Golem – Review
Follow Genre: Point & Click Puzzle Platformer
Developer: Longbow Games
Publisher: Longbow Games
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC

Golem – Review

Site Score
7.0
Good: Challenging puzzles
Bad: When you get stuck, you can be stuck for a long time
User Score
7.0
(2 votes)
Click to vote
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 7.0/10 (2 votes cast)

Longbow Games, known for their series of the game Hegemony Gold, has released a new game, namely Golem. Golem is a single player point and click puzzle platformer in which a girl goes on a quest for water and finds the ruins of an ancient tower. She needs to get through these ruins by solving its challenging puzzles and re-activate its long dormant machines. All this together with her newfound friend, a shape-shifting golem that evolves by touching mysterious glowing pools of what looks like water.

Story

In Golem, the story is not easily told by a narrator or by conversations between characters. In Golem you can discover the story behind the ancient dormant tower by looking at the many beautiful wall drawings that show you clues about the ancient builders and the origins of the mysterious shape-shifting golem. The wall painting will show how the ancient civilization once upon a time used the magical stone creatures, referred to as golems to build and maintain its structures.

You find the golem at first in the form of a lifeless ball. At this point, the golem almost feels like a nuisance as you need to move it around by pushing it. Its evolution will make this feeling fade away and make place for a feeling of gratification each time your golem evolves further.

It’s up to you if you want to discover or ignore the story of this tower as you can also just go through the 10 fun and challenging levels.

Graphics

The in-game levels have a nice 3-D design and look way better than you would expect from an Indie game. The mysteriously glowing pools that let the golem evolve are very detailed and have a bright glow around them. The evolution process is very spectacular as well. The wall paintings are also very detailed, look great and it’s relatively easy to understand the story behind them.

Sound

The sound in this game suits the setting. The music Is very calm and relaxing. This also suits the game genre because in a puzzle platformer, it could happen that you’re stuck in a level for a long time to figure out how to get to the end of the level with the golem. This calm music helps you not to freak out and keeps you calm. When your golem evolves another tune is played that really suits the moment of evolution as it sounds like a rewarding tune.

After clicking somewhere, a click tune will sound to confirm that your character will walk to that location. When not possible it will give a sound that It’s not possible to move there.

Gameplay

Golem is a point-and-click puzzle platformer. By clicking on places, the character will move to that location if possible. Your golem friend has the power to unlock special doors that cannot be opened otherwise. By putting the golem on special pedestals, openings to other locations on the levels can be opened so the character can get beyond them. Teamwork between your character and the golem is necessary to reach the end of each level.

In the beginning, you need to push your golem friend to its target location. When the golem evolves for the first time, it will get rock-like legs to move around on its own. At this point, you need to click on the golem and then give it a target to let it move to that location. Further evolving the golem will lead to it jump over ledges and even letting you ride on it to get past obstacles you won’t get past by yourself. Paying close attention to your surroundings will help you figure out how to get past all the difficult obstacles.

As mentioned earlier, there are 10 levels available for you to explore and solve its challenging puzzles. This number may not sound like much, but this amount can easily lead you to playing over 8-10 hours before completing the last level.

Levels also include multiple areas that are navigated to by a moving platform. Each area has a specific lever that needs to be pulled to activate the ancient machine that lies dormant there. This can only be reached with the help of your golem companion but the golem needs to be In another place in this area that cannot be reached in the way your character is going. This will require a creative way of thinking to get your golem to the right place at the right moment.  Even timing is sometimes needed as you need to act quickly after pulling a lever to get the effect needed to accomplish your goals.

Conclusion

Golem offers a mix of a point-and-click adventure, a platformer feeling and the challenge of brain breaking puzzles. Longbow Games has done well to deliver a successful mix of these three key game genres and turned it into a great game. There are no issues found in the playthrough we had and it proves to be a lot harder than it initially seems. The environment is designed beautifully and making it through each level can be very satisfying. If you like playing puzzle games or platformers this game is definitely worth spending your time as it offers a very enjoyable experience.

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 7.0/10 (2 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
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Golem - Review, 7.0 out of 10 based on 2 ratings
Nickskuh


Administration is my job but gaming is my passion!

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