Gorgon Shield is a brand new arcade roguelike that incorporates top down survival defense with side scrolling dungeon crawling and roguelike elements for you to enjoy again and again. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.

Gorgon Shield Review Overview

What is Gorgon Shield?

Gorgon Shield is a unique arcade RPG that blends a top down strategy, side scrolling dungeon crawling, and roguelike mechanics all in one game. The game is a replayable grind to get to the top of the tower in classic roguelike fashion, where you enter the tower, get as high above as you can, and repeat it all over again while carrying over the gold that you’ve gathered during your playthrough.

Gorgon Shield features:
　⚫︎　 Unique blend of genres all in one arcade action strategy roguelike RPG!
　⚫︎　 10 different playable heroes
　⚫︎　 Defend the shield against waves of enemies until the time runs out
　⚫︎　 Use the spoils gathered by your expendable heroes to strengthen your heroes
　⚫︎　 Fast-paced gameplay loop with different possible party synergies

For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Gorgon Shield's gameplay and story.

Gorgon Shield
Steam

Gorgon Shield Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
The Most Unique Arcade Roguelike RPG Healthy Variety of Playable Heroes Gameplay Loop is Satisfying	Difficulty Spikes Labyrinth Balancing Luck is a Factor

Gorgon Shield Overall - 76/100

If there was a prize for the most unique game of 2024, Gorgon Shield would most likely be the one to win it. With its cartoony pixelated visuals, 8-bit music, and a great variety of heroes to make different party combinations, the game complements its already unique gameplay loop by making everything in theme with its arcade-y nature. However, the game has issues with difficulty spikes, especially early on, along with balancing the labyrinth and RNG mechanics with regards to progression.

Gorgon Shield Story - 5/10

The game barely has a story to tell, as even the tutorial just pushes you into the thick of it within seconds. You take control of expendable heroes to take on Medusa at the top of the tower, then meet their ends to make your next run easier through upgrades. There’s not much else to say other than considering that the whole quest isn’t really explained through in-game text or lore.

Gorgon Shield Gameplay - 9/10

Gorgon Shield has the most unique auto battle strategy sequence where it involves your party of four heroes atop a giant shield that you can rotate around. There’s a lot going on in this fast paced strategy game, but then you get thrown a curveball where you have to navigate a side scrolling dungeon, which leads to the boss of the tower that you’re currently in. The game has a lot of mechanics to consider, as well as the decisions you have to make when levelling up your heroes. However, its uniqueness also comes at a cost, as some gameplay elements like the side scroller dungeon crawling, balancing, and randomness of the progression and rewards lead to unfortunate events.

Gorgon Shield Visuals - 8/10

The game is built to look like an old arcade game with its 8-bit visuals and cartoony aesthetic, which fits right in with the whole theme of the game. The animations in the game are also quite smooth and nice to look at, especially with the visuals of the heroes interacting with the different panels during gameplay.

Gorgon Shield Audio - 6/10

The overall audio design isn’t particularly memorable, but it does fit thematically into the game’s aesthetic. The 8-bit music and the voice acting for the game’s narration remind you of the older arcade games back in the day.

Gorgon Shield Value for Money - 10/10

For $9, the game offers a unique experience while having a few hours of fun along the way. It’s a very unique game with a bit of replayability, especially since the game is a roguelike. The variety that the game offers with the number of playable heroes, team compositions, and random runs is quite impressive, and at such a low cost, it’d be a nice addition to the library when you want a simple arcade game to play.

Gorgon Shield Review: The Most Unique Arcade Roguelike!

Gorgon Shield is quite literally an example of what being different looks and plays like. It immediately reminds you of a classic arcade game the moment it starts and doesn’t waste time getting started as well, since the tutorial immediately gets you in on the action without wasting any time.

At the start, it plays like a survival defense game, where it plays like auto battler while you rotate the platform, which is a giant shield in this case, and the heroes you control will attack automatically on the corresponding platform. Rotating the shield will put the hero on a platform that will make them do a different action, like the melee platform, which will both defend the shield and let your hero take a swing against the enemies that are on that platform.

The shield also plays a big role in your survival, as every few seconds you could use the shield’s rune ability to help you in your defense. This could be changed in future runs when you start getting different runes to add to your shield, which will then increase your chances of survival. In addition to this, the game also has a color matching weakness mechanic, which functions similarly to Fire Emblem’s weapon triangle.

While the tutorial itself already explains the game concisely and quite well, the game immediately starts the action, and it’ll honestly click for you quite early. However, it becomes obvious that the game is out to kill you as soon as possible, as it’ll take a few upgrades in the town hub to get higher in the tower. It doesn’t necessarily take long to completely farm up the gold to unlock heroes, as most of your gold will go into upgrading their starting levels and strengthening their effectiveness on specific platforms.

