Hades was a huge breakout hit in 2020, so I was sad when a few months later Curse of the Dead Gods came out and did not get the same fanfare. They were both in the same field – mystery dungeon isometric combat games – and although Hades had the better story, CotDG had the better combat. This might be a controversial opinion but I am sticking to it. It is heartening to see that my fellow Xbox Tavern writer also liked the game and gave it a 9.1 for their review.
It was with great excitement that I saw that Passtech Games were lining up a spiritual sequel to CotDG, this time with multiplayer.
Ravenswatch is again an isometric action game, it is themed around fairytale characters fighting apparitions. Whereas CotDG was more conventional in terms of level layout – the player would move from one arena to the next – Ravenswatch has a refreshing take. Each level has a timer and a map with a few icons on it marking some (but not all) points of interest. There isn’t enough time to get to all of these, so the player has to decide what to tackle, a risky Memoir fight that might reward a higher power (or nothing at all), a lengthy fight that might kill the player but will boost them massively, a simple health boost, a Raven that will reveal more of the map icons etc. All the while their characters will be levelling up and unlocking per-run skills.
This sense of urgency helped propel me forwards, this wasn’t simply a case of holding a button until an enemy is dead, it needed to be dead as quickly as possible. Each character is capably built to do so, and Passtech have done an admirable job of making them all feel very distinct. Beowulf is predominantly melee, using his one ranged attack to draw enemies in then linking that with his block/stun move, he has a spin attack that does some crowd control and then his little dragon buddy that buffs and changes some of his attacks. Pied Piper exists on the other end of this spectrum with his abilities being mainly ranged with an entourage of rats at his beck and call. Scarlett is the most interesting, a slightly older version of Little Red Riding hood, during the day she focuses on melees, dashes and stealth attacks; when the game switches to the night cycle, Scarlett switches into a werewolf and changes her move set accordingly with bigger hits and a regen ability.
When the time runs out the player, along with any teammates, is teleported straight to the boss. Each of them is a big old bullet sponge and offers up a steep challenge. Mastery of its patterns become essential. My first few attempts at each ended with me having to spend a lot of raven feathers – the game’s version of lives – to get through and make me ill prepared for the next level.
Fortunately, there is meta progression to help with subsequent runs. Each character unlocks more traits and abilities to choose from and there are 5 more characters to get after beating the first level, all with their own unique set of skills. My favourite was Geppetto who gets an army of dolls to throw around and use as decoys/turrets.
The multiplayer is also pretty well implemented, there were a few little matchmaking hiccups, but once into the game the game ran flawlessly. The addition of extra players also opened up new tactics. Me and my partners could split up and tackle smaller challenges (and then use the fast travel raven spots to jump between places) before reuniting for the bigger events.
It is not all roses though, the bosses get even bigger life pools and because the raven feathers are shared, it is very likely that those big encounters will lead to a couple of serious hits burning through respawns. The ‘Git gud’ sentiment is hard here and that, unfortunately, applies to everyone playing.
The other qualm I have is that, with 9 characters available, the grind to see all of the unlocks can be massive. Focusing on one character can still take a significant amount of time to get to level 9 and beat the Epilogue. Some will see that as a plus so take my grumbling with a pinch of salt.
Tough challenge aside, Ravenswatch is a refined package in terms of gameplay and a worthy entry in the roguelite genre. It is doing something different and it works. My review was late for this because I was too busy playing more.
Conclusion
Ravenswatch is a superb game. Complex, innovative, and just downright satisfying to play.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
