Goblins and Grottos Reviews

Seriously, who puts limited respawn checkpoints in a game like this? Half of the respawn locations are directly in the line of fire resulting in multiple deaths before I could move. The game seems alright but this is such a bad design choice I don't know if I'll be able to finish the thing.

Good premise poor execution, the idea of the game is good but so far most of the levels have been rather dull add to that the rather crappy controls meaning you'll end up dying way more to bad controls then to any actual threats in the game. Also despite recognising my controller i couldnt actually use it as it didn't respond to any input made using my controller despite showing it actively was recognising it.

Great original idea, but overall game a bit poor designed. One button/key to interact, attack, switch items, trigger switches, and light barrels doesn't work in a game which seems like it's designed to be quick footed. What seems to be nice pixel art gets lost in big bland surroundings with lots of unused space which only exists to be trekked around. Shame.

Reasonably high quality indie graphics, sound, and concept disguise a poorly coded frustrating mess. A classic example of a team of developers that doesn't understand the difference between challenge and difficulty. Don't be fooled by the slick trailer -- the story is thin on the ground and the voice acting is a straight-up misdirect. Half the time speech bubbles are triggered off screen where you can't even see them.

this is the closest thing to MarioMaker that we have on PC, and for that reason I give it 10/10. It's not perfect, but it's cool, and I wish there were more games like this, with levels that you can make and share with your friends.

Two thumbs up for this game. For RPing geeks like us who sometimes mindlessly slayed goblins, orcs, and monsters by the dozen, here is the situation seen from the other perspective: you get to play the little green guy, this time. So you'd better avoid the big armored adventurers who'd slice you in half in one single swing from their sword or axe and you've got to find indirect (and sometimes devious) ways to lead them to their deaths... I like the humor of this game (some lines made me laugh out loud). The pixel art is full of charm, and what starts up as an unassuming game soon shows its subtleties. Variations and subtleties of control let you do more things in more ways than you'd think possible at first. The more I'm playing it, the more fun it gets. It's still an early access game: you'll go through some part of the story without thinking twice and you'll be stalled for a couple of hours on some other levels.. But the developers are constantly working on it, rebalancing things, readjusting levels, fixing minor issues. They reply almost in real time on the forums and they work hard on their game levels and on their game mechanics. So, the game is already good and it's likely to get better. If you think you're into this sort of game, you should really give this one a try... :)

Loved it. It's puzzles are very fun and grow in complexity as the story progresses. The plot is also fun. I recommend taking your time to do the extra puzzles to find muffins that are not required to unlock the door to the next levels. I only wish the story campaign was longer.

When I first got this game, I was disappointed to find there was a glitch that wasn't allowing the game to open no matter what I tried. Went to the forum boards for help, and the developer themselves contacted me and fixed the problem on the spot. That's freaking awesome integrity to say the least. More to the point to anyone that reads this, games really fun, handles well, and really makes you think rather than just allow you to bumble through.

