Golem Reviews

Sometimes games feel like they’re in development FOREVER. While there’s the occasional exception to the rule, a continual series of delays is rarely a good sign for a game, especially when it’s a studio’s freshmen outing. A perfect example of this phenomena is Highwire Games’ recently released Golem, which was in development for so long that the trademark on the title actually lapsed. Seriously. That’s not even a joke. After originally being announced before the PSVR even existed, the experience is just now making its way to the platform. Can it manage to buck the trend and harness the true capabilities of the headset, or is this just another case of development hell, manifested in playable form?

The year was 2016 and there I was, along with my son, making my way to Best Buy for their demo of PlayStation’s new entry into VR. Golem was a highlight on their banner and was easily my must-see game of choice. Unfortunately, it was also the one game that was oddly absent from both their playable and viewing lineup.

Initially revealed at PSX nearly four years ago, Golem was one of the most exciting games shown off by Sony in the early days of PSVR, boasting a development team made up of ex-Halo veterans and promising a fully-fledged adventure game.

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.

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.

Golem is an awesome yet heavily flawed experience that is likely to make you sick.

The puzzles themselves come in two basic forms: navigation and restoring the tower. Since there are certain places only the girl can go and other places only the golem can go, together with switches and levers to help the other character progress, most of the puzzles focus on getting each character from one place to the next. At the same time, you’ll need to repair and restart the ancient machinery, which ranges from pulling certain levers to a rather complex puzzle involving mirrors. Sometimes, it’s as easy as seeing which areas you can access and what interactions you have available, but other puzzles are pretty challenging and require you to study the area to figure out what you have to do. Aside from one puzzle that—while logical—used a mechanic never used elsewhere in the game, even the most challenging puzzles felt fair and satisfying to complete.