Graven Is Gravely Mediocre
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- čas přidán 28. 07. 2024
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00:00 Intro
01:14 Bespoke Post
02:25 Story & Premise
05:12 Gameplay
10:52 Spells
14:28 Weapons & Combat
20:08 Critique
24:00 Closing Remarks
24:40 Amazing Patrons - Hry
The latest victim of 3D Realms cranking out as many of their infinitely-delayed, unfinished projects as fast as possible to avoid being shut down by Embracer Group. So far, it's not working out well for them, which is sad, but they've unfortunately never been a well run organization.
Ghostrunner was better received than other recent releases? Just looking at 3dRealms last few published games, Slipgate Ironworks did this game and several of the others. And having seen some Civvie, their games have always been treading sewage. Their also listed as a developer for the next TBA half dozen or so listed 3dRealsm soon-to-publish games. Including Tempest Rising, which was on my Steam wishlist until right now.
Would you make a Live Service Game in order to remain independent from bigger studios?
At least the gave us Cultic…there was one last gem to be mined.
They had plenty of time to finish this game don't blame Embracer for this one.
Embracer was supposed to save gaming...
The Phantom Fury demo didn't even have basic stuff like hit feedback (not hit icons, but the enemy even reacting or sound) and felt like babies first FPS. They pulled the demo and apologized to do better after a flood of negative feedback and excuses. I mean if your doctor screws up your treatment then promises to go study some more medical books you change doctors. I have 0% confidence in their ability to make a fun game.
It also ran like ass very oddly enough, that the Graven Demo from years ago ran better than it (and even then, that one had weird texture flickering and other weird things that actually strained my eyes).
Yeah, normally doctors just screw up, and continue working.
Kind of sht analogy tbh, your life isn't going to be potentially in danger because some devs released a jank game
About "Dark Messiah", that guy never ever EVER skipped leg-day
The devs should have spent their time making the core gameplay loop as fun as possible to the point where it could be played and enjoyed in a blank square map, before they added all of these stylised visuals which is clearly where all the effort went in the end.
It feels like they wanted to make an immersive sim, but realized it was hard and made it a crummy shooter with what was left
literally cybergrind
the gameplay core is fun, it's just too jank to be taken seriously
The visuals actually suck. Perhaps they it wanted to look like an oldschool game, but instead -
they made it look like one of them two-bit smartphone games from 2010. Take a note of those
ridiculous blank white flashes when weapon projectiles impact and absolutely abysmal torches.
Games from 30 years ago never stooped to such lows. It's not worth even a single dollar.
This has to be the most moronic take I've read in a while, it's ok to dislike the game just figure out exactly what you dislike about it before saying stupid nonsense online, lmao @@HexenStar
The stamina bar reeks of a vestigial design choice that they kept in the game even though the development took a different direction.
Quite frankly, I'm absolutely amazed this game finally got released. It was in early access forever. I think most of us assumed it was abandoned for a long period of time.
This makes me worried for Wrath Aeon of Ruin's 1.0 release lol
@@Chozo_Ghost or worse, 7 days to die
@@thisemptyworm4677 as of 2024 its still early access for me.
i definitely had an Obi Wan moment when I read the title of this video
"Graven...? ...Graven.. Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time... a long time."
In early access forever? First time huh?
Slipgate Ironworks releasing a half-baked, unfinished game? Impossible!
Early access
@@TheSupersmash97 Hmmm let's see last news on steam : GRAVEN Is Now Out of Early Access!
Version 1.0 is out. They consider the game finished. @@TheSupersmash97
I see they recently also released the Kingpin: Reloaded game...but also Ghostrunner? Did they just help on Ghostrunner?
Google be like: Slipgate. Did you mean Splitgate?
I remember being so hyped for the comeback of 3D realms, and now it just saddens me
The hype of the first Realms Deep 😞
They have published some decent titles, like Ion Fury & Ghostrunner.
@@Furrnoxthat was the hype, and it has since vanished
@@thismonkeyjustworks1255 Eh? Ion Fury just recently had its pretty much full-game-sized DLC released. Its sequel is on the way (though also by Slipgate... uh oh). Cultic is brillant (but developed at a glacial pace...). Ripout is pretty great.
