Welcome to our CHEATfactor Game Review of Goliath. We review the game and then factor in how the available cheats affect the overall game experience. For better or worse, our reviews will help you decide whether or not to use cheats when playing the game.

Have you ever noticed that anytime  a blockbuster movie comes out you start to see knockoffs? Like when Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen came out, so did Tansmorphers: Legend of the Fallen Man. Up had What's Up and Robocop and Android Cop. Playing through Goliath from Whalebox Studios I couldn't help but feel like I was playing through the interactive version one of these knockoffs as nearly everything that the game does, another game already does, and much better. Goliath starts off with a really cool concept but unoriginal gameplay, lackluster AI and a buggy experience stop it from living up to it's potential.

The basic idea of Goliath is one that had me interested from the moment it was announced. Here's how I understood it; it's Klei's Don't Starve but instead of scrounging for shelter and food you're looking for parts to build your giant mech. How cool is that? At least in idea it sounds great but the way that Goliath puts it all into practice feels unfinished and rushed. The game follows the story of a pair of pilots who crash-land on a mysterious planet and get separated. Your job is to find your pilot friend and just how are you going to do that? By spending the time hunting down mech parts of course! For what it's worth I didn't dislike Goliath because it was different than I thought it was, it's just not that good at whatever it's trying to be.

The game plays out in typical RPG fashion, you're looking for something and someone else has something they need done for it. You'll run around the map attacking enemy factions, killing bosses and finding items for quest givers in order to collect different parts for your mechs. What results is the typical grind you'll feel in a game like this and before long you'll find yourself going through the motions to collect what you need. The game actually does a decent enough job at creating different races and worlds for you to explore but you never really get the chance to enjoy them since they're all essentially looking for the same things, or at least different versions of the same things. My fifteen or so hours with the game was filled with the same go here, do that, get that type of gameplay and to be honest it all kind of blurred together for me.

So what of the mechs themselves? When I think of playing as a giant robot, I want it to be just that, giant but you won't get that here. The game uses a camera view that's really zoomed out so even your biggest Goliaths feels small on the battlefield and it doesn't help that nearly all of the enemies you'll encounter are just about the same size as your mech, so while there's a definite advantage to using one over taking on some of the game's enemies on foot, I never got the feeling that I was piloting this big ass weapon because of how small the game made it seem at nearly all times.

It's a shame too since the game features a good amount of depth when it comes to creating your mech. You can travel with up to three mechs at a time, and each can have different weapons, defense systems or classes. The wooden Goliath for example moves faster but packs less of a punch than the stone Goliath and there's a pretty significant crafting system here and it's genuinely interesting to experiment with different parts and buffs when you collect them. The only issue is that Goliath does not even really try to explain a lot of it's systems or what you can do in them. The basic crafting system gets a tutorial but things like the temperature system and how elemental effects change your mech really don't, you're just left to clumsily find your way through a clunky series of menus; and while you eventually do figure everything out, it feels like a big hassle.

It also doesn't help that the core action mechanics of Goliath feel so boring and flat. Most encounters can be won by simply spamming the AI faster and harder than the AI is able to spam you. While some of the quicker Goliaths can attack faster and have more long distance attacks, a lot of battles go like this; walk up to enemy, hammer attack button...repeat. Really, that's it. The enemy AI is also incredibly simple to the point where it effects the overall experience. They often have the same attack patterns and if someone or something gets in their way...they'll just keep trying to get through it; which is really funny since the game features so few destructible environments. I've sat for ten minutes watching an enemy continuously try to get through even the smallest obstacle.

Perhaps even more concerning than this though is the fact that the game often feels unfinished. Throughout my time with Goliath the music would randomly cut out for extended periods of time, causing everything to feel remarkably awkward but that fails in comparison to the game breaking bugs I found that would crash the game a frustrating amount of times, which is surprising for a game that's not even really that demanding.

Goliath started with a great idea but ended with a flat and often boring experience. This is one of those games that nearly every time I found something I liked about it, the game did something to take it back a few steps. I wanted to feel badass in my mech. I wanted to build a huge killing machine to help my quest to find my friend but  Goliath just gave me busy work and clunky menus.