When you get to the level right before the boss, you will be exploring the game’s next genre which suddenly makes the game into a side scrolling dungeon crawler. It’s also quite simple, as you only really need to look for the exit in the dungeon. In addition to this, the labyrinth layouts aren’t necessarily complex to figure out as well, as you will have more than enough time to explore most of the labyrinth before the time limit expires.

You might be thinking that the game is quite complex after reading this review, but in reality, the game is pretty much the opposite on the surface. It’s a simple game that involves auto battling roguelike strategy which is converted to a digestible arcadey form. It’s quite a different experience since the whole theme and aesthetic of the game obviously points that the game is an arcade game for you to enjoy.

It’s not a game with a compelling story, but a game that’s there for you to enjoy mindless repetitive fun and at a really low price point too!

Pros of Gorgon Shield

Things Gorgon Shield Got Right
The Most Unique Arcade Roguelike RPG Healthy Variety of Playable Heroes Gameplay Loop is Satisfying

The Most Unique Arcade Roguelike RPG

This game is most likely going to be a new experience for you, even for gamers that have a sizable backlog like we do. The gameplay is different in the sense that it functions like a fast-paced strategy RPG that functions like a survival defense game. At the penultimate stage of the tower, you arrive at a dungeon level, which transforms the game into a side scroller where you have to find the exit before the time runs out. There’s quite a lot to unpack in the game, even if its quite simple mechanically.

Healthy Variety of Playable Heroes

There are a total of ten playable heroes that you can unlock and use, and up to four in a party. There’s quite a lot of synergies and team compositions to consider, especially when you’re trying to optimize the gains and progress you’re trying to get for each run.

Gameplay Loop is Satisfying

The gameplay loop is very satisfying to say the least, it's pretty quick to learn and also as quick for you to do another run. You go in the tower, get some gold, progress as high as you can, collect runes for you to equip to the shield, inevitably get your heroes killed, then repeat the process all over again. While it's unique for the most part, it doesn't necessarily do anything different when it comes to the roguelike genre. That doesn't mean it isn't fun for how it is, however, as the game is quite enjoyable for you to just keep playing.

Cons of Gorgon Shield

Things That Gorgon Shield Can Improve
Difficulty Spikes Labyrinth Balancing Luck is a Factor

Difficulty Spikes

The game has quite a jump in difficulty, especially when the game isn’t really that forgiving to begin with. Starting out, you have two heroes to play with at first, and in addition to this, you’re going to have to unlock the rest of the other heroes. While this won’t necessarily last too long, it’s quite hard to progress the game at first when you get to the next stage of the game which introduces you to more of the combat mechanics, specifically the color weaknesses. The game gets smoother when you get your party to three heroes, then eventually up to four heroes, but you’re going to have to keep repeating the start until then.

Labyrinth Balancing

While the concept of the game becoming a side scrolling dungeon crawler is novel, the balancing is quite off. The biggest complaint we have with regards to the labyrinth is that the party doesn’t do ranged attacks while exploring, and while they do melee attacks, this would mean that your party could potentially get damaged during the scuffle. This, in particular, led us to create party compositions fit with skills that nuke multiple enemies so that we don’t end up wasting too much hit points right before the boss.

Luck is a Factor

One of the biggest problems that we encountered was that RNG could quite literally be your downfall when trying to progress. While you could work around being unlucky, especially when the skills that you use in your party could be nullified, trying to get around this early on is quite difficult. It’s not a major deterrent to playthroughs, but running into a tower that shuts down one of your heroes is something you’ll have to grapple with.

Is Gorgon Shield Worth It?

Worth to Experience a Unique Roguelike!

For a low, low price of $9, the game offers a very unique twist to the roguelike genre by having an arcade game fitted with side scrolling dungeon crawling, survivor defense, and strategy involved. It’s not the most compelling game that you’ll have in your library, but it will most likely be your most unique one. This is one of the games that you’ll want to play when you just want to enjoy a different experience without the complexity to think about too much.

Digital Storefront
Steam
$9

Gorgon Shield FAQ

What are the System Requirements to play Gorgon Shield?

The System Requirements are as follows:

Game8 Reviews

You may also like...

	Sword of Convallaria Gameplay and Story Info | Everything We Know So Far
	Stormgate Gameplay and Story Info | Everything We Know So Far
	Visions of Mana Review [Demo] | A Promising and Stunning Return
	Deathless Review [Early Access] | Slightly Different Survivors
	Mists of Noyah Review [Switch] | It's Good, When It Works

Gorgon Shield Product Information

Title	GORGON SHIELD
Release Date	July 29, 2024
Developer	Whiskeybarrel Studios
Publisher	2 Left Thumbs, Gamersky Games
Supported Platforms	PC (Steam)
Genre	Strategy, Action, Roguelite
Number of Players	1
ESRB Rating	RP
Official Website	Gorgon Shield Official Website

Michael Gerra-Clarin

Resident fighting game nerd, avid FFXIV fan, and enjoyer of mostly anything gaming. Currently, he is enjoying Dawntrail as a Viper, while dying to Messmer's flames in Shadow of the Erdtree.