I'd say it is a mixed bag, but really not like there are only blunders.
@@thesheeepjdfrom my understanding, cultic is being developed by one guy, also 3D realms put out KingPin Reloaded.
I was thinking, it looks like the pieces exist but it needs polish but then Gman is like "it's been in early access for three years" and then it's like, oh. Never mind.
Right, this is why I ignore people when they go "oh, well it's EA, it'll get better", no it won't. EA is a demo that devs use to shield themselves with that exact idea.
Sometimes, yes, but not always. Some devs use EA the right way. To improve their game before official release.@@colbyboucher6391
@@colbyboucher6391I'm a tad less cynical but I take your point. Many early access games are barely past the proof-of-concept stage and people shouting "it's EA, it'll get better," are almost definitely in some stage of denial.
@@ItsHyomoto The majority of good games do/did get drastically better over their EA period. But I think that requires the first release to already be good/promising, even if it is just a good proof-of-concept. Which was the case for Graven as well... it just seems in this case the devs outright ignored all the feedback for three entire years.
Too bad, obviously, but to see EA as anything fundamentally bad is just stupid negativity bias with so many examples of EA done well around.
@@colbyboucher6391 Early access is a glorified demo.
They need to overhaul the gameplay in a patch instead of trying to just "ohh well we'll answer these issue in some kind of a sequel"
This combat can be saved.
Like I said in UnderTheMayo's review, this would have worked so much better if they used Undying's combat system: spells in one hand, weapons in the other, and dual wield them.
I completely forgot about underthemayo, and I wish it could’ve stayed that way. Dude hasn’t made decent content since doom eternal released.
After this and Kingpin: Reloaded, I don't trust Slipgate to not screw up Core Decay.
Well lucky for you Slipgate dropped the project and the rights returned to the original dev who's back to developing it solo again.
@@clownhunter *big sigh of relief*
@clownhunter too bad that didn't happen for kingpin... I was really looking forward to that remaster.
you mean Core Delay and Kingpin Redated
11:32 REVERB FART
17:49 LIQUID SHART
Looks like one of those games you definitely want to play with a few QoL mods.
>references to old 3D realms games is the only thing this game has going for it
Well, that's a load of crock. The atmosphere, level design and art direction are top notch.
Yeah but that's about it, everything else is supbar/bad.
For those that have never played Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, it’s available on gamepass for pc :)
If you can get it working...
Yeah bit of hassle I'm sure to run on modern systems, probably mods to help fix aspect ratios and other stuff.
But Dark messiah is damn amazing, it still had one of the coolest environmental systems using ice, fire, oil and..of course Kicks. Kicking orcs off mountains honestly feels like a super power
I've played it twice, but it's been a good decade and I have the itch again because all this time and STILL nothing else like it exists (shout out to the combat staff as well), looking now to see if there are any visual mods or at least ENB's with fake raytracing to spice it up! Hell, maybe I should wait for RTX Remix to see if something gets done with it or do some basic lighting myself
@@jesseteixeira6284 Worth the effort
it's not on gamepass?
Please 3d realms, PLEASE don't screw up wrath. That game was shaping up to be incredible, but now i'm worried :(
I bought it and I forgot it was even in my library. It’s been ages. What the hell are they doing over there? Lol
The save system totally ruined that game for me. I bought it but just gave up halfway through, while Ion Fury is definitely their best project imo, tho they only publish it not develop
WRATH has had a rough patch for a while, but it's coming out next month and at a glance before I stopped playing the Early Access builds, it seemed that they acknowledged the difficulties of their chosen engine and a lot of internal problems that seem to have hopefully resolved by then as they were able to put out bi-weekly updates or some shit.
Wrath’s creator has left and it’s in development hell, 3D Realms big off more than it can chew with all these games etc.
I have faith, that game plays extremely well even in early access state
Never pre-order, never buy day 1, and never purchase microtransactions.
Exactly. Idk why people continually fall for these traps.
