Graveyard Keeper

 Xbox One
User Score
5.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 21 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 21
  3. Negative: 9 out of 21

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  1. Xbox_Alive
    Aug 19, