When I saw the announcement of the release of the new Passtech Games title, I was immediately intrigued. The independent roguelike game from the same studio, Curse of the Dead Gods, enchanted me. To this day, I still think it’s one of the best indie titles out there. So when I heard they were releasing another roguelike (Ravenswatch) inspired by a macabre take on myth and fairy tales instead of an Aztec aesthetic, I was very excited and excited to see what the creators were doing. .
Unfortunately, this game is not the worthy successor I expected. Always. Indeed, it is currently in Early Access, which means that there will be many changes before it reaches version 1.0 (the “release state”). However, since you have to pay to be able to play it now, I’m not going to hold back. I say this because Ravenswatch has very clear issues in almost every aspect of it.
The first thing is that it has no type of plot or plot development. You have to work really hard to understand the universe you’re in and why you should care, so it’s a big disappointment, especially since Ravenswatch is full of gruesome and crude fairy tale characters that I would like . More information.
Currently there are six characters and each is inspired by a myth from different parts of the world. We have the Scandinavian Beowulf, the Germanic Pied Piper, the French Scarlet (Little Red Riding Hood) and many more. Each character works completely differently from the others. For example, Aladdin is a melee fighter with a scimitar that’s great for slicing through enemies, while the Snow Queen works best as a support character that keeps opponents at bay. Character design is the highlight of the title, but the problem is that none of them are very fun to play.
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Indeed, Ravenswatch has a serious problem with difficulty and level design. The concept is that you have to enter a level and defeat enemies on world boss difficulty after just three days of play. Before that, the player is encouraged to explore and eliminate enemies that roam the area to acquire experience and find loot that will help him in the main fight. The problem is, these minor enemies are so deadly and the combat so slow that you’re hopelessly destined to die. Therefore, since it is also not interesting to explore the map, you quickly lose interest.
Ravenswatch is a pure roguelike, so when you die (up to four times on each try if you’re playing solo), you have to start over from the beginning. The system isn’t satisfying at all and because the gameplay is so slow and even frustrating, you end up losing the urge to keep trying in hopes of defeating the boss and advancing to the second level (and then having to repeat the same process again for the third level, and continue until more content is added).
It’s true that Ravenswatch is much better when you team up with a few friends, but that also doesn’t eliminate the aforementioned bugs and doesn’t make the experience perfect. Also, in co-op, some progression and difficulty issues are temporarily hidden, but only if you have a very competent and close-knit team (because there’s not much room for error).
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The game will likely improve in six months, a year, or even longer as Early Access receives updates, balance tweaks, and additional content. At the moment, it’s not the great successor to Curse of the Dead Gods that I was hoping for.