Tbh I was a big fan of hexen and heretic back in the day and this looks like a nostalgia shot to the arm
@@OzrickTheDwarf I did. Getting this
@@Bloodynine606also play Arthurian Legends. It’s amazing!
@@OzrickTheDwarf How does a psychedelic ass twitch shooter with no storyline or puzzles compare to Hexen or Heretic?? Maybe the weapons and the broad term of fantasy, but that's it..
@@belgamsafn i'll never understand why people compare amid evil to heretic or hexen the only thing they have in common is they are fantasy and the weapons have a power up similar to the tome of power but that's literally it
I love the Heretic/Hexen series too.
What a GORGEOUS looking game
Too bad the personality isn't quite as gorgeous.
Skyrim looks better
@@emaheiwa8174 Plays about the same too. Empty, extremely disappointing, needs to be polished by several unpaid interns who convince themselves its good in some way.
@@Fang.1 No need to describe my ex gf like that.
@@WhipLash42o So why would anyone praise a shit game that feels the same 13 years later ROFL
The fact that they billed this thing as a spiritual successor to Hexen is mindboggling. Aside from the fantasy aesthetic, it doesn't play anything LIKE Hexen. SGIW seems like they're incapable of making good games unless another studio is involved in the production too.
It is a spiritual sequel to Hexen. Hexen wasn't that good either. Heretic was better.
@@senorluis7152 i always prefer Heretic too, Hexen was okay, but is all over the place, Hexen 2 is even worse, Heretic II is great tho.
Slipgate is quickly becoming the boomshoot equivalent of AAA companies of releasing broken, disappointing games (they also did the terrible Kingpin "remaster").
What is boomshoot?
I've seen others complain that there is no map in the game. When the EA version launched, there was most definitely a map - it was mostly worthless because it didn't show anything but we all figured while in EA they'd fix it and make it work and um nope they just got rid of it. Which sucks.
The lack of a map doesn’t bother me, cuz I’m not a btch
The stamina thing sounds annoying though…
I ran out of stamina in water while swinging the staff, otherwise I didn't notice it much. I played on the "normal" difficulty, and apparently it's a heavier impact on higher difficulties. You don't run out of stamina while running for example, only when combining actions.
I will obviously still give this one a try since I bought it in Early Access but waited for it to be finished.
However from what I can tell from your video, I might have a trainer on for infinite stamina. There's so many games, and not only in the FPS genre, were stamina is more of an annoyance than a mechanic.
I'm in the same boat. I use things like WeMod to get around these frustrations.
Very true. If you expect someone to run around the map to traverse the game, at the very least turn off stamina-consumption outside of combat.. having to slow down and regen when you're just backtracking is definitely not fun, and it doesn't add anything to the game 🤷♂
I loved that _Tunic_ had an option for infinite stamina, that was a nice touch.
Why play it?
Up there with weapon durability, you know that steel hammer which will be used by a person their entire life pounding metal and hardwood etc but breaks after hitting about 5 zombies in the head...
Halo fans were screaming to have sprint/ stamina removed over 10yrs ago, but despite a strong voice together the opinion was shot down because it worked for other games. Now today we another example of this feature being forced in because it worked in other games.
It's sad how we've come this far and yet development studios (as a generalisation) are getting worse. "games be hard to make" seems as easy excuse for poor management and direction.
Easily one of those games where the gameplay is so boring the visuals and the art style are the only thing keeping you playing it, thank god i got it for 3$
Those games do not exist for me. Gameplay > Graphics
@@CasepbX You're such a unique and fascinating person.
(finds litter)
ooh, it's free, for me!
pretty litter.
I bought it for $6 from G2A when they announced the 1.0 launch date.
Would you make a Live Service Game in order to remain independent from bigger studios?
for me the worst part is the useless backtracking in huge, empty levels
no quicksave and no dedicated saves, they are so incompetent
@@aoetje474 yes that too
@@Zontar82 I never had a big problem with that but the fact you lose gold when you die made it 10 times worse.
Cause oh you accidentally felt down a pit or a enemy kills you cause you couldn't see it? Well screw you!
