Open the Gate: Just A Little is not from the perspective of Rover, the neighbourhood-friendly dog who wants an overview of the world outside, but from Tom’s request to his buxom neighbour so he can also have, ahem, a peek. It’s a request made by a group of medieval invaders. Or is it from your team asking their counterparts to invade them?
It’s a simple approach: You have two castles, one yours, the other the enemy’s, and you produce troops to defend yours, while balancing out the offensive and attacking theirs. There are no structures to build, though it has close ties to tower defence; instead, there is automated gold production that allows investment in recruits.
A repeat of the term simple, if you will allow it, but those are the fundamentals, as you need to create soldiers to defend your gate, then storm the enemy’s. The castles in Open the Gate: Just A Little naturally have health. When the gauge has depleted, it will fall into the abyss. Your castle doesn’t automatically crumble, as an enemy has to cross the threshold, giving you a teeny loophole. However, I’m yet to win a skirmish using this ‘seat of my pants’ scenario.
There is a wealth of units available, and there’s effectively a new one per stage to have better bells and whistles, a.k.a. attack power and defence – the caveat being cost. You can upgrade the production and how many units are available, though these costs increase and also leave you exposed to an attack, as you can’t create any new units. That said, succeed in this, and your gold production will speed up and give you a slight edge.
One of the hardest things about Open the Gate: Just A Little is the boss units that jump into an attack wave, or will be summoned when you bring the enemy’s castle to critical health. These hero units, which you will eventually win, are giant-sized (normal-sized when you deploy them) and have a stupid amount of health. Your crew can do a reasonable amount of damage to them, though while you’re holding them back with a shitty stick, their lesser units keep spawning and sometimes make it impossible to come back from a very one-sided campaign.
There are two options here, and they ultimately lead to grinding. It’s possible to replay previous stages at any time in the hope that you can win one of your already owned units, though upgraded. They are colour-coded based on value, and a stats comparison screen detailing whether they are better than your existing unit or not. Fortunately, you don’t have to accept them if they aren’t good enough, but unlock the better versions of your units and you have a slight edge.
The next option is repeating levels – notably the more recent ones – for XP. Unfortunately, this is a slow process, typically earning 1XP at a time when you might need at least 12 to be able to make a difference. A rather generous skill tree then lets you improve everything from attack speed to gold production, along with castle health. All of these do indeed make a difference in the long run, but they’re also very subtle.
In other words, while Open the Gate: Just A Little is a fun and accessible game, progress can be slow and monotonous. The typical pattern stems from those enemy hero units that take an age to kill, sap your gold as you have to keep producing units, but more so, those bloody archers that pick you off from a distance. The upside is you can move your formations forward to attack, but when there’s a large unit, you’re either blocked or forced to defend them; otherwise, you won’t have a castle to call home.
Yes, the upgrades in Open the Gate: Just a Little can be good and add to the replay value, and there are countdown-enabled skills that can decimate lesser enemies, though once again, you really need to invest in those improved skills to have a chance. I quite liked it. It had an old school vibe to it like Worms or MS-DOS Gorillas. Just be forewarned that for its simplicity, there’s a fair amount of repetition, so likely this will be more a casual approach for most who want to dip in now and then for a sneaky peek.
