The full release of Gnomes & Goblins is now available to buy on Steam four years after a preview release.
The full Gnomes & Goblins experience launches for $29.99 from Wevr and Madison Wells Media with a main story that lasts less than an hour. G&G also requires a beefier PC than the one needed for Half-Life: Alyx. The minimum specification for G&G seeks 16 GB of RAM compared to 12 GB on Half-Life: Alyx, and G&G also requires fairly high end GPUs and CPUs as well.
“From the start of the project, G&G has been intended/designed as a high fidelity experience requiring a powerful GPU/CPU. The best experience is on a 2080+ desktop PC with an Index or Vive Pro,” WEVR co-founder Neville Spiteri explained in an email. “Video/Graphics settings can be set to High on a Recommended Spec machine, and Medium or Low setting for lower spec PCs.”
There’s also a mode that lets you explore the goblin village and collect things. I found the main story to be a delightful look into the village, the goblin culture, and their tension with the gnomes. A definite highlight was an incredibly relaxing ride down a creek listening to the goblins making music all around. The story was over extremely fast, however, and the collecting and exploration part of the game didn’t grab me afterward.
“The open world mode affords a very broad range of play styles and experiences,” Spiteri explained. “The open world game loop involves layered interactions of farming, harvesting, and brewing, and an entire collection loop tied to Achievements. The average for open world mode is around 4 hours, but can take even longer for the core completionists.”
We haven’t spent enough time with Gnomes & Goblins to prepare a review just yet, but we wanted people who were intrigued by the free preview four years ago — which was pitched by Iron Man director Jon Favreau — to know what to expect from the paid release. The default movement system in G&G is smooth locomotion with snap turning enabled. There’s a virtual “Magic Eye” tool that allow for long-range teleport to different areas of the forest, and a “bump” mode “intended to simulate walking by tapping the A button” — but there’s no medium range teleportation option built into the game for those sensitive to simulator sickness.
