Jon Shafer's At the Gates
- January 23, 2019
- Conifer Games
- 59h median play time
A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won't cause massive damage.
Get on Steam"At the Gates" is a 4X grand strategy game designed by Jon Shafer, the creator of Civilization 5. As a Dark Age lord, your goal is to construct a kingdom in the ruins of the Roman Empire. Manage resources, build an economy, and navigate the unique traits of your clans to overcome strong neighbors and harsh winters. In this challenging and evolving world, can you lead your people to prosperity and historical significance?
Reviews
- The game features a unique clan system that adds depth and individuality to each unit, making strategic decisions more engaging.
- The art style is visually appealing, with a watercolor aesthetic that enhances the game's atmosphere.
- The game offers an interesting take on resource management and survival, requiring players to adapt their strategies based on the environment and available resources.
- The game is riddled with bugs, including frequent crashes and issues with saving/loading, making it frustrating to play.
- AI behavior is passive and unchallenging, leading to a lack of meaningful interactions and making the game feel lifeless.
- The user interface is clunky and unintuitive, with many important features hidden or difficult to access, detracting from the overall experience.
- gameplay85 mentions
- 32 % positive mentions
- 65 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game has been met with mixed reviews, highlighting a blend of innovative mechanics and significant issues. While some players appreciate the unique clan system and resource management aspects, many express frustration over numerous bugs, unfinished features, and a lack of depth in certain mechanics, leading to a feeling of incompleteness. Overall, the game shows potential but requires substantial refinement to deliver a satisfying experience.
“The gameplay is fresh and uniquely challenging.”
“Some of the mechanics in here are really interesting and genuinely new.”
“Overall, the game is worth a look by 4x fans for the novelty and creative mechanics alone, even if the mechanics are still rough around the edges.”
“Half of the mechanics are simply not implemented; the game has a huge amount of bugs and unfinished elements.”
“Really disappointed because the game mechanics had a lot of potential, but many of them are broken or incomplete.”
“But despite being out for over a year and a half, it still feels like it's in early access with incomplete information, missing tooltips, no serious diplomatic or religious choices, and abusable mechanics for pillaging/concurring neighbors. The absolute killer are the game crashes.”
- graphics42 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many players appreciating the unique art style and watercolor aesthetic, describing it as beautiful and atmospheric. However, some criticize the overall graphic fidelity as low, with a feeling of unfinished quality and occasional bugs, leading to performance issues like lag and long loading times. While the artwork is often praised, there are concerns about the lack of configuration options and the game's resemblance to older titles, suggesting that the graphics may not meet modern expectations.
“I really love the graphics and animation.”
“Great artwork.”
“The art style gives a lovely look.”
“The watercolor graphics are decent, but all in all they're simply uninspired.”
“With these graphics and gameplay it should run fast and without issue, it looks like it's from the late 90s and it runs like my computer is from the 80s.”
“Even though it says 1.0 in the start menu, it looks and feels like I'm playing some in-dev pre-alpha build they show to potential investors, even the aesthetics are the same - placeholders for whole game mechanics and interface elements, no balance whatsoever, game options are in the XML file... even for an early access title this would look half-assed, but as 1.0 it's a straight-up insult.”
- stability18 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with users reporting numerous bugs, crashes, and incomplete features that hinder gameplay. Many players express frustration over unresponsive UI elements, disappearing menu options, and game-breaking issues, leading to a consensus that while the game has potential, it is currently a buggy and unpolished experience. Overall, the game's foundation is seen as promising, but its execution is marred by significant stability problems.
“Some cool ideas, but incomplete, buggy, broken, and abandoned.”
“The bad: everything else... unfinished, buggy (disappearing options in menus, unexplained concepts like units being stuck due to weather with no prompt to tell you...), a constant crash to desktop when trying to load a game for the first time, placeholder text everywhere....”
“It's a shame that the excellent base mechanics of this game are implemented in such a buggy package at an insane price.”
- music18 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 61 % neutral mentions
- 22 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many players noting a lack of substantial soundtrack and only minimal title music and jingles. While some appreciate the atmospheric background sounds and the quality of the title theme by Geoff Knorr, others criticize the absence of a consistent musical presence during gameplay, leading to a generally underwhelming audio experience. Additionally, technical issues such as music not playing or skipping have further detracted from the overall enjoyment.
“The music: you'll hear it only rarely, Shafer and his team chose to have consistent background sounds according to the season - from my less than an hour gameplay I really enjoyed it, while it wasn't audible in the gameplay videos I watched on YouTube before.”
