Ravenbound

Despite the lack of meaningful and varied activities in its open-world biomes, Ravenbound proves it is possible to blend open-world and roguelite mechanics and create an engaging experience. Unfortunately, the major focus on combat detracts from the experience a bit, as, outside of fighting all sorts of enemies in a surprisingly solid yet a little limited combat system, there isn't a whole lot to do on the island of Ávalt.

I think Ravenbound has a solid foundation as a roguelite, but it’s buried underneath some mechanics that aren’t enjoyable enough to keep you engaged. Also, if you’re one those people who don’t like “always online” games, skip this one because you won’t be able to play Ravenbound otherwise.

Ravenbound is a striking Scandinavian fantasy, and one that’s often a delight to experience. However, this particular open world can often feel too empty and lifeless, relying on a player's thorough involvement in its collection of gameplay ideas to stay engaged.

Ravenbound’s limited successes do not come from an abundance of new ideas, but combining or juxtaposing old ones. If Ravenbound was a full-price, triple-A game I’d be a lot less forgiving of its flaws. No matter the price, it’s still derivative, janky and in serious need of optimization and bug fixes. But at less than 30 bucks, it’s maybe worth a gamble for fans of open world RPGs and action roguelikes. Provided, that is, that they temper their expectations and can overlook the game’s sometimes messy mechanics and other shortcomings.

Ravenbound is a fun game, and a refreshing, if not extreme, take on the hack and slash action genre. Its open world is gorgeous and lore-rich, its combat is lightning fast, and its roguelite elements, whilst not perfect, have some serious potential.

Ravenbound presents an intriguing world that simply doesn't live up to its potential. It's a decent enough adventure, but lacks the nuance needed to stand out.

Sadly, a series of missteps along the way means it never reaches its true potential and is left languishing behind other more accomplished titles in the genre.

Ravenbound is clear proof that having a good idea isn't enough to make a successful video game. While offering a decent combat system, the Systemic Reaction title is plagued by a number of hitches that cannot be overlooked. The presence of an open and freely explorable world has turned out to be a double-edged sword for production, given the low concentration of points of interest that makes moving around boring. Equally problematic are the camera and some enemy behaviors, which negatively affect what is good in the combat system. In short, just like in our first contact with the game, the feeling we had was that the product was not ready to debut on the shelves and still needed more or less marked interventions.

There's merit in Ravenbound's kinetic combat, but the game's ambition is undermined by technical issues and an empty world.

Ravenbound strives to conquer the gaming skies, but its ambitiously fragile bones break underneath the weight of its own unpolished body. The world is an empty shell which desperately needs the mighty soul of some open world God, that will solve repetitive gameplay, technical issues and fill this husk of a world with some actual content, rather than just endless fighting. Neat ideas are here, and the intriguing genre mixing provides a well-deserved breath of fresh air, that unfortunately gets quickly spoiled by frustrating shortcomings.

Ravenbound, to emerge from the classic roguelikes, challenges the competition by adding an open world map and permanent death to the formula. Unfortunately, despite the idea being original, the technical problems that afflict it and the dated combat system don't make the game shine, leaving us at the mercy of repetitive and uninteresting activities.

There isn’t much for me to recommend in Ravenbound — its beautiful landscapes and somewhat fun combat won’t be worth the hours of fighting RNG, a lack of deck-building mechanics, and basically non-existent healing options.

There is no part of Ravenbound that is absolutely bad – in fact, most of it is a good foundation for a fun roguelike, from its solid combat to its interesting setting and enemies. But so much of Ravenbound feels like it’s either missing a key piece that would elevate it or is just poorly executed, with frustratingly unpredictable loot and obnoxiously obtuse systems. On top of that, it’s infested with bugs that take those issues from disappointing to outright annoying. There’s certainly some fun to be had in Ravenbound, but it’s hard to recommend leaving the nest to find it.

A huge melting pot of different ideas that comes out rather bland. Its nice ideas are undermined by the shallowness of the experience.

Systemic Reaction's rogue-lite starts out promising but fumbles due to technical issues, repetitive combat, and much more.

Ravenbound mixes some great ideas and beautiful scenery to intrigue the player, but fails to come through on many of the promises made.

Summing up Ravenbound was a challenge because, despite its flaws, the game isn’t bad and I did have a good time when it worked as intended. However, it’s just badly executed with the lack of missions, explorations, and many frustrating bugs that make Ravenbound hard to recommend. Systemic Reaction are aware of the issues and are actively talking to their community through patch notes to, hopefully, revive this game and make it the fun roguelite it’s asking to be.

All of these things result in an experience that is tedious, unrewarding, and it leads to a waste of an aesthetically beautiful open-world by giving players no reason to explore it as there's nothing to gain by doing so. Other mechanics like the risk/reward Hatred chests attempt to vary things, but it's painfully easy to use them without suffering any consequences. Ravenbound is a game that should be fun and addicting, but poor optimization and design decisions have had the exact opposite effect.

Ravenbound comes across as an internal playtest version of an unreleased upcoming game. The barren open-world, the clunky and bugged game mechanics, and rampant balancing issues, makes the game feel like it's not ready for Early Access, let alone the full launch it's been given. It's easy to feel sorry for the many developers who likely put their hearts into this project, but sometimes it's not just ok, but often wise, to leave a game in the development oven for just a bit longer, rather than releasing it so prematurely.