When it comes to action RPGs, there are clearly a small number of titles that have come to define the space, followed by a variety of pretenders and games that simply don’t make the mark in general. Whether the issues are tied to poor character design, weak visuals, a lack of meaningful skill variety, or any number of other problems, given the high bar set by the titles at the top like Diablo and some others, this may be one of the tougher genres to break into and find true success with. While I have no doubt that the team behind Gatewalkers had some high aspirations when they started out, the final product is simply lacking in a number of key areas, and is in no way able to compete well with even much older or middling titles out there in the space already.

The most unusual thing about the game is that it honestly just feels like it’s from more than a generation ago, whether that’s because of its odd visual qualities that look very sterile and roughly rendered, or its pretty stiff controls. Given that there’s an emphasis on combat in titles like this, the fact that it feels so clunky is really odd. Your attacks generally feel generic, but worse than that aside from chipping away at enemy health bars they have absolutely no visual or felt impact. You’ll see beams and other visual flourishes from your attacks layered on top of the things you’re attacking, but they show no visible signs of what’s happening, simply continuing to move about or perform their own attacks. While perhaps not every other game out there handles that too differently, I found it very hard to be invested in the combat, simply hitting buttons, watching my cooldowns, and grinding enemies down until they’re dead. Then lather, rinse, and repeat ad nauseum, without a real sense of satisfaction.

There are plenty of other elements that also don’t work very convincingly or well, further undermining opportunities for turning things around. The voice acting is flat and generally awful, typically delivered in a monotone manner and making me wonder whether they would have been better off just having text on the screen. The game also feels like it’s in a time warp for smaller details like simply picking things up off the ground, with it taking a few seconds every time you pick something up, while many titles in this vein moved to more instantaneous pick-ups a few versions ago in the name of not consistently wasting people’s time on absolutely nothing over and over again. I don’t have a great desire to simply continue beating up on the game, but being honest, while there’s a game here you can play through, it just comes up short in so many areas it’s just a struggle to find enjoyment in it.

Since I typically try to find silver linings in games, no matter how dark the storm clouds around them may be, Gatewalkers proved to be quite a challenge. It isn’t that the game is technically deficient, it is playable, doesn’t seem to be particularly buggy, and if you’re patient you could possibly find it enjoyable. All that said, it doesn’t seem to be conscious of the competition that’s already out there that has set the standard, or it’s possible that they just decided to release what they’d put together as-is, hoping people will go easy on it. My problem is that I can think of games in the genre released decades ago that were better designed and more engaging, even removing the clunky aesthetics. This game is just very hard to recommend.