The air smells like blood and dirt; if Rusty could feel content, it would be here. Glowing scanners pick up movement in the distance. He fires a shot knowing he can't afford to let a deadly competitor like Olbracht get within reach. The thought is cut short by the sound of cold and alien darkness almost laughing at him; Rusty looks down to see that cursed and broken blade sticking through his chassis. His ocular processors meet the gaze of entropy itself; it seems he didn't accurately calculate the power of Olbracht, The Demon. It would be his final miscalculation.
Goldenstar is a universe like no other. Everything from the gameplay to design feels like a living amalgamation of too many big ideas. The craziest part about this mashing together, is that ambitious as it is, it fully works. Before we dig into what makes this so exciting from a gameplay standpoint, lets take a second to soak in the narrative that is a driving force behind my excitement for Goldenstar. The characters that make up the key focus of this battle royale fight to the death are alive and vibrant. From sentient unslinging dinosaurs to hyper intellectual beholder wielding scientists each character in art, story, and design draws you to want more and more of this incredible world. No two characters or worlds feel like they belong in the same game, and yet that wild dissonance makes this work in a way that caught me off guard and wanting more and weirder designs.
Much in the same way that the character design does so many things well, the game does a great job of feeling like it's borrowing from many genres all at once. This is something that normally leads to a noisy mess of rules that feel more foolhardy than brilliant, but Goldenstar has a way of making it work in it's favor. It features mechanics like king of the hill, area control, deck building, and so much more. Goldenstar knows what it is and what it isn't, and embraces the beauty of saying yes.
Like a kid at a frozen yogurt bar, Goldenstar throws everything at the player that they could possibly want and it's not afraid to spoil you on too many good things. It's a risk for a company to take different themes in both narrative and gameplay and have those flavors balance in a way that doesn't feel gross, or like it's trying to hard. Rarely do designers take these risks and even rarer still do these risks actually become something great. Goldenstar: The Galactic Tournament is nothing if not an absolute treat, and one that this writer can't wait to get more of. Don't forget the cherry on top: this campaign launch also invites you to sample the "Crowded Space" expansion, offering four more exciting challengers to sink your teeth into.
Find Goldenstar: The Galactic Tournament here-
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Infinity Bro Jarret is our resident board game expert and a big fan of weird aliens fighting for universal fame and fortune.