The Eternal Life of Goldman Wows in Latest Steam Next Fest Demo
I guess it's not too good to be true...
When I first saw the trailer for The Eternal Life of Goldman, I was almost certain it was vaporware. It looked too good. It reminded me of one of those fan edits for one of your favorite IPs that you realize was just a 3-minute clip somebody spent 3 months making.
The animation reminded me of Cuphead, but with 3x the detail. There was incredible detail in the foreground and background, the animations were varied and stylized, and, maybe most importantly, every aspect of that trailer had such a strong sense of creativity.
I thought to myself, “This has to be fake,” because realistically, how could an indie studio scale this level of animation to a full-fledged game? Despite my extreme skepticism, I held out a small glimmer of hope that one day I would actually play this game and that it would live up to a fraction of what the trailer promised.
…then I played the most recent demo.
And let me tell you, this demo absolutely blew me away. So much so that I think it’s a legitimate Game of the Year contender.
The game is a 2D sidescrolling platformer following the adventures of a man named Goldman. The man is somewhat of a legendary figure. He travels with a versatile cane that can be customized as the situation calls. It can be used to jump to high places, hook and drag items, hold on to suspended handles, and seemingly much, much more.
In the demo, Goldman has been summoned to quell the flames of a circus event that’s gotten out of control. You are thrown directly into the chaos, dodging dynamic environmental hazards and fireball-spitting enemies. After defeating a relatively easy boss within the area, you realize that this was just the tip of what would become a long journey across the gorgeously designed map.
As I mentioned at the top, the animation was the thing that caught my attention, and after getting hands-on, it absolutely delivered. From the moment you press start, the game hits the ground running. You are treated to a visually overloaded scene of a monkey-like creature zipping through the jungle while holding onto some sort of bird. Within this opening statement, it’s clear how insane the game truly is. There are dozens of animated creatures, plants, and structures. Like, I feel like I would have to play each level multiple times to even be close to taking everything in. Not only that, but every movement Goldman makes is depicted with unique stylings and effects.
Once you’re able to break the spell that the opening sequence will undoubtedly lock you in, you can then turn to the gameplay. Bad platforming is the one thing that could kill any hype for the game. No matter how great it looks, if it doesn’t feel good to play, it doesn’t matter.
To my genuine surprise, it felt great. I’m typically a stickler for solid platforming mechanics, and this felt smooth and responsive. The enemies and platforming challenges felt fair, challenging, and thematically relevant to the rest of the level. Not only that, but the tutorialization of the first level felt perfect. It walked you through the unique cane customization method that acts as your toolkit for solving certain platforming challenges. All in all, the gameplay felt quite refreshing. It provided a decent challenge, but from what I could tell, it wasn’t Cuphead- or Soulslike-difficult, which was a nice change of pace, as it allowed me to appreciate everything unfolding around me.
Later on, you get to a non-hostile town. There, you get to see the real scope of the game. There are multiple named NPCs with relatively long dialogue segments ready for when you interact with them. In addition to the pretty well-written stories they all had, you also get hints that there are mechanics like cooking and house renting waiting for you in the full release. Additionally, you start to unravel the extent of the story, which clearly has multiple stages to it, with the potential to include side missions as well.
As your time with the demo wraps up, the surprises don’t stop. The game reveals an epic map, highly stylized in the fantastic art that has been present in every facet of the demo so far. Not only that, but it seems huge. I couldn’t believe my eyes. There are countless areas to discover and seemingly revisit over the course of the game.
And I have to be honest—I’ve held on to a huge omission so far. This entire story is being told through a The Princess Bride-like lens, with what seems to be a mother telling it to her sick son in the hospital. It’s another interesting layer to the already impressive game. There’s clearly a tone that comes through the voice acting, and a dynamic present in the script, that tells us everything here isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. A unique addition to a game that, quite frankly, didn’t even need it.
So there you have it—a preview roughly the size of one of my typical reviews. It just goes to show you how hard this demo sold me. It was truly a “playing is believing” situation. Now, I’m only left with one final question.
When can I actually play it?
