Graveyard Keeper

This would have been a fantastic game, and I spent the time to complete it. Unfortunately in the later half of the game you begin to realize how much they left out. It seems like they finished half the game, if that, then decided to give up and make a quick ending. A lot of ideas in the game that are never followed through.

The game could be awesome, but everything you do is so stupidly and unnecessarily convoluted. Plus, the game literally throws stones at you at every occassion. Finally you figure out how to actually earn money, BAM, primary route blocked off. Sometimes you have to research technologies in a very, very specific way not to get stuck for ages, but does anybody tell you? Nope, of course not. This game is the best example of how to unnecessarily overcomplicate every single step. Example: 5X = 2Y, but 2Y doesn't do anything on itelf. So you have to take the 2Y and turn them into 4Z per Y, and every Z needs to be used on something else to gain two "blue tech" per instance. Why make it so stupidly overengineered? Just make it so that X directly translates into Z. Also, the game starts out with bombarding the player with "Do this for XYZ", but 95% of all these tasks cannot be completed unless you do dozens of other stuff first. How is that not the most stupid quest design ever? Imagine that EVERY quest in any cRPG would start out something like "Fetch apple for old guy" just to find out in order to do that you need: 1.) Learn farming. 2.) Learn botanics. 3.) Plough field which you need to buy first. 4.) Find sapplings and fertilizer. 5.) Grow the actual bloody tree. 6.) Wait a season. 7.) Finally get apple. 8.) Deliver the thing just to find out, that the dude won't accept it unless you stamp it with a special royal stamp. 9.) Try to buy royal stamp, which costs 30 Silvers (You get 1,5 silver for every corpse buried). 10.) Find out that no new corpses will arrive, because the resident communist talking donkey won't bring them (yes, all of that is literally in the game) UNLESS you grow carrots (5 per body) for him AND oil the wheels of his cart. 11.) Learn how to bloody make oil, which is a high end tech. If that sounds dumb, then because it probably is. Which is why I am probably never gonna play this game again. Too many unnecessary hoops.

The below is in reference to the base game as it is sold as of 2019. Graveyard Keeper offers a unique concept and some interesting gameplay; however, the implementation is lacking and certain missing Quality of Life aspects make the game painful to play. Carrying large items long distances gets old very quick, limited inventory space is crippling and impedes progression often. Quest objectives are very unclear without the help of a wiki. I have no clue how I would understand certain crafting recipes without the help of a 3rd party tool. Navigating menus is clunky, and the lack of keyboard macros makes repeated crafting (very necessary at times) just plain painful. Tasks do become easier with time, but certain basic actions (Processing corpses, crafting) are still a drag to gameplay. Another observation is the absolute grind the late game is. There is a certain objective that multiple quests rely on that will take a lot of real-time work to attain. It's not all bad: The Daily event cycle adds interesting requirements of the player, the plot and core actions of the player are unique and fun, the crafting system is simple, but offers a lot for you to make. Art style is consistent and tone is evenly dark throughout. If these drawbacks are something you can put up with, dive in to this fun little game. But be warned that long term play can be tedious.

The game has a good humor, no doubt. Though also appreciated the tutorial. It's really helpful. Will not engage into stuff about the story etc. it's written all up already. I will not spoil too. The game currently suffers (on my end) from save file corruption. I would be forced to play this game again to the point where I am right now (~2/3 done). Problem is 1. it has a continuous one-save system and 2. you can not save via a menu, but you need to "sleep" (find a bed). The game is very grindy and you have to get a lot of resources for different applications. The NPCs bug, means some NPCs are not spawning on their respective ingame day. So you are not able to progress the story or gain access to a closed areas. For me very frustrating. The price is OK, but the bugs make it a hard pill to swallow.

I had gotten this game near (or maybe on?) it's release. It had a rough start, with some basic things that felt unfinished. HOWEVER! It's a rather good game, now! I'm playing it at a leisurly pace (near 28ish hours so far) and it's a great time sink. it's not a hand-holdy game. Most, if not all of everything, you're going to need to figure out for yourself. My first roughly four hours with it was a lot of fumbling about, trying to figure out what went where, did what, what I should do, where I should take things. It's very much trial and error, with a lot of busy work in between. The combat in it's segments is... passable. It's something I avoid when I can unless the game decides I *need* to, or X or Y object is easier to get in the dungeon segments. But it plays well, I still have fun with it, and I'm really looking forward into digging into the game again! Some points of improvement (which could also act as advice for playing) would certainly be a checklist. It would be nice to have a space in-game, like a note pad, where one can keep small notes on what they might need. Of course, a pen and paper by your side does the job just as well! There really isn't anything like making it across the map, then completely forgetting what you actually needed to make. I gave this 4/5 but *be aware* that it can be a very tedious - and again trial-and-error - type of game at times. While that's fine for me, it may not be everyone's cup of tea.