Ravenbound

 PC
Metascore
54

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 21
  3. Negative: 5 out of 21
  1. CGMagazine
    Apr 11, 2023
    40
    Ravenbound mixes some great ideas and beautiful scenery to intrigue the player, but fails to come through on many of the promises made.
  2. DarkZero
    Apr 10, 2023
    40
    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.
  3. Screen Rant
    Apr 2, 2023
    40
    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.
  5. Hooked Gamers
    Apr 7, 2023
    35
    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.
  6. GameStar
    Mar 30, 2023
    30
    Lousy open-world roguelite with a sterile, lifeless game world, weak combat and ridiculously little content.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
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No user score yet- Awaiting 2 more ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 2
  3. Negative: 1 out of 2
  1. 2random
    Jul 20, 2023
    3
    The game just doesn't do it for me. While it looks good, it lacks in more important areas, like the gameplay itself. All weapons and armorThe game just doesn't do it for me. While it looks good, it lacks in more important areas, like the gameplay itself. All weapons and armor degrade after each encounter. The mana-crystal-whatever system makes it so that you cannot use the loot you have just picked up, cause you need more of those crystals. Every time you open a chest, your debuf line fills up a little. And after it's filled, you start getting a mandatory permanent debuf after EVERY encounter. I'm not talking "minus 0.5% health", I'm talking "minus 1 equipment slot out of 3 you have in total". Somehow, the game punishes you for playing. Instead of getting stronger, after every encounter, my character kept getting weaker, which felt extremely unsatisfying and frustrating.
    As for the gameplay... well, it is just not there for the most part. There are 5 unique types of enemies, and you choose which combination of them to fight. The fight is dynamic and engaging, but, while it was fun for the first hour, I got bored of repeating the same stuff pretty fast.
    Cities are just a huge disappointment. They're empty, and serve no real purpose, except "heal for X gold".
    All in all, the game is a failure. I wish they would concentrate on making an actual game, instead of an empty shell with graphics. At this point, it is not even a game, just a demo, a "minimal working example" with the very smallest amount of content possible.    … Full Review »
  2. Jt0429
    May 23, 2023
    5
    Good-
    Nice aesthetic. Combat can feel crunchy at times. Decent enemy variety. Vast world to explore. Guardians are unique enough to fight.    Good-
    Nice aesthetic. Combat can feel crunchy at times. Decent enemy variety. Vast world to explore. Guardians are unique enough to fight.

    Bad-
    No in-game map, which makes revisiting some areas difficult. Points of interest are fairly repetitive with nothing but fighting. Towns are underdeveloped with little to no personality among NPCs. One-note side quests and gameplay loop. Hatred system limits freedom of exploration while unfairly increasing difficulty. Combat gets repetitive quickly, and some mechanics are spotty. Bugs and optimization issues.

    Thoughts-
    Ravenbound could still very well live up to its potential as a rogue-lite-hack-and-slash-meets-3D-open-world. However, its combat, world design, enemy variety, Hatred system, towns, NPCs, performance, environmental effects and more still need some serious work, and that’s before adding any new mechanics or variety to the gameplay.    … Full Review »