Good Goliath is VR tower defence with a giant twist
Catch and release.
Tower defence style games are ten a penny in VR Land and to be completely honest with you, I got bored of them a long, long time ago. That means, if I'm even going to go near one nowadays, said game will need to have a really good, imaginative twist. And in the case of Good Goliath, that twist is to turn the player into a giant tosser.
Wait, what? No, I wasn't being rude! Your role in this game is to fill the fists of a captive giant who must dodge, catch and throw an assortment of projectiles at advancing waves of tiny, aggressive attackers. So, instead of playing as a stationary archer or gun emplacement, you're going to need to get rather physical in order to survive.
You can watch me working up a sweat in this week's episode of Ian's VR Corner, where I play through the first two levels of the game in a special early gameplay preview. Be warned though, there is a massive amount of tossing!
As you'll see in the video above, Good Goliath is a completely stationary affair that can easily be played seated, or stood up. The lack of any kind of camera motion means this game will be suitable for players of all VR skill levels, while it's cartoony mayhem provides a fine example of family friendly fun.
One of the big worries I often have with tower defence games is how quickly the gameplay can grow stale and repetitive and while Good Goliath's earlier levels weren't too exciting to look at, there was a nice amount of variety to the attacking hordes. Amongst many other things, I went up against pitchfork throwing peasants, spell spitting witches and lance launching horsemen.
There are also quite a few stationary catapults and these will try to introduce your face to things like wagon wheels, barrels and sometimes even an unlucky human or two. The most satisfying projectiles to catch of all though, were the cannon balls. Snatch one of these out of the air as it whistles towards your face and you can then bowl it at your foes to take out multiple attackers at once.
With boss fights at the end of each level, secrets hidden behind destructible scenery and a nice layer of light hearted humour, it's clear that this isn't just a lazy cut-and-paste wave game. The added physical element to the gameplay helped hold my attention a lot longer than I thought it would too, so it'll be interesting to discover what other wacky situations are introduced in later parts of the game.
If you think Good Goliath looks like a good catch, you can get your hands on it when it launches on March 31st for PSVR and PC VR headsets.