Ravenswatch review

There’s been an absolute deluge of action-roguelikes across the last decade. At this point, we’re all justifiably fatigued by the sub-genre. As such, I ventured into the storybook world of Passtech Games’ Ravenswatch expecting a humble clone of Hade but with characters culled from folklore. But gratifyingly, Ravenswatch doesn’t feel excessively familiar, thanks to several shrewd design decisions from Passtech.

Initially, players can first select from one of four playables that include Little Red Riding Hood, Beowulf, the Pied Piper and The Snow Queen. Complete the first chapter with any of them to unlock additional notables like Aladdin or Sun Wukong. Altogether, there’s a roster of nine different personalities who all play distinctively.

Franz and His Ravaging Rodents

With his oversized broadsword, a hulking Beowulf delivers a multitude of different attacks, recalling the feel of controlling your typical melee-based barbarian. But Franz the Piper turns the action into a twin-stick shooter, aiming his musical notes at enemies and siccing his rat entourage on foes.

Meanwhile, crimson-hooded Scarlet suffers from lycanthropy, so every sundown she transforms into a formidable werewolf with a different set of abilities. Firing a succession of projectiles plants the Snow Queen in place, but her ice abilities let her slide about, providing an interesting contrast of mobility.

Mermaids, Puppet Makers, and a Sexy Bloodsucker

I won’t spoil the abilities of Ravenswatch’s unlockables but will say that the supplementary cast is good enough to make finding a favorite challenging.

Mercifully, all the game’s characters start with five different attacks and have the potential to unlock a sixth type of offensive skill. As such, combat is less about spamming one or two commands repeatedly and more about making use of your entire arsenal.

A New Perk Selection Every Time You Level Up

Each ability (including your defensive dash) is tied to a cooldown meter. As such, mastery of each character is about finding the rhythm and range of your attacks. And given that Ravenwatch can scale to accommodate up to four online cooperative partners, the MMO-style approach should be completely unexpected.

However, the ability to skillfully scale the action to accommodate soloists is rather surprising. Save for boss battles best suited for the spatial coverage provided by team, the game is enjoyable for individuals. Since you’re not able to revive yourself (optional CPU allies would have been a nice addition) Ravenwatch provides you with multiple lives. But I found the showdown just a bit too tedious when playing alone.

Reading the Field

Ravenswatch’s cooldown-constrained combat is complemented by the signaling of enemy attacks. Most area-of-effect strikes paint a translucent panel, giving you a second or two to dodge out of the danger zone. Other foes foreshow their attacks with wind-up animations. When multiple adversaries are in a constricted area, it can be hard to ‘read’ the playfield at first and prioritize foes. But give it time and you should be able to avoid taking damage. That said, if you flub a defense sidestep, opportunities for health replenishment are numerous.

Pleasingly, Ravenswatch maps are closer to Diablo’s spacious regions than the typical roomed dungeons of many roguelikes. Essentially, you can roam freely, making your way to stores, challenges, mini-bosses, and loot across each procedurally generated landmass. But each map isn’t just dreary desolation with a few scattered targets. Instead, you might have to navigate around walls or through a small maze of elevated walkways to reach one of the objectives shown on your mini map.

Five Days of Leveling Up

While you have the freedom to explore at your pace, Ravenswatch’s in-game clock is always advancing. Following four days and nights, you’ll face off against the boss, testing how diligent you prepared for the confrontation. And if you do get humiliated by the final battle, multiple difficulty settings, optional modifiers, and unlockable perks help ensure you won’t hit an impasse.

While Ravenswatch’s action is mostly praiseworthy, players seeking storytelling might be disappointed by the unlockable bits of exposition. Sure, you’ll glean a bit of info about each character, but it’s evident that Passtech favored play over plot. Given the quality of combat, it’s hard to find much fault but do know a three-zone playthrough can be completed in about an hour.

Ravenwatch was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.