This is a game to give a couple years of big feature and balance updates and community patches, and it could turn into a gem, it has all the potential
Except its not going to get any of that, its gonna get left in the dust now that it is released. 3D Realms will let the modders fix their own game since they are too lazy and incapable
@@KrazzeeKane Well he did say community patches.
I don't know. Stuff like questionable level design isn't something you fix with patches, official or otherwise.
The decline in quality is the result of there being more "boomer shooters" than actual Boomer Shooters that came out in the 90s.
Ah yes, Slipgate Ironworks. The developer that almost knows how to make video games. Their games always look so good and feel so bad. That Phantom Fury demo was just awful and I don't know what we were supposed to get from it other than a warning not to buy the full game. PLEASE KEEP THEM AWAY FROM CULTIC. Jason Smith has got that one covered.
Of all these "boomer shooters", Cultic is by far my fave. I know that with games, the question of playing them or not comes down to how much time you have spare to some degree. As far as that goes, there's a lot in this game that I'm OK with. But it needs a quick save, and what's with that having to stack objects to continue with a level about?
The game 25 EUR in my region. There was no need to make it 15 hours long, people would have been happier with shorter, but more polished experience.
i really miss when you had ruins head pop up with tbe swagged audio
"Dumb as a bag of bricks, they're about as abundant and hit about as hard" 😁 English isn't my first language, so maybe that's why I especially enjoyed that bit... Anyway, too bad about Graven. I was gonna try it, but oh well.
lol no that was a good line, you're right!
Also, your English is better than 60% of my countrymen (U.S.).. so don't worry about it you're doing great :)
Not gonna play the game and experience it because of a CZcamsr opinion?
@@idontwantahandlethoughbruh wtf are you talking about? English is the US prime language so no more than 60 percent is proficient in english
@@DrundeFPS A reviewer. Whose opinion I greatly respect. Isn't that the point of a review? Hello?
Not just that, but I was hoping the game was more of like a slower paced adventure game not an arena shooter.
@@OzirV1000 🤖
Kinda funny to watch this right after SplatterCat's video, where he actually praised it for stuff like the spells being for utility and not just another gun. Honestly it looks like it just needs a balance patch or two and it'll be an actually good game!
Yeah, saw Splatty's video and kept thinking half this guy's issues would be solved by using the sword for combat more often like Splat did.
Mortismal glazing
I really appreciate the warning as this is precisely the kind of game I gravitate towards, and this one has all the hallmarks of one that seems great until the 2 hour threshold is crossed and you can't get a refund.
Im surprised i have not seen a comment saying the guns and gameplay look similar to the old Painkiller series
My biggest complain about this game is how enemy being stunned actually doesn't prevent them from doing very vile shit. Notable examples: magical dudes with crossbows in first area. You would think that stunning them with lightning incapacitates them, but they will gladly throw poison bolts at you even while stunned! That's BULLSHIT!
That sounds like a bug, but yeah the spells in this game suck ass
I like games like Thief, System shock, Hexen, Arx Fatalis, Legend of Grimrock 1+2 and all its awesome mods. So I'll happily bring out a notepad to jot down suspicious things I want to come back to. I strongly urge everyone who might be interrested to just try it themselves.
I agree, somewhat, I'd prefer if the game had a "note" system tho, because alt-tabbing just breaks immersion for no reason, and I don't feel like wasting paper either
Very different perspective from Splattercat's and Mortismal's. Still valid, just different. To each their own I guess.
OK, Following the intro with Krusty saying "What the hell was that" absolutely killed me because I literally had the same response the moment I saw your character die. LOL
Those spells don't look upgraded which can wreak havoc when they are upgraded and stamina can be regained through health potions for high intensity moments
In addition to lots of gold, spells take special hidden stones that you can go many many hours without ever finding even if you're trying to explore a lot. Meaning you'll spend a huge part of this game without any spell upgrades. By the time I finally was able to upgrade the fire spell, I was already 2 hours away from getting burnt out and abandoning the game so it didn't matter.
- Inspired by Hexen
- Confusing where to go next
Sounds about right.
