GRAVEN

Long story short - it's unfinished. Or at least, it feels that way. The second chapter is markedly shorter than the first one, and the third is a (exceedingly buggy) joke compared to the first. The map function was obviously removed to help hide this fact. The gameplay isn't that bad, once you get used to (as in, figure out how to deal with, or exploit around) the nonsense Graven keeps throwing at you. But many people don't, understandably, have the patience to deal with ill-designed BS. In its current state, would only recommend buying at at least 70% discount. If the second and third chapters would match the scale and complexity of the first one, I'd be quite content with buying Graven and would even cautiously recommend it. But they don't, so I consider myself ripped off. Lesson learned - wait for the full release next time.

This is an in development review! The atmosphere, visuals and sounds/music works well in all situations and fits the game. Breakable objects, lore and an open world concept keeps the player interested for a while until you die and discover you loose gold because of that. The worst thing is, every time you continue the game after you've turned it off, you'll begin in the same place which is the town centre. It gets really repetitive to make your way from the town killing the same enemies and looking at the same environments while trying to reach the point where you last left off. This is a very pointless mechanic and prevents the player from feeling accomplishment and progression. The controls are really well layed out. They're responsive and its easy to navigate the world and control the main charachter. The weapons are quite underwhelming though, and it´s strange how there isn't a costfree ranged weapon. Having two different attacks with the staff is fun and being able to lauch a powerful kick at your enemies is a fun addition. A big thums up to the ladder mechanics; its really easy and fun climbing up and down ladders. Being an old-school FPS fan I'm not used to such luxurious and problem-free ladder mechanics, but this game does it right 100%. Being able to save whenever you need to, just like in old-school FPS titles which Graven clearly tries to be, would already ramp up the user experience a lot. It's a good this you at least respawn at the latest chechpoint whenever you die. However, sadly you can't geet hooked on a game which every time you turn on your computer and continue the game, forces the player to start way further back than where he left off.

Great first impression. The atmosphere and design seem on point, shooting is fun. But soon, the myriad of issues rears their ugly head. First and foremost - the save system. It's got to be one of the most idiotic decisions ever. You cannot save manually and there are only checkpoints. Dying makes you drop a portion of your gold and respawns you at a nearest checkpoint. The problem? Everything in the world at least partially respawns too and not only when you die, but when you just load the game. Enemies, breakables etc. Completely kills the sense of exploration and just makes it tedious to play at times. You will also always have to run back to where you left off whenever you quite outside the act's "hub", because that is the only place you are allowed to spawn when loading the game. Further compounding the boring, annoying backtracking through repopulated areas over and over. You better be ready to pull very long gaming sessions. Why everybody seems allergic to quick saves these days is beyond me. "Side quests" are also utterly abhorrent. Most of them give you zero clue on what to do other than "run around the entire act and hope you stumble on something, good luck!" Do yourself a favor and look up what to do on Youtube. Or you are going to be wasting hours upon hours just running around aimlessly. The game also gives you a limited hotbar and some items can take multiple slots. Very cool that there are 10+ weapons in the game, but you can only have a couple of them on hotbar. Why this is limited at all is even weirder, because you can just go to a menu (pauses the game) and change the stuff on your hotbar whenever. Just pointless tedium. Lastly, bugs. From minor to game stopping. Getting stuck somewhere means quitting the game, respawning at the hub and wasting time running back (through repopulated areas). As for game breaking, in act 3, a boss fight does not trigger when you save and exit at the wrong time and it bugs the game and you cannot progress. 6/10.

Its greatest sin is how mind numbingly boring it is. What's with the respawns if you quit the game and re-enter? How in the world did it take so many years for _this_ to be the final product?

first impressions were great and the atmosphere really grips you at first, but soon, the horrible design ruins everything. the game employs multiple mechanics it does not really need in such a way that they combine to make the experience as painful as possible. There is no saving system, only checkpoints, so if you run into a tough fight, better hope your last checkpoint is not too far. And better not turn off the game at all, because on restarting the game, you are going to respawn at the starting village, literal miles away from where you quit. So you better remember the way to where you quit. Because there is no map. Oh, and all the monsters along the way respawned. So you might be running out af ammo and health by the time you return to where you quit. The barrels which sometimes drop ammo respawned too, but they mostly give you just mana for your spells. It's tpp bad your spells have only environmental effect which you get to use like two pr three times. Well, at least armors work to ease off the backtracking pain, if you can find them. You always get this glorious info screen about how cool your new armor is. Too bad it eases of your pain fpr about two or three enemy hits. Well, at least you buy some upgrades for your weapons in the village, right? Wrong! You need money, the money you drop to the ground and lose most of every time you die backtracking. Most of locations are full of mysterious fog, which you cannot turn off anywhere and which makes your crosshairs invisible. One exceptions is underwater though. Underwarter, the visibility is so exceptionally bad, you are gonna miss the fog. That about sums the gameplay loop. Do this hundreds of time over, dying to the same 4 types of enemies and backtracking, and that is Graven for you. Minus points for ripping off the Heretic logo design. I want my money back. Do not buy.