This Goliath Depot review is played and tested on Nintendo Switch. Goliath Depot is available in the Nintendo eShop for €6,99/$6.99. The game is also available on PC/Steam.
With play hours ever expanding for AAA games over the last decade, a substantial constituency of the gaming community is actively searching for shorter gaming experiences. So, it is not really a surprise that games like Goliath Depot are doing well enough to make a dent in the market. Games like these may be the fast food equivalent of a video game experience, but given the price of admission this genre usually asks, they offer quite a bit of bang for your buck.
Single screen resurgence
Games like Goliath Depot, Donut Dodo, and Murtop are examples of single-screen, retro-like arcade games that have come out recently and share the same aesthetic. They are inspired by arcade games of the early ’80s, but with more or less modern sensibilities. Goliath Depot is the latest game in this subgenre and fits the bill really well. It is influenced both visually and in terms of gameplay by some of the greatest in video game history. You would assume the developer picked and choose mechanics and visuals from Mappy, Elevator Action, Donkey Kong (both one and two), and Popeye (the arcade game). At least, that were the games that popped in my mind.
Mario is missing
The funny thing is, though, that Goliath Depot inspiration is much more cloaked in obscurity and much more left field. It is essentially a de-make of Hotel Mario, one of the infamous Nintendo-licensed CD-i games developed in-house by Philips. Yes, this is a de-make from CD-i to early ’80s arcade, which is hilarious on its own. It was born out of a ‘challenge accepted’ moment during a Twitch stream by Hotel Mario’s former World Speedrun record holder, SuperMegaDav. The streamer picked up the glove and managed to remake the first level of Hotel Mario in the Godot Engine in 12 hours. With this solid base, it took another 6 months to adapt the concept and develop it into a full-fledged game.
Goliath Depot turned out to be a purebred single-screen action-platformer. There is no two ways about it. You play as either George or Georgette, and just like in Hotel Mario, the main objective is to close all the open doors that have mysteriously appeared in Goliath Corporation’s facilities. As the night shift supervisor, you have to close all these doors spread out through 40 rooms on Goliath’s premises. Along with these doors, all sorts of office and factory utilities have come to life as well, trying to take you down.
Don’t let the door hit you in the face
Fortunately, slamming doors will stun these baddies, giving you a moment to clear them out of the building with a firm kick in the butt. Closing all doors in the room will open the main door to the next area. While utilities have gone mad, you can use the factory’s infrastructure like elevators, moving platforms, and glide rails to help you get from one side to the other quickly. Other factory facilities like security systems, electrical circuits, and magnetic fields have gone haywire as well, making your life extra hard.
George(ette)’s movement is very snappy with a fairly potent jump. Still, platforms are often just too high up to jump from the bottom to the top of the screen. This creates the need to figure out the right routes throughout the levels to let you close the doors as quickly as possible. This is relevant as the score mechanic is very much built around clearing the levels as quickly as possible. Closing doors back to back without getting hit or falling into pits and traps will also build up a combo multiplier. When you are threatened by these anthropomorphic gears and boxes and the doors have already slammed, you can reopen them to weaponize them again. This will reset your combo, though.
Mixing classic gameplay with modern features
The difficulty is very manageable. It will take a bit of practice to clear the whole game (it took me, a casual gamer, about 2 hours to completely clear the game using the continue system and the ability to restart at the beginning of a facility once you unlocked it by defeating the previous facility’s boss). In general, Goliath Depot is pretty accessible, with three lives and, once you have collected enough coins in the level, the opportunity to buy yourself a continue. The prices of a continue do go up the further you get, ranging from 25 to 40 coins. So it is best practice to snatch all or at least most coins spread throughout the levels.
I did find the first facility, the warehouse, stupidly simple. As a first introduction to the game, it set me off on the wrong foot. At first glance I was thinking much less of the game in contrast to now. The other facilities are much harder, more complex, and intriguing. Especially the parking lot and the headquarters have much going for them.
Once you have played the facility’s bosses once, they become quite a letdown in later playthroughs. Their patterns are very linear, and their attacks are just too easy to dodge. There are some regular levels that are much more challenging to complete than these bosses.
Densely packed
For a €6.99 game, it is quite densely packed with all sorts of features. Once you beat the final boss, you get a hard difficulty mode at your disposal. This of course adds quite a bit of replayability. You have the ability to unlock all sorts of perks, too. The cheapest, the ability to fall through floors, has been my go-to for a long time. It also features a fun 2-player co-op mode and, unsurprisingly, a speedrun mode.
Lack of leaderboards
The complete package feels very polished. The game does miss that magical one ingredient that makes you sink your teeth into it and keeps you coming back for more. It has been mentioned in many reviews, but not having an online leaderboard is a severe miss in my opinion. Your arcade game can be the best in the world, but without the dopamine rush of crushing others’ scores, I’m not inclined to practice and improve beyond clearing the game. I would’ve gladly pay €2 to €3 extra to facilitate the hosting costs of that database.
With later levels adding enough madness to make it a complex and fun collection of levels, Goliath Depot does not do anything spectacularly different to make this a must play. Then again, for €6,99 you do get a lot of features and modes to play, Goliath Depot gives you a lot of bang for your buck.
The good
- Solid gameplay fundamentals
- Looks nice
- A buck load of features and modes
- Modestly priced
The bad
- No offline and online leaderboards
- Bosses are lackluster