"way back in 2021" is a phrase that doesn't feel real
Awe man. It sure would be nice if these studios had the time and money to fix the game up over the coming year or two. It sure would be nice if Embracer Group wasn't weeks away from shuttering 3d realms.
I love Graven. There is something they nailed with the atmosphere that is nostalgia inducing for some reason. Now it's far from perfect, it does feel like unpolished, you have good points except: there is actually a map...
was one added?
@@Player-10There was one in the early access version. If they removed it, it's a bummer. It was a pain in the a$$ to use but at least it was a map.
As someone who recently finished this game. It is like the definition of a mixed game that I have ever played.
So many interesting and visually cool places and ideas that's just bogged down by puzzling design choices and tedious combat. I'm very glad I got it in that 2nd Retro FPS Humble Bundle... Bundle cause I would be pretty peeved if I had spent full price on it.
(Thankfully Wrath has seemed to come out pretty well)
Have you played Blood West? If not you should definitely check it out.
It's fitting the first clip you used was the Simpsons because Graven sounds like something Professor Frink would say.
Games being unfinished is sadly the norm these days and I can't stand it for the life of me
I like to browse steam like “what did I never get around to” and then get that half off while I wait for whatever new release to be ironed out. Hopefully lords of the fallen but idk if they can fix that
Dude is sad about video games... Soy overdose comment.
What a shame, the artstyle and design of this game is fantastic
I can see the appeal of having no map in a survival horror game where you're meant to be lost or whatever, but something like this, that essentially plays like a boomer shooter, doesn't suit that kind of obfuscated design.
@@guyg.8529This hinges on quality level design with clear signposting and landmarks, of which this game appears to struggle with.
I actually like the sound of that@@guyg.8529
Man, the constant fuck ups at SG/3DR makes me very very worried for Tempest Rising. I need a new CnC game like you wouldn’t believe.
Another 3DR tire fire...
The only consistent thing they deliver is letting fans down
Question for you Gman: I'm willing to overlook the traversal and map issues. The combat looks pretty fun and challenging. Worth buying for that alone?
Sure.
For me personally the good far outweigh the bad: The artstyle, exploration, fun combat, music >> bit of jank.
Looking forward to Gman playing Palworld
So electricity freezes and freeze stuns. Genius. Pure genius
My dude, your really ruffled some feathers with this review on the Steam discussions. 😂 I love the concept of this game and it was one of my most anticipated titles of the past few years, but I cannot help but agree with your criticisms. Case in point, the lack of a bloody map!
I like the art style .
I like how it has a specifically old school feel
The most similar thing to a shotgun crossbow in history is the chinese Chukonu crossbow, which shot multiple arrows at once.
“We have Amid Evil at home”
Amid Evil at home:
7:55 Major patches needed I think
My biggest issue with this game is the constant crashing that can completely wipe your save game.
Haha, I love that the QR code was custom. And the fact that it had a typo seems fitting while reviewing Graven.
being surprised by the fart reverb sound in every video always makes me smile
I miss the Tourettes guy clips
I had high hopes from the demo a long time ago and was hoping the early access would be the good kind....but I dunno seems not the case
This is exactly what I imagined a Hexen re-boot to look like.
Also, even with all the problems, you can't deny the fact that the game looks amazing.
True that. A real shame about the game mechanics though
indeed
I feel like there was a missed opportunity to turn that discharge/not touching that your mom joke with a ten foot pole into" I couldn't if I wanted to because it conducts electricity" ;)
This game is a good representation of devs losing themselves in their own minds, ignoring completely the feedback... it has a very good idea, that a lot of people liked and wanted to have fun with, but they just decided to go what they first wanted to do until the end even if was obviously a bad idea... like yeah they cleary want you to use the spells more as tool than a way of combat, but my question is why? If ends up being unfun just abandon this idea and go with fun idea. Same with the stamina.
The Krusty opening joke is amazing 😂😂😂
Fuck, we need a modern Hexen soon... seeing some the footage used in the video brought the itch back.
@2:39 Gezzer watching lawyer reacts videos on his free time.