It's a physics-based puzzle platformer. While the images/videos might hint towards a slightly more open-worldish type affair, the levels themselves are fairly straightforward with the exception of side areas you can muck around with for the sake of increasing your score... Which is just a score, there doesn't appear to be anything interesting associated with the number other than that deeply satisfying feeling of watching something get bigger because of you. ...*ahem*. Now, from my handle and profile picture, you might presume I have a certain appreciation of all things goblinoid. This is true. I suppose I just feel a natural sense of connection with small, green, warty little beasts that are regularly and often deservedly reviled... So seeing a game where you play as a goblin, surrounded by other goblins, beating up entitled tin-can heroes using deviously improvised traps and pitfalls felt like Steam had finally answered my prayers and delivered an indie title that wasn't completely terrible. The charming art style only added to that impression. The problem is... The art style is pretty much the one good thing here. The player controls are manageable once you get used to them, certainly, but there's always the occasional hiccup associated with being something that tries to obey the fickle laws of video game physics. The main problem arises from the fact that you don't have quite as much, if any, control over everything else in the game that is also having issues trying desperately to not exist in the same physical space as something else. Dragging a massive boulder will of course be slow going, until the boulder suddenly and inexplicably flips into the air and sails over your head if you're lucky, or onto it if you're unlucky. Crates and barrels will sometimes be perfectly obedient, other times they will bounce just high enough to count as being lethally dangerous when they touch you again. Unpredictable, bizarre and frequent deaths are really just part of the fun with doing anything in a game with a physics engine though, and the game is kind enough to have a mercifully short turnover time in regards to respawning. However, you can't just run around willy-nilly and smash your bristled little green head against the puzzles until you find the right solution, despite several of them only being solveable by doing just that. The reason you can't use trial-and-error is that, first of all, respawn checkpoints are limited. I mean this in the sense that you can only respawn at a specific checkpoint a certain number of times, after which you get sent back to the last checkpoint before that one, and so on until you're respawning at the very start of the level again. This doesn't make the game more difficult or challenging, it just makes it more tedious. The only thing you have to do is just run and jump a bit more through old territory to get back to where you were, only to die to the same puzzle again and have to make the trek one more time. Or, if your luck's particularly foul, you get sent to a checkpoint that was before a point-of-no-return, so you actually CAN'T get back to where you were and need to restart the whole level from scratch. Second, even if you don't have a particularly fatal puzzle at hand, it is entirely possible in far too many circumstances that you end up accidentally pushing something too much or not pushing it enough, in which case the thing you needed for the other thing gets irretrievably jammed into some spikes somewhere, and you have to start the level over since no amount of blood sacrifice will make the spike-gods relinquish their prize of a small throwable pebble. Now, again, there's a chance for redemption here. Games with puzzles that can lock down like that will generally have fairly short levels and a quick way of resetting the puzzles so you can give it another try... Not so in Goblins and Grottos. The game shows off its really quite wonderful art style by having these large, sprawling maps for you to explore and maneuver around... Which is great in and of itself, and was really what I was looking for. The problem is when you combine that with tricky puzzles that can permanently stick themselves to the point where you need to do all the exploration all over again. This is particularly irritating when the only reason things got borked was because the physics engine shat itself while doing a routine calculation, and sent something inexplicably flying (which, let's face it, is one of the biggest reasons we love physics engines in games). The game basically needs to decide what it is... Is it a casual, quick little puzzle platformer with difficult trial-and-error puzzles? Or is it a slightly more open exploration game for fiddling around? Trying to combine the two just results in a puzzle platformer that takes too long to get anywhere and that you're too scared to explore for fear of accidentally jamming the system again. Considering the game has already been released and doesn't even bear the cautionary label of "Early Access", I think it's fair to assume that Goblins and Grottos isn't going to be making any particularly big changes to its fundamental gameplay anymore. I really, really wanted to like this... I really did. Again, the art style is fantastic, and the humor wasn't nearly as irritating as it potentially could have been... But it's all just a bunch of polish on a game that isn't there. You can't make a game that requires tight controls and exact reactions, then throw in a chaotic physics engine to make things interesting. You can't make a puzzle that demands trial and error, and then punish the player for not getting it right the first time. On the plus side, the game does have a map editor... So I guess you could just make your own maps that have nothing to do with how the rest of the game runs, and then just marvel at how pretty it is.

My measure of a great game is when it's buggy as hell, and seemingly unfinished in others, but it's still so original and fun you can't stop playing it. As of writing this, they're on v 1.0.4 and, it's my favorite new platformer since Broforce. Unlike BroForce or most other platformers, don't go into this one expecting to massacre enemies. I mean, you do massacre enemies (and friends) but in a long, drawn out sort of way, because you play as a tiny goblin with no weapons and only you Spiderman-like ability to cling to walls. (you're so weak, you can't even open up doors) It's basically Trapt or Tecmo's Deception, in platformer format.... with muffins. There are pretty much only three ways to kill something in this game, crush them, make them fall, or blow them up. Every enemy in the game will one-hit kill you, but lucklily you can endlessly respawn at the beginning of the level or from restore statues scattered throughout (which gradually wear out and break, encouraging you to not screw up too often) Pros: * Fun stealth/trap-based platformer, where you play as the weakest monster in the dungeon. * Very open ended exploration in a dungeon feels bigger than it is. There are lots of path choices, and it doesn't feel like the game locks you into a set course or holds your hand. You just keep exploring until you find the exit. It is possible to totally screw yourself by pushing the wrong crate or failing to take out an enemy with a barrel of explosives, but you can always reset and try again, and *most* of the time when you spectacularly screw something up, you're only depriving yourself of a cool secret area and some tasty muffins. * Incredibly funny, and absolutely chocked full of secrets. Watching the other denizens of the dungeon interact is often nearly as much fun as playing the game itself. * You can ride a sheep *AND* design your own levels! Cons (as of v.1.0.4): * Controls are slow and annoying in parts, especially with the "cling" and "throw" buttons on a controller, that can't be remapped (currently). It's also very hard to anticipate where objects will land with the throw mechanics, and there's no visual wind-up "tell" that you are actually about to throw an object, or how far it's going to travel. It would also be nice to be able to throw/drop while clinging, or when standing next to other objects. (being unable to throw or drop a bomb close enough to a brick you want to destroy because there happens to be a brick on the floor.) There's also no way to bring up the menu or restart the level from the controller. * Physics/graphics fails. Mainly invoving projectiles, chains, and bombs. Nothing game-breaking but you do sometimes end up with explosions or projectiles flying off to get stuck in walls, or a perpetual sparking bomb animation that never goes away.