Golem

Highly recommended for those wanting to discover a unique PS VR game that pushes the promise of the tech.

Golem is a video game redemption story – saved from the brink by a patch that cleared up many of the game’s release problems. What is left is a fascinating game of exploration, punctuated by hardcore, visceral combat. With atmosphere to spare, Golem delivers a unique experience unlike any other on PSVR. Recommended for patient, thoughtful players that enjoy a challenge (and don't mind a lot of repetition).

When it comes to both its cinematic and gameplay elements, Golem manages to remain an enjoyable and engaging tale throughout.

When everything comes together, Golem has some of the best PlayStation VR combat I've played, and a story worth hearing. When it's off, even a little, frustration follows. If you can tolerate backtracking and don't mind dealing with occasional VR tech idiosyncrasies, you're gonna have a grand time.

The voice acting is top-notch, the graphics are sharp and clear, and the artwork and character designs are pretty cool. The challenge of the battles feel fair and keep you coming back for more, as does the story. The 3D positional audio is fantastic and the music done by Halo and Destiny composer, Martin O’Donnell, heightens the emotional spectrum of the game from the battles to the quiet introspective beats. If you want to play something with a slower pace and dig fantasy coming of age stories, there’s enough here to make mastering the control scheme worth it.

I really feel that Golem is a short jump away from being one of PSVR's best titles. If the movement controls were more intuitive and the tracking of the Move controller in battle was more accurate it would be an amazing game. I loved the gameplay loop and the combat is superb when it functions correctly. I really enjoyed Golem most of the time but I feel some people will get annoyed with it too easily, even I did at times.

A mysterious and fascinating exploration VR adventure spoiled by bad design choices and poor motion-tracking system.

An entire ancient city for you to explore at will and combat that regularly rewards is undermined by constant motion sickness; Golem sadly puts the Vomit in VR. [Issue@#171, p.93]

While there were many compelling reasons to take a chance on Golem, there were far too many technical issues marring the overall experience. When consumed in bits-and-pieces, the component parts could all stand on their own with little problem. It’s only when these individual parts coalesced that the seams begin to show a bit more prominently.

I haven’t bailed out on a VR game in a while, and only the most severe of nausea will cause me to eject completely rather than grind it out over time, but Golem is just painful to play. There’s too many games that have done it cleaner, and with better motion mechanics -- play them instead.

Golem is nothing to scoff at. It looks and sounds beautiful, it has an open world that can be explored freely, and the sword combat feels satisfying. On the other hand, cumbersome and awkward controls, a decent amount of motion sickness, and a few frustrating game mechanics prevent the title from reaching its potential. If you have a strong stomach and think you can make do with the controls, Golem will provide some joy, even though it is far from a VR masterpiece.

To the serious shortcomings already mentioned we must then add a survey of inadequate body movements and a roguelike component capable not so much of raising the challenge rate, but rather the frustration level reached by the player.

Golem is a game with some great ideas and flourishes that ultimately falls short through the simplicity of its gameplay. Combat is just too simple to stay exciting for long and constantly forces you to defend, and soon gets repetitive as you fall in battle and have to slowly trudge back through the world. Golem has a beautiful world, but I have no real inclination to return to it again.

You don’t have to dig too deeply to find that Golem, for all its inane faults, has some really interesting mechanical ideas for VR gaming. It’s one of the very few adventures that give you a sword to swing around in real-time and makes a concerted effort to make melee duels look and feel meaningful. And like I said before, it’s cool when it works correctly. The technical problems and physical discomfort were just too hard to ignore because of how actively they work against you, causing me to stop playing. From the needless complexity of the game’s pathfinding and a boring world to its physically bothersome movement mechanics, too often does Golem feel like a beast of burden.

A game of exploration and combat that’s hamstrung by PlayStation VR’s unreliable motion-tracking and a movement system seemingly designed by someone who hates you.

Golem is a game had a shot at being good if it launched alongside the PSVR. Fast-forward a couple years and impressive virtual reality titles are fairly common. This, depressingly, is not one of those. By the time we took the headset off, we were left with not just a feeling of disappointment, but also one of anger. Anger at the promise it once held. Anger that, despite its flaws, it did some things really well. Anger that it simply wasn’t good.

It's a shame that Golem's gameplay falls so short because its graphics, music, and story are quite good. But even with these highlights, the issues with Golem's gameplay makes it impossible to recommend. Golem was once one of our most anticipated virtual reality games, but VR fans would be better off playing basically anything else.