Golden Land (2004). Tell Me More.

[Mr. Magniloquent]

So I've seen screenshots and read anecdotes about this RPG called Golden Land. I've read anecdotally over the past few years that it has a great spell casting system, good adventuring, and good C&C. Is this the case, or is it just eurojank? Has anyone played it? What do you guys think about it?

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I'm curious now too.

 

[Lord_Potato]

We need a proper investigation into this title. It was GoldenLand 2 in Russia, but I believe it was not published in English, only in Russian, Spanish and perhaps some other language.

 

[Lacrymas]

https://uloz.to/!twKDf9rxY/goldenland-coldheaven-rar

Here's the game in Russian, I can't find any info about it even with google. I can't download it from that link, however, because the Germans have decided to be cockblockers and restrict my access to that site.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Dayum, looks pretty.

 

[deama]

Paging Dr.Bester, please tell us more.

 

[Daidre]

There are Golden Land (russian Златогорье 2) and it's standalone expansion Golden Land: Cold Heaven. I played both of them loong time ago. Combat is fallout inspired, TB single char with action points, setting is very Slavic Fantasy but it is not some shitty ARPG. Locations are prerendered 2D, nice music and lot of quests with different approaches. So my childhood memories about this one is much warmer (if vague) than, for example, from ToEE.

Writing was ok in Russian, but I do not know if English version ever existed.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Was there an official English version?

I know Heath: the Unchosen Path (Russian GoldenLand 1) was available in English, I even finished it and posted a short review in Really Obscure RPGs thread, but I never hear about an English release of GoldenLand 2. And Cold Heaven?

 

[Daidre]

Was there an official English version?

I checked some info and answer is no. English version never existed.

There are proper Czech and Spanish translations though.

 

[deama]

Does anyone happen to know how much it would cost for a decent translation of a game?

 

[Old Hans]

youtube has some videos when I searched "golden land 2004"

 

[Old Hans]

its gameplay footage too. So you get the full golden land experience

 

[AdolfSatan]

Can be easily found in russian. If anyone manages to get a link for the spanish translation, I'll play and tell you how it is.

 

[Jinn]

Every few years I see screenshots or read something about this game and get an intense urge to play it. Really wish there was an English translation. Probably never going to happen though.

 

[System]

Is there Spanish version/patch at least? My Spanish is better than my Russian, I could give it a shot.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Every few years I see screenshots or read something about this game and get an intense urge to play it. Really wish there was an English translation. Probably never going to happen though.

it does look damn enticing

 

[Lord_Potato]

I guess the best you can do now is play the prequel: Heath:The Unchosen Path. It's available in English (let's say so) on several shady websites.

 

[V_K]

Quoting myself from the obscure RPGs thread:

Don't regret it, it's abysmal. The whole "gameplay" is just running around between cities doing FedEx quests and fighting random battles on the world map. I'm not exaggerating - there's not a single quest that isn't a fedex, and not a single dungeon in the whole game.

 

[Daidre]

Heath:The Unchosen Path

This one is bad even by "Russian Trash" standards.

 

[Gorn]

What do you guys think about it?

Meme-tier bad.

 

[lightbane]

Is there Spanish version/patch at least? My Spanish is better than my Russian, I could give it a shot.

Yes, I bought it for a very cheap price long ago. Unfortunately, it wasn't very good, I quickly got bored and forgot about it.

 

[dark_savant]

There was an attempt to translate the game into English years ago by some RPG Watch forum member but was abandoned eventually.

https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7506

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

What do you guys think about it?

Meme-tier bad.

Care to elaborate?

 

[Modron]

https://uloz.to/!twKDf9rxY/goldenland-coldheaven-rar

Here's the game in Russian, I can't find any info about it even with google. I can't download it from that link, however, because the Germans have decided to be cockblockers and restrict my access to that site.

The codex had a number of previews and interviews of it back then when it looked like they were going to release it in English but that never happened.

 

[thesecret1]

This game's fucking great, replayed it so many times back around its release. The game's genuinely great, but it got a lot of flak around release, since it starts just mercilessly – you will get your shit pushed in every random encounter and really have to all those non-combat quests and latch onto whichever companion you can (companions are very, very limited and have permadeath, so careful not to get them killed, you will not get them back) in order to just survive and get somewhere. After you get past the starting city, however, you'll start being able to punch back, and the game starts to really shine with its systems – imagine fantasy fallout, basically, but with a lot more focus on combat/magic system instead of non-combat. The game's really big with a wide variety of enemies and locations, and many quests, which I think are one of the game's strongest points. The game has little in the manner of traditional C&C – you don't get to see consequences of your actions all that often (that is not to say there aren't any such situations, though), but many of the quests offer very different ways of solving them and are usually written with good fluff so as to be interesting (which they succeed at, even the most mundane ones).

As for the weakpoints, the game's plot is one of those "fight BBEG which you can only reach by conveniently being dragged throughout the entire game map" and isn't very interesting, but it's not really the kind of game you'd play for the main quest. World reactivity is also very low, so don't expect much on that front.

Overall, it's a good RPG that I could easily see as being counted among Codex classics (probably not the top contender, but a good position in the polls for sure) if only it were translated into English. If you know any Russian, Polish, or Czech, definitely find yourself a copy and give it a spin, I think you won't be disappointed (unless you give up during the early game, but surely Codexers can handle a bit of challenge, right?)