At the Gates Reviews
At The Gates is a fresh, invigorating, more personal take on the grand strategy game, but a lacking late-game holds it back from greatness.
Should Jon Shafer's At the Gates be judged for what it is now, or what it has the potential to become? The experience is hamstrung by glitches, oversights, and unfinished systems, but playing a 4X game from the perspective of the barbarians remains a fantastic concept and some of that Civilization “one more turn” allure is still intact. Forgiving types may want to give At the Gates a try now, but most others should probably leave the game out in the cold until a few updates are released.
At the Gates could have an extremely good 4X but as things stand there’s just way too many fundamental oversights to ever recommend it.
Jon Shafer’s At the Gates has some pretty amazing ideas, but the problem is that those ideas will not reach their true potential. Injecting different features and elements into the game has made the gameplay complicated and the slow process of gameplay makes the game frustrating.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Bursting with ideas on how to revolutionize the 4X Genre, At The Gates demise lies in its poor execution, lackluster AI and what it seems to be an endless list of bugs.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
For those who do understand their 4X genre, however, At The Gates will come across as a breath of fresh air. It's a ground-up rethink on how the genre can work, and what the 4X might look like as applied to the many cultures and civilizations out there that didn't have the imperialist intent that most 4X titles assume. For that, it's one of the most interesting strategy games I've played in years.
At the Gates tries some ambitious new ideas that, in time, may leave a mark on the 4X genre. But today, it's far too broken to recommend.