Ravensword: Shadowlands

 Switch
Metascore
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No score yet - based on 2 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 2
  3. Negative: 1 out of 2
  1. TouchArcade
    Apr 19, 2021
    70
    The physics and animation also look quite poor at times. Truly, this looks and sounds like a seven-dollar game in 2021. But it still plays well, and I found myself getting sucked into its simple pleasures once again. It may not be ahead of its time anymore, but there’s still something worth appreciating here.
  2. Digitally Downloaded
    Apr 20, 2021
    40
    I've had fun playing this game again. It goes to show the strength of the material that Ravensword is based on that a low-budget, massively stripped-down take on the formula can still be enjoyable. I have fond memories of playing this through on my iPad over my Christmas holiday back in 2012, and there was a rush of nostalgia from doing so again on the Switch. However, the lesson that developers really should take from this is that it doesn't matter how technically impressive a game is if you can't deliver something memorable from the artistic side of things. Without a great narrative, interesting design elements, creative gameplay or similar, your game is dated the moment it has been released, and as a result every time you try to re-release it on new consoles and devices, you're going to experience diminishing returns and an increasingly tarnished legacy.

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No user score yet- Awaiting 2 more ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Blzbub08
    Apr 20, 2021
    7
    Essentially this is a budget Elder Scrolls and I really enjoyed it. It's open-world, with simplistic combat- basically hit/block/repeat, andEssentially this is a budget Elder Scrolls and I really enjoyed it. It's open-world, with simplistic combat- basically hit/block/repeat, and you can grind your way to being overpowered. It's graphics are somewhat ugly- think Morrowind models with Oblivion textures, but the music is great and the enemies are interesting- hunt boars for meat, huge bears, even dinosaurs.
    Is it flawed? Yes. You run faster moving to your left than to your right, and horse riding is really... budget. Also, there is a lot of pop-in- backgrounds grow and appear as you walk. Even enemies pop in- You may be standing alone in the swampland when suddenly, three giant Carnosaurs just pop in on top of you. But in spite of its flaws it's still fun to play.
    It's a budget Elder Scrolls game, it takes about 7 hours to beat, and there's replayability in it's different weapons and skill choices. Well worth the price.    … Full Review »
  2. Atx777
    Apr 13, 2021
    5
    This game really did have potential to be something grander on Switch, but alas, the port is a very lazy and buggy one. While it featuresThis game really did have potential to be something grander on Switch, but alas, the port is a very lazy and buggy one. While it features outstanding loading times (nearly instant), there are many distracting visual artifacts, like: Z-fighting alphas (tree foliage that visibly cancels each other); a strange ghosting of any held blade in first-person; enemies walking on each other; arrows getting blocked out of nowhere by invisible walls; and, oh yeah in some places there are just invisible walls that completely block the player! And I mean like, it’s not at all obvious there should be a wall there, especially on the path of a main quest. There are also several obvious world seams where the player can see under or fall right into the null abyss. Thankfully, saving / reloading the game is also nearly instant.

    The melee combat is laggy in response and pretty unbalanced unless you grind for dropped pelts and sell for better gear. And most grinding will devolve into the player spamming projectile weapons while backpedaling, because monsters have unfair reach with some of their attacks and can pull off three attacks without the player seeing the animation for them. That said, once you get some decent defensive gear and a crossbow, it can be fun luring enemies to their doom, at least until that gets really repetitive. The archery feels similar to Skyrim in terms of drop distance, but the player has unlimited arrows, so eventually the player will likely just use the Crossbow because it is by far the best class of standard weapons. (When you can do more damage at range and faster than your current melee weapon, there’s obviously some balance issues).

    Quests are barebones affairs, with some occasional well placed humor, but more likely the audience will be laughing at the stupid, janky character and monster models, but I guess it isn’t any worse than something like Morrowind. Life is very stiffly animated and characters don’t move their mouths when talking.

    However, despite some interesting nature backdrops, the world feels really empty and, even with the draw distance at MAX, there is an unfortunate amount of pop-in and that includes enemies sometimes suddenly spawning right in front of the player. When enemies can kill you in a couple hits, this is a problem. When slain enemies can respawn after loading a save where they were definitely dead, this is a really bad problem that could potentially block your progress into an inescapable death loop.

    Where the game really shines is through Sean Beeson’s beautiful, nuanced musical score, with tunes and instruments that recall Jeremy Soule’s past work. Music is fitting per scene and really adds a nice ambiance (that the rest of the game just doesn’t live up to, to be honest). I just wish there was nore of it.

    Progress is handled through EXP points that grant beefier stats and Talents, (which is just another way to say you gain percentage increases of certain skills, like Jumping and Blocking), but the Magic system is completely underwhelming and feels tacked on. The game also attempts to recreate the use-and-grow system of The Elderscrolls games, but it’s entirely static in how it’s executed: each level up you gain 5 more skill points allowed to be raised in this manner, and so every level the player will probably just spam each skill a few times to hit the MAX again. It’s boring and predictable.

    In conclusion, you get what you pay for; $5 will net you a cash grab port of a very old Smartphone game (which understandably was impressive at the time), which hasn’t aged well in the slightest. That said, it can still be fun to mess around with on a laid back afternoon. The game hits a certain nostalgia chord of low budget RPGs found on the demo discs of early PC gaming magazines. But the lack of polish and forethought in just about everything the game tries to do (for instance why wasn’t gyro aiming the bows allowed), is apparent everywhere. Aftera all, there are far better games of this type for the system; so most people won’t even care to try this, and most people probably don’t need to.

    5/10 - Mediocre:

    Graphics: 6/10
    Gameplay: 4/10
    Music: 8/10
    Presentation: 4/10    … Full Review »