ll find out for certain soon enough. Golem releases on PC sometime in the coming months. If all goes well enough, console ports might be a viable option.
Published: Mar 30, 2018 05:15 pm