Goblins of Elderstone Steam Demo Review
Verdict: Maybe
A goblin tribe city builder with burrow tunnels worth building and skeleton raids you can mostly ignore. I am glad I tri
Someone recommended Goblins of Elderstone to me. I played the demo before buying it. That turned out to be the right call. Goblins of Elderstone is a goblin tribe city builder from Outerdawn. You collect resources, craft materials, assign goblins to buildings, and defend your base from skeleton attacks. I put about two hours into the demo slice. My verdict is Maybe.
Goblins of Elderstone is a serviceable goblin colony sim with one genuinely good map idea in the burrow tunnels and a skill-matching layer that looks smarter than it plays in the demo. I kept going for two hours without a clear finish line, which says something about the theme, but skeleton raids, pathing, and buried menus kept pulling it back to Maybe. Try the demo first. Buy only if goblin chaos is the specific itch you want at this price.
Pros
- Resource chains from raw materials to crafted goods give the colony sim loop a proper spine for a two-hour demo session
- Burrow tunnels matter when resources are spread out and the surface gets dangerous, and that is the standout layout decision in the slice
- Goblin skill matching is a sensible idea on paper and is easy to understand once you find the assignment screen
- Trying the demo before purchase was the right move; the slice is enough to judge whether the theme hooks you
Cons
- Optimising goblin assignments did not change outcomes enough between a careful run and a random one in my session
- Goblin assignment is buried in the trade hall instead of living on the main building UI where you need it
- Automatic pathing makes dumb routing decisions you cannot easily undo, and tribe-wide priorities are awkward without per-goblin micromanagement
- Skeleton attacks did not feel threatening when ignored, so the Survival defence layer barely registered
- No strong sense of long-term goal or milestone to build toward in the demo slice
- At ~$20 full price, better depth and control exists elsewhere in the genre at a similar or lower ask
Goblins, skills, and a loop that looks deeper than it is
Each goblin has three skill ratings. Buildings perform better when you match them to goblins skilled in the relevant area. On paper that is an interesting layer of optimisation.
In practice I started doing it properly on my first run, then randomly assigned goblins on my second and got basically the same result. The Simulation layer wants you to care about individual goblins. The returns did not change enough in my session to make the micromanagement feel mandatory.
There is a decent range of resources to manage and a chain that moves from raw materials to more complex crafted items. That keeps the colony sim loop serviceable even when the optimisation layer under-delivers.
Burrows and map layout
My favourite building was the burrows. Tunnels let goblins travel safely underground between areas of the map. Resources are spread out and the surface can get dangerous, so having that underground network actually mattered.
That is the kind of Strategy decision I wanted more of: layout that changes how you move goods and people, not just another production queue with goblin faces on it. When the map forced me to think about where tunnels connected and which nodes were worth linking, the game clicked. When I was back in menus trying to find goblin assignments, it did not.
Skeleton raids and control problems
The skeleton attacks never felt threatening in the two hours I played. I mostly ignored them and nothing bad happened. For a game that sells base defence as part of the pitch, that is a problem. Survival pressure only works if ignoring it eventually hurts.
Maybe later waves or higher difficulties punish that laziness. In the demo session I had, the raids felt like background noise rather than a reason to rebuild my layout or reassign guards.
What the game is also missing is depth of control. Goblin assignment exists but it is buried in the trade hall rather than on the main building screen, so finding it takes longer than it should. Pathing is automatic and sometimes makes poor decisions you cannot easily undo. Controlling what your whole tribe prioritises without micromanaging every single goblin is frustrating. There is also no clear sense of what you should be building toward, which is a strange feeling in a Strategy colony sim where a next milestone on the horizon usually keeps you going.
Price and verdict
At the time I played, Steam sat at about seventy percent mostly positive from just over three hundred reviews. I am kind of in line with that. It is a serviceable colony sim with a goblin skin I did not hate spending time with.
The problem is price. The full game costs about twenty dollars. For an extra ten you can buy Timberborn, which I already have thirty-five hours in. Timberborn beats this in depth of control and aesthetic by a significant margin at that comparison point. I am glad I tried the demo before spending money on the full release.
Maybe from me if you love the genre and the goblin theme specifically appeals. Otherwise there are better options at this price.
Game Info
- Developer
- Outerdawn, Lost Goblin
- Publisher
- Outerdawn
- Released
- 8 March 2023
- Full game
- Out now ($19.99)
- Platform
- PC
- Multiplayer
- No
- Controller
- No
- Playtime
- 2h
Watch the video review: YouTube
Tags: Strategy, Simulation, Survival, Indie, City Builder, Base Builder, Management, Colony Sim, Tower Defense, Cute
Related Reviews
- Feudal Craft: a medieval colony sim that almost lost me in the first hour and then took my second. the peasants are the problem.
- Blighthold: A Lovecraftian dieselpunk city builder with strong art and Frostpunk-ish pressure on a flat 2D strip, but the demo fough
- A Little Age: A cozy village builder where your workers walk supplies home on little legs, the temple drains what you send, and the la
- Powerplay: A Command & Conquer-style RTS with light Factorio belts, stealth bombers that delete your own army on the first drop, an
- BEACONFALL: BEACONFALL clicked once I learned the villager controls: build a lighthouse settlement, automate the economy, then watch
- Stamperor! The Jester's Decree: A goblin jester stamp-em-up where running out of accept stamps is how you accidentally donate thirty-two villagers to ba