“The title music is beautiful, by Geoff Knorr, the guy behind Civ 5 and 6's music, and there are some little music moments at moments in the game to accompany an event - but it's really short.”
“Pretty and atmospheric; the music and sounds are great and I also really like the graphics style.”
“Music-wise, there only appears to be the title music and some jingles, all of it being pretty meh.”
“There's just no substance, most of the systems are obscure and once you figure them out you quickly realize there's nothing to them...plus there's no music and the graphics are mediocre.”
“Also there's no music and the ambient sounds suck.”
- grinding12 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and boring, particularly due to long wait times between turns and the repetitive nature of resource management. While there are strategic options available, the overall experience is marred by a sense of monotony, leading to frustration even among fans of lengthy games.
“There's just a lot of ways to lose, which would be fine if it weren't so damn tedious to even get a basic economy going.”
“Even though I love 4X games, the whole '25% of the game year is wasted time' (while historically accurate) tries my patience and seems tedious.”
“Incredibly tedious and boring.”
- optimization7 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 71 % negative mentions
The game features intriguing economic and resource management mechanics, but it is marred by significant optimization issues, including bugs, balance problems, and performance lags such as stuttering audio and hanging during turns. While the allocation of clans presents a complex optimization challenge, many players feel that the game's overall optimization shortcomings may never be resolved.
“Allocating your clans to different professions is a much more in-depth optimization puzzle than in your regular 4X games.”
“You'll have to choose what to optimize and what to abandon.”
“A really fun economic/resource management game, but unfinished, unbalanced, and poorly optimized.”
“Has some very cool ideas, but, unfortunately, suffers from bugs, poor balance, and poor optimization.”
“I don't think this lack of optimization is ever going to be fixed.”
- story5 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
The story aspect of the game is centered around crafting a unique world filled with quirky clans, each with their own personalities and desires, which adds depth beyond mere competition. However, players note that many narrative elements, such as religion, diplomacy, and clan politics, feel unfinished, suggesting that while the foundation is intriguing, it lacks comprehensive development. Overall, the game's narrative is seen as a work in progress, with potential for growth inspired by the developer's personal journey.
“Jon Shafer has been working on this game for over 5 years, and his personal story is very inspiring!”
“This is more Thea: The Awakening than Civilization V; and there are lots of parts that are unfinished - religion, diplomacy, internal clan relations, clan politics and hierarchies, missions/directions, warfare tactics, AI.”
“They're just not the whole story.”
“Because it's not just about a mad dash to 'winning.' You are crafting a world and a story with bizarre little clans that have personalities and desires (literally).”
- replayability5 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 40 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is a mixed bag; while some players find it limited due to minimal differences between tribes, others appreciate the variety offered by different clan traits, resource generation, and map layouts, leading to extensive playtime. Many users report enjoying multiple playthroughs, highlighting the game's potential for replayability despite some criticisms.
“There is a good deal of replayability due to the variation in the tribe you select, the resources generated around you, and the traits of the clans you receive.”
“I have already put more than 100 hours, that goes to show you how replayable this game is.”
“The game as a whole is harmonious and self-sufficient and offers quite a lot of replayability thanks to the great map generator and different starting positions you have to deal with when you start.”
“No replay value; all the different tribes are not that different at all. In my opinion, it's just a minor change.”
“I have already put more than 100 hours into this game, which goes to show you how replayable it is.”
- atmosphere4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its beautiful graphics, immersive music, and overall pleasing aesthetic, creating an enjoyable experience for players. While some may find the pacing slow, many appreciate the opportunity to fully engage with the game's atmospheric elements, particularly in the context of 4X gameplay.
“Pretty and atmospheric; the music and sounds are great, and I also really like the graphics style.”
“Great idea and atmosphere; excellent art style.”
“All in all, a pleasing game and atmosphere, and a satisfying experience for 4X game enthusiasts who want to explore new elements.”
- humor3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is derived from the quirky interactions between clan personalities and the absurdity of the AI's diplomatic maneuvers, which players can only observe through notifications. Additionally, the inclusion of humorous features, such as "tooltips-in-tooltips," adds a lighthearted touch to the overall experience.
“That being said, there is great fun to be had figuring out how to manage your village/kingdom resources, how to just survive, and the sometimes humorous combinations of clan personality disorders.”
“Diplomacy doesn't work (funny enough, AI does some diplomacy between each other and you only get notifications).”
“I thought it was funny to list 'tooltips-in-tooltips' as a feature on the store page.”
