Raven's Cry [Game Review]
Game: Raven's Cry
Developer: Reality Pump
Publisher: TopWare Interactive
Platform: PC
Copy supplied by developer
So, Raven's Cry. A game that currently has a 30 on Metacritic and 31% on Steam. This is gonna be a good one.
Okay. So, Raven's Cry is an Action RPG by Reality Pump, developers of Two Worlds 1 and 2, and is set in the Caribbean of the 17th Century.
STORY
You play as the "Dread Pirate" Christopher Raven, as he goes on a quest to find the men responsible for the murder of his family. On your journey, you will also meet a lot of side characters, which incorporate all the lovely stereotypes that you can imagine, like RACISM and MISOGINY, with every female character being a prostitute.
As you can probably can imagine, the story is pretty much shit, and, just like in Two Worlds, you'll find yourself mashing the Skip button just to get to some action. The side quests are either really short and stupid or really long and pointless.
The pathetic story gets a 3.
GRAPHICS
Holy shit does this game perform like crap!! Not only do the graphics look outdated and worse than the ones in Two Worlds, but the performance... Holy shit! If you are lucky, you will get 50 constant FPS when inside somewhere, otherwise you will get some of the biggest frame drops ever. Just look here. Does this look playable to you? No? Well, that's because it isn't, also because it crashed randomly for a total of 5 times!
The environments are uninspired and the only character model that looks good is the main character's. All the others are incredibly unpolished.
This terrible graphics get a 3 as well.
GAMEPLAY
Oh boy, there's a lot to talk about in here. Let's start with the basic controls. While moving through the environments works fairly well, the jump is complete shit. It is exactly like in the original Castlevania games: you can't change your direction mid-air. You will find yourself falling many many times when you don't want to. The combat consists mainly of sword-fighting, and by that I mean mashing the light attack button so that your enemy can't recover in time to block you. You can also shoot or kick, but that's just a waste of energy.
You can upgrade your equipment and ship by finding the right merchant in the towns. While the equipment for your character is pretty bland, upgrading your ship does bring many perks. However, the game's economy is really bad, with some items being incredibly cheap, and others really expensive.
As with most pirate games out there, the most interesting part should be exploring with your ship the Seven Seas and ambushing Spanish schooners. Well, that isn't really what happens here: you can only control your ship when you are in battle. And naval combat is bad. Really bad. You have three types of projectiles to use in order to weaken the hull, the crew or the flags of the other ship. You can aim by using the mouse scroll, but you will miss your mark most of the time. You can also try and board the ship by completing a weird boarding process that is never explained well.
While I was playing this game, I was downloading Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Sid Meier's Pirates! and Pirates of the Caribbean, which are infinitely better pirate games. The poor gameplay gets a 5, because it does have a lot of potential if fixed.
CHALLENGE
This game is not challenging when you are on land. The fighting consists only of button mashing and the quests are really straight-forward. The naval combat can be more challenging than frustrating, but has the potential of being fun if polished. The challenge gets a 6.
SOUND
Let's get the only thing good about the sound out of the way: the music is good. It really is. And I also like the cover for Amazing Grace that you can find in the extra contents.
The sound in the game is basically non-existent: be it swords clashing, characters running, ships fighting, there will always be something missing that makes the experience more unbearable. And that's without talking about the voice acting: it is not a case of so-bad-it's-good, but actually terrible voice acting. Just listen here. The sound gets a 2.
REPLAYABILITY
There aren't collectibles or multiple paths to take in the game. The only real reason why you should replay the game is to find and complete all the side quests or unlock all the trophies and achievements. Other than that, there is no reason why you should come back to this game. The replayability gets a 5.
What I said in the intro is true, this game really is the new Ride To Hell: poor graphics and performance, unpolished gameplay, missing sound effects and terrible voice acting. I was really looking forward to this game, and it pains me to say that this will easily be in my top 10 worst games of the year list. It has potential for greatness, but for one thing that it does right, it does twenty more wrong. I don't recommend you buy this game, especially at the incredibly high price of 60$.
Story: 3
Graphics: 3
Gameplay: 5
Challenge: 6
Sound: 2
Replayability: 5
ENJOYMENT: 4
FRUSTRATION: 9
