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- Systemic Reaction
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- Systemic Reaction
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- Systemic Reaction
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- Systemic Reaction
Ravenbound
Released On: Mar 30, 2023
54
4.3
All Platforms
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
54
10% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
67% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
24% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
54
10% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
67% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
24% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Just don't forget to bring your patience, and your twitch combat skills, you'll need them when the going gets tough, and the tough get... Ravenbound.
Ravenbound is a striking Scandinavian fantasy, and one that’s often a delight to experience. However, this particular open world can often feel too empty and lifeless, relying on a player's thorough involvement in its collection of gameplay ideas to stay engaged.
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 6 User Ratings
4.3
17% Positive
1 Rating
1 Rating
33% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
50% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 6 User Ratings
4.3
17% Positive
1 Rating
1 Rating
33% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
50% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Good-
Nice aesthetic. Combat can feel crunchy at times. Decent enemy variety. Vast world to explore. Guardians are unique enough to fight.
Bad-
No in-game map, which makes revisiting some areas difficult. Points of interest are fairly repetitive with nothing but fighting. Towns are underdeveloped with little to no personality among NPCs. One-note side quests and gameplay loop. Hatred system limits freedom of exploration while unfairly increasing difficulty. Combat gets repetitive quickly, and some mechanics are spotty. Bugs and optimization issues.
Thoughts-
Ravenbound could still very well live up to its potential as a rogue-lite-hack-and-slash-meets-3D-open-world. However, its combat, world design, enemy variety, Hatred system, towns, NPCs, performance, environmental effects and more still need some serious work, and that’s before adding any new mechanics or variety to the gameplay.
Report
PC
Sadly, a series of missteps along the way means it never reaches its true potential and is left languishing behind other more accomplished titles in the genre.
Ravenbound strives to conquer the gaming skies, but its ambitiously fragile bones break underneath the weight of its own unpolished body. The world is an empty shell which desperately needs the mighty soul of some open world God, that will solve repetitive gameplay, technical issues and fill this husk of a world with some actual content, rather than just endless fighting. Neat ideas are here, and the intriguing genre mixing provides a well-deserved breath of fresh air, that unfortunately gets quickly spoiled by frustrating shortcomings.
There is no part of Ravenbound that is absolutely bad – in fact, most of it is a good foundation for a fun roguelike, from its solid combat to its interesting setting and enemies. But so much of Ravenbound feels like it’s either missing a key piece that would elevate it or is just poorly executed, with frustratingly unpredictable loot and obnoxiously obtuse systems. On top of that, it’s infested with bugs that take those issues from disappointing to outright annoying. There’s certainly some fun to be had in Ravenbound, but it’s hard to recommend leaving the nest to find it.
Summing up Ravenbound was a challenge because, despite its flaws, the game isn’t bad and I did have a good time when it worked as intended. However, it’s just badly executed with the lack of missions, explorations, and many frustrating bugs that make Ravenbound hard to recommend. Systemic Reaction are aware of the issues and are actively talking to their community through patch notes to, hopefully, revive this game and make it the fun roguelite it’s asking to be.
Lousy open-world roguelite with a sterile, lifeless game world, weak
combat and ridiculously little content.
The game just doesn't do it for me. While it looks good, it lacks in more important areas, like the gameplay itself. All weapons and armor degrade after each encounter. The mana-crystal-whatever system makes it so that you cannot use the loot you have just picked up, cause you need more of those crystals. Every time you open a chest, your debuf line fills up a little. And after it's filled, you start getting a mandatory permanent debuf after EVERY encounter. I'm not talking "minus 0.5% health", I'm talking "minus 1 equipment slot out of 3 you have in total". Somehow, the game punishes you for playing. Instead of getting stronger, after every encounter, my character kept getting weaker, which felt extremely unsatisfying and frustrating.
As for the gameplay... well, it is just not there for the most part. There are 5 unique types of enemies, and you choose which combination of them to fight. The fight is dynamic and engaging, but, while it was fun for the first hour, I got bored of repeating the same stuff pretty fast.
Cities are just a huge disappointment. They're empty, and serve no real purpose, except "heal for X gold".
All in all, the game is a failure. I wish they would concentrate on making an actual game, instead of an empty shell with graphics. At this point, it is not even a game, just a demo, a "minimal working example" with the very smallest amount of content possible.
Report
PC
Summary Fear everything and nothing for death brings you closer to victory in this challenging open world action-roguelite. As the Vessel of an ancient power you must use steel and skill to complete your mission in a dangerous fantasy world inspired by Scandinavian folklore.
Rated T
for Teen
Platforms:
- PC
Initial Release Date: Mar 30, 2023
Developer:
- Systemic Reaction
Publisher: Systemic Reaction
Genres: