Giants Uprising — Is it worth it?

The very concept of a game where you play as a giant that goes around smashing human settlements and decimating armies is a great one. There aren’t many games that have attempted anything like it, but Giants Uprising is taking a hearty stab at it all the same. The game has entered Early Access, bringing with it tons of carnage and ruined settlements. The game is set to spend six to 12 months in development before its full release and there’s a lot of content and polish that will be piped in down the line. But the question stands: is Giants Uprising worth it in Early Access, or should you let this giant sleep?

Giants Uprising begins with a giant in captivity. Giants were betrayed and enslaved by humanity, and the main character is being held and forced to fight in gladiatorial battles against other giants. But, their tiny human friend doesn’t want to be a prisoner anymore and comes up with a brilliant escape plan: to just leave. The game’s opening mission quite literally has you breaking down doors and exiting the prison. You escape easily, so I’m unsure as to what’s keeping these giants contained in the first place. The humans can barely fight them, so I can’t imagine why the main character allowed himself to stay captured.

The game gets off on a bit of a wrong foot, as it starts with a gladiatorial battle. Combat against other giants isn’t something that I saw much of in my time with the game and this is a good thing, as it was quite poor. Your giant can punch, block, slam the ground with his fists, stomp on the ground, pick up and use (or throw) weapons, and dodge. Fighting other giants mostly sees you waiting for your opponent to strike, blocking, and then punching them in the head until they go to attack again.

They look like ants from up here

The problems in Giants Uprising are noticeable right away. For one, this game has some of the worst performance imaginable. I can run the likes of Ubisoft’s games at 60 fps no problem, but, even after lowering the settings and the resolution, I was often getting 20 fps here. On top of that, the gameplay is sluggish and janky. The giant has a stamina meter, which was a poor choice. Fighting anything and even moving from point A to point B feels like a chore. The game design itself is also rather archaic, feeling like a game from the early ’00s.

Even though the performance is so ghastly, Giants Uprising doesn’t look good. You don’t feel like a giant. You feel normal-sized, while everything else seems miniature. The game is broken up into levels and you follow markers until you get to the end. Markers tell you to destroy specific things or kill a certain number of enemies. The game can be compelling at times, as the human forces are huge, and smashing them to pieces while throwing weapons to demolish catapults is pretty metal. But, due to the awful framerate, poor controls, and ancient graphics, it’s hard to stay enthused.

Your giant honestly takes too much damage and takes it too quickly. Due to this, the gameplay feels like a mad rush to break as much as you can simply to stay alive, as smashing things heals you. But, the controls are so unresponsive that whether or not the giant did what I wanted him to was up in the air. Giants Uprising reminds me of Drakengard, but without the good story. If the game’s performance and controls are sufficiently improved, there could be fun to be found here in time, but Giants Uprising simply isn’t worth it in its state, as the game doesn’t appear to be ready to play by any means.