Graveyard Keeper

This game might seem a little frustrating from the start. Although you are a graveyard keeper, digging graves and burying bodies is not your only chore. To improve your graveyard and progress through the game you need to unlock new technologies. And the only way to do it is work. You need to cut down the trees, mine for the stone and other resources to gain skill points for your skill tree. And that is just the beginning. You will get to activities like farming, cooking, masonry, fishing, brewery, harvesting body organs, alchemy, beekeeping, fighting in dungeons... And everything is essential for overall progress through the game. Quests are connected, so in order to finish one quest, first you need to finish the other and so on. Being a graveyard keeper is more complex that it seems! That's why game requires a lot of grinding, running around a map and collecting resources. This is why it might be little overwhelming from the start. However, once you "get" into the game and you don't mind grinding, it can be satisfying experience. There is no deadline. You can take as much time with your tasks as you want, you don't need to rush anywhere. The game has certain charm for me. I can't name what it is. Maybe the pixelated graphics or lovely dark humour, who knows. The game is not for everybody. But if you're looking for something more relaxing you can bury many hours into, you don't mind grind and can overlook its flaws (boring dungeons, harsh economy system, sometimes confusing what to do/where to find certain items in order to progress the story, too long gameplay if you intend to finish the game), give it a try.

What it is, is production chain builder in disguise. With original story and a lot of humour! You are not going to find stats or any RPG typical elements in it. Instead one gains abilities along the way. Progress is unlocked with unique 'experience points', gained through simply doing stuff. And there is no rush. You can play the game at your own pace. I've noticed, some complain about lack of explanations / full tutorial, but for me, discovery is the inherent part of the experience. I simply like to figure things out on my own! And once you find yourself in the hard spot - use online wiki. Game of Crone and Stranger Sins highly recommended! Unfortunately review system, doesn't give this game fair judgement. Currently 20+ hours into the game, all is great. Game is stable and I haven't encountered even single bug. It's matured a lot since initial release. I think, once game hits Full Release, all 'development stage' reviews, should have been disregarded by the rating system. This one should be at least 4.5 star one!

+Good art style +Addictive grinding +Plenty of character -Too much grinding -How to go about completing some quests step-by-step is often obfuscated -Have to keep a wiki open mid-late game -Needless complexity -Automation of tasks is more work than its worth -Way too much travel/walking time -Combat dungeon is too easy and feels tacked on Although I spent a whole weekend unable to stop playing this game, I eventually realized that the game wasn't respecting my time at all; a lot of time is spent walking from place to place, and the high cooldown fast travel item doesn't help enough. As much as I want to keep playing, I don't feel like the rewards for progress add up mid-late game, and I'm going to be moving on to other relaxing gaming experiences with less needless complexity.

It’s a wonderful game on the surface, especially for the first few hours, but then it becomes bogged down in mindless, insane grind with far too much needless travel, over complicated crafting, and a really rough UI. You can technically play this with a controller but you won’t want to. I don’t think I’ve ever had to check a wiki more to understand the 5 level deep ingredient mix on something that is so deeply pointless. It’s gorgeous, with great writing and theme, but it’s just far too over engineered to be fun unless you really like just wasting time.

I bought it with the content DLCs so this review reflects the complete experience. I came into it wanting a long, Stardew Valley-like experience and that is exactly what I got. The thing is, when I finished it, it felt like there was a lot more I could do (didn't reach the bottom of the dungeon, didn't fully automate production, didn't fill the cemetary with bodies) but I had reached the end of the plot content so I had no more sticks to chase. I had more of everything than I knew what to do with it and there was really no point in continuing. The end of the game teases going to Town but sadly doesn't actually take you there so I assume that's where Graveyard Keeper 2 (if it is ever made) is going. I admit, I looked immediately to see if that sequel existed and sadly it does not. TL;DR: if you like relatively relaxing chore games like Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley, give this a go. The graveyard element of it is just a unique twist to the genre's mechanics that is very well done.