Fans of tough challenges and everyone else who loves testing their skills on the ultimate trials are in for a treat with Ravenswatch, the new roguelite action game from the makers of Curse of the Dead Gods. It’s all about learning every intricacy, every twist to your unique character and excelling in combat, each run and ensuing death giving true meaning to the saying “practice makes perfect.”
Twisted Fairy Tales
With a full year of Early Access planned, developer Passtech Games seems committed to deliver a premier roguelite experience. The playable build we tried had all the core mechanics in place, offering a taste of the gameplay loop that genre fans are willing to die for, speaking in pure gaming terms, that is. After all, death is an underlying part of such games, where learning enemy patterns and maximizing your attack strategy and skill use is crucial for a successful run through the randomized maps.
You will face some difficult choices when selecting your character, something that is one of the best things about the game. The six heroes on display (Scarlet, Pied Piper, Beowulf, The Snow Queen, Aladdin, and Melusine) may ring a bell or two, lifted as they are from popular folklore and fairy tales but with a visual dark-fantasy spin that is astonishingly enticing. Think of them as the grim counterparts to the – mostly – righteous protagonists of timeless tales such as One Thousand and One Nights, Three Little Pigs, and Beowulf, but the good versus evil scales are balanced with the inclusion of The Snow Queen, Pied Piper, and surely a few more villains down the line, as there are plans to increase the numbers. There is potential for so many great additions, with Alice in Wonderland coming to mind as a fan-favorite and a terrific selling point to showcase, but the current offer is already quite diverse.
Each hero packs more personality and creativity in one leg than the entire body of your average roguelite character. One of the reasons supporting this claim is that Ravenswatch brings a few twists to the genre that may not be entirely unique while in isolation, but when combined they make up for some very interesting features, including a day and night cycle that has direct effect on some heroes.
Take Scarlet, for example, the shadowy equivalent of Little Red Riding Hood and the big, bad wolf mingled into one. At nightfall, she turns into a werewolf, gaining new and devastating abilities, returning to her normal form as daytime breaks.
The Pied Piper is another stunningly realized character, both in visuals terms and effective combat abilities. With up to 20 rats spawning around him, you can command them to attack, with the rodents dying right afterwards. The piper shoots musical notes from his flute, with a secondary attack that boosts note damage and speed, all of this while still moving around, albeit at a slower pace.
Other characters come with their very unique complexities and madly differ in terms of control difficulty, so it’s best not to aim too high until having mastered the more straightforward ones, if there’s actually such a thing in this game. Melusine is a tough one, a mermaid that switches between two stances to summon a controllable Wisp, but the tradeoff is that she remains immobile and consequently an easy target during this attack posture. Alladin can summon the genie to make one wish out of three options, from damage to heal or making dream shards appear. Dream shards are the currency that you can spend on the merchant or some special wells to acquire buffs.
The Nightmare Squad
Currently there’s only one region to explore out of the three that are intended. Randomized for each run and with the occasional trip down a claustrophobic cave, this area allows you to play for a few in-game days and create the build you desire until the nightmare boss arrives and a tough battle ensues. Occasionally you may stumble upon some quests, such as one where the NPC tasks you with collecting stones to reinforce a house, but hopefully more mission variety is in the works.
Ravenswatch offers very solid and diverse combat, much thanks to the care in getting each hero to feel unique and engaging. Not even animation cancelling was forgotten, allowing you to swiftly interrupt a move and perform a dodge in just the exact timing, as long as you have the stamina to do so. Dying is not the end, as you have three attempts to revive and maybe even one more if you play your cards right – that is, if you purchase a buff that allows you to come back to life for a certain sum of dream shards. Because nothing in the world comes for free, especially deals that involve setting free from the cold grasp of the grim reaper.
While it can be appreciated solo and offers great replay value due to its remarkable cast and randomized maps, it’s hard to deny that Ravenswatch becomes a completely different beast when enjoyed with up to four players online. Difficulty ramps accordingly and teamwork becomes crucial to face the increased challenges, as each player uses their respective hero’s abilities and opens up significant tactical possibilities that the single-player mode never manages to achieve.
Building on the experience learned from Curse of the Dead Gods but opting for a distinct approach to the action roguelite, Ravenswatch already feels absorbing with its frantic skill-based combat and superb replay value. With a long road ahead before the official launch, it will be interesting to see where it goes and how much it changes – but especially, who will be the new grim and twisted faces to invite themselves into this nightmarish but so appealing corrupted world.
MP1st was given access to a preview build of Ravenswatch for our hands-on session. Ravenswatch is set to enter Early Access on April 6, 2023 for PC, with a full release to follow on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch in 2024.