This game looking this nice is still enticing the f out of me
when i got the green crystal and started going back to check all the walls i couldn't break before only to realize they just had ammo and sometimes a potion, i pretty much completely checked out.
17:39
> What PEAT actually is
Peat is Scotland's lifeblood, basically. They warm their homes with it, they use it to roast malt for beer and whiskey, I wouldn't be surprised if they cook it and maybe even eat it raw.
What PEAT actually ISN'T is this game rendition of it: ultra-flammable and explosive shit, akin to black powder.
Metroidvania shooter is actually a pretty dope concept.
I'd like to have some suggestions if games like that exist (besides Metroid Prime ofc)
Try Graven for yourself, you may find it's actually fun to play. I did.
Man I was so looking forward for this game, it was like the closest I could imagine of a modern Hexen
My only complaint on the game is the stamina bar really. Its pretty good!
A game coming out of early access just means they're raising the price by 50 to 100 percent.
Great review!
This just solidified it for me, I'm not playing it.
Tried the early access version and it was tedious as hell. "Breaking boxes + subpar combat + getting lost constantly" - the game.
I left a review in Early Access back in June of 2021. It's unfortunate to know that almost everything I mention back then has not been address. You can read the review here:
"So the art style and atmosphere are perfect. And this definitely has a kernel of something good. However, it's not quite blossomed yet. I do think the devs are onto making a great game but a few tweaks could really set them down a path for excellence. Yes I definitely recommend this game but I also want to offer any ideas to help improve the experience. These are my critiques so far:
I absolutely hate that I cannot save my progress mid-quest. If you quit the game mid-quest you will have to start it from scratch. That's very ANTI-FUN. They already have a spawn checkpoint when you die while playing BUT it does not save progress. I think this needs to be reworked ASAP.
My next critique is that combat is rather boring. This could be due to it being early game and my weapons have not been upgraded BUT the enemies are almost silent when in combat. They hardly make grunts of pain or aggression. Their animation and behavior is very jank. I would recommend the devs look at the game 'Blood' (1997) which I'm sure they are familiar. In Blood, you can FEEL the impact your weapons are having on enemies. I also feel like the range of melee weapons is a tad too short. I often swing at an enemy point blank and no hit is registered.
The enemies are also missing that X factor. They need something that makes you think 'wow'
Whether that's glowing eyes, haunting SFX, more decomposition... ect. I don't know what the right answer is but I know they need work.
I hope this is not an issue with weapons too. Obviously its hard to judge the early-weapons but I hope to be 'wowed' by later weapons. I would recommend Amid Evil. I do find it annoying that I have to cycle past my staff after getting the sword. The staff is useless after get the sword. So unless you can upgrade the staff later in the game I would recommend being able to sell or drop it. OR combine it with the spellbook and have the staff shoot the projectiles
Another issue I had was the low ammo capacity. The wrist bolt continuously runs out of ammo and I found myself breaking out of the 'fun-zone' to BACKTRACK and collect ammo. It's a weak weapon so why does it need such low ammo capacity?
Switching weapons is very slow. Especially opening the book for spells.
The map is way too vague and empty of labels/landmarks. Making it an absolute CHORE to navigate and route with it. I found myself not using it at all.
The HUD could be slightly bigger and more unique. Again where is the X factor? Impress us! You obviously have phenomenal art team, why are they playing so safe?
I didn't even realize stamina was a thing. I thought running was glitched in the game. Eventually I noticed the bubble on the HUD.
Don't get me wrong, I do really like what I've seen so far. Especially the art, level design, music, and atmosphere. I would just like to ask the team, "What are you going to do to stand strong among the giants of games like Blood, Heretic, Hexen, Dusk, Amid Evil, Wrath, ect?"
That frost spell is hilarious, because even Witchaven actually allows the player to outright freeze opponents, not just slow them down. How do you make an ice spell this lame?
The last time you and Jarek uploaded a review about the same game on the same day was Evil West and you 2 had both different opinions. This time however you two point out what is bad and I like that. If you guys happen to review a same, you should maybe consider doing a collab video. That would be unique and awesome
truly the graven game of all time,kind of reminded me a bit of oblivion.
Unless there's a different game other than ES called Oblivion, then no, not in any way at all in this reality
Unless they changed it from early access there definitely is a map and quest journal???
Yeah they nuked the map option.
You think you can just slip that Cybernator OST by us during the Ad Read? Busted!
Played the demo of this for 30 minutes and wasn't impressed
That trick with ghost visibility would be cool if it worked with eye tracking
The 2 Wrath levels I played on early access were really good. Hopefully the game comes out great.
Hey Gman you should totally review the old ps1 army men games, especially the ww2 ones. Thanks.
those were dope
@@idontwantahandlethough very difficult but quite rewarding.
Remembering those just reminds me I want more games where you are toys in bedrooms and sandpits etc like Toy Commander.
@@monkaWGiga the closest I've found is the Rising Storm Vietnam mod.
Still looks gorgeous and very cool. I hope they fix the few things mentioned about a map and stamina. Then I'd probably pick it up to support an indie dev.
I was really looking forward to this game, but it's demo changed my mind VERY quickly.
The spells always seemed so sad to use -- only as puzzle solving abilities or minor CC instead of a really powerful part of your toolkit.
The weapons also.... eh....
I'm kinda happy someone else mirrors my opinions. My friends thought I was just complaining, but I really thought there was some missed potential.
So if this game was described as songs, it would be Fear of the Dark and Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter?
You havent played Fortunes Run yet Gman? I hope to see a video on it in the future, cause its a damn good game, kinda hard and takes a bit to get the hang of but its VERY good! And I havent seen many people talking about it, which sucks
This game is a unique title in its own way, where there are so many badly-designed things (starting with the doors, where you can see that someone has set up something visually, but it then got disjointed with the basic mechanics, and we end up with different sizes of them, depending on whether they are openable or just decoration) to the checkpoint system, which, for a reason known only to devs, when you load the game, restarts you to the hub (it makes no sense at all) to the lack of a map, which, given the intricacy of the levels, is just absurd. BUT, and this is the unique element of this, game, for some reason, it gives a lot of fun, and I have no idea why. I'm absolutely not defending the developers, I think they released the game in an early alpha state, where early alpha is defined as "we have all the assets, levels and mechanics, now we need to smooth it all out, gameplay-wise and visually, catch all the bugs and shortcomings in the levels, and then release the game", nevertheless, they have some basis for making a BETTER sequel, because I'm not counting on this game going through a process similar to cyberpunk or no man sky.
I was really excited for Graven. That opening is VERY strong in my opinion but quickly starts petering off.
So many of these retro games have no map to try and be 'old school'. It was getting lost in those games which I hated most. Anyway did the original Doom have an automap? It's been so long since I played the shareware version and being so clueless I wouldn't have known it existed.
It's not maps that are the problem these days, but the big stupid arrows and markers which turn it into follow the big X and repeat.
when i saw it on early access on Splattercats channel i thought it had promise until i saw who the dev/producer was and realized it wasn't going to improve and would likely be worse at launch.
Are we really certain that stacking items to access areas was not intentional?
2:30 Yeah, at first, I also assumed she was killed, but not, she wasn't. The game protagonist arrived when she was about to be stabbed and confronted the perpetrator, which resulted in the perpetrator's death. There is a quest you get right at the beggning of the game where, if you read the quest log, he says he doesn't know what happened to his daughter after he got arrested and he needs to look for her, but first, he needs to find a way out of that place he got into.
If you are looking for something that gets Hexen right in the indie shooter scene check out Ziggurat 2. I liked the first one fine but the second really improved things making for what is probably the best rogue-like Boomer shooter
Here's hoping Graven gets a big update to it's gameplay or some kind of overhaul mod made by a fan, the stamina meter sounds like I have to play morrowind inside of hexen which seems hellish.
The graphic style is kind of weird in that the pixels are too small to feel like chunky old school pixels, but not fine enough to be a more modern game. It's in a weird limbo where the only artistic direction for making it look "old-school" was shutting off any kind of texture filtering.