My boozy realm was initially born
out of necessity. At the Gates draws
from a lot of different sources, from
Civilization to worker placement
games such as Agricola, but like a
survival game, it’s driven by harsh
weather and resource
scarcity. When you find
a large source of food
(or booze) you make
the most of it.
Every playable
barbarian faction is
limited to a single city,
though borders can still
be expanded. My thirst
for the delicious grape led me to
expand north, building more
vineyards there, but when they dried
up, my workers moved on and the
borders retreated. The barbarian
kingdoms are agile, adaptable
up-and-comers, in contrast to the
inflexible Roman powerhouse.
At least they are when there’s a
player running the show. Otherwise,
the barbarians seem pretty content to
do very little at all, aside from
pointlessly moving troops around
within their own borders.Instead of managing an empire,
you’ll spend most of your time
managing people. Each clan is a
single unit that can be assigned jobs
that run the gamut from winemaker
to priest. They’re at the centre of
everything, so putting
people in the right
job is a big part of
running a kingdom.
It’s a bit more
complex than just
finding a hairy
barbarian, giving them
a briefcase and sending
them on their way.
People are often abstract concepts in
4X games, distilled down to a simple
resource or disposable units. But At
the Gates’ clans have some welcome
humanity, reflected by their traits,
both positive and negative, and
desires. Some of my clans decided
that they would much rather work
inside the settlement, and they grew
upset the longer they went ignored.
In fairness, they were working in the
snow. The weather creates a lot of
obstacles, killing crops and
hampering movement.BUYER’S MARKET
Get a bit of cash in your pocket and
all your worries about resource
shortages will wash away, along with
a lot of reasons to keep playing.
Gathering up massive piles of gold is
a lot easier than producing enough
food to feed all of your clans, too.
With only the occasional gold mine
and one trade building, I was set for
life. With my fat bank account I was
able to go on shopping sprees every
time the caravan – basically a shop- pulled up to the settlement, buying
most of what I needed, then selling
my excess wine. It’s exploitable so
buying and reselling the same item
over and over nets you a profit, but I
was never so hard up that I was
tempted to use it.
Without adversity, At the Gates is
a pretty straight line to Rome. Or
Constantinople, if it’s closer. My
sauced up warriors – the wine helped
with morale – marched across the
world and, finally within the borders
of the Eastern Roman Empire,
proceeded to conquer every city one
at a time. Every legion stayed behind
the walls of its respective city. All it
would have taken to crush my
invasion was one tiny bit of
teamwork, but they just sat there,
passively waiting for the end. It was
what I’d been working towards, but
there was no satisfaction.
The ability to buy your way out
of most problems and passive AI
make it feel like you’re taking
advantage of an exploit even when
you’re playing it normally. At the
Gates’ challenge is meant to be a
hook, but that wasn’t apparent as I
walked my hordes to victory. It
undermines the survival elements
and the underdog premise, leaving At
the Gates with a bunch of novel 4X
ideas that quickly fizzle out.
NEED TO KNOW
WHAT IS IT?
A single-city 4X game
where you have to take
down the Romans
EXPECT TO PAY
£25
DEVELOPER
Conifer Games
PUBLISHER
In-house
REVIEWED ON
GTX 1080Ti, Intel
i7-8086K, 16GB RAM
MULTIPLAYER
None
LINK
http://www.atthegatesgame.
com57
The passive AI and
a flawed economy
ruin what could have
been a refreshing
4X experiment.VERDICTPutting people
in the right
job is a big part
of running a
kingdomI
t was wine that finally took down the Romans. At the Gates is a 4X
game where victory is only achieved if you conquer either the
Eastern or Western Roman Empire, and facing what at first
seemed like insurmountable odds, I turned to alcohol. It funded
my war machine, kept the clans happy and the grapes fed everyone
during winter food shortages. My burgeoning barbarian kingdom owed
everything to its vineyards. That and the extremely sleepy AI.BOOZY BARBARIANS
Walk your barbarian hordes through
the gates of Rome in AT THE GATES. By Fraser Brown
NOMADS NO MORE Starting your settlement
BRANCHING OUT
Since you only ever get
one settlement, it’s worth
taking a bit of time to find
the perfect spot with
space to expand.THE SETTLERS
Barbarians start off as
nomadic, so before you
put down some roots, you
can pack up and head off
to somewhere better.CLIMATE CHANGE
Maps are randomly
generated, but climates
approximate the real
world, which gives you an
idea of what to expect.MEGALOMANIA
Eventually you’ll be able to
found a kingdom and say
goodbye to nomadic life.
You’re now one step closer
to conquering Rome.At the Gates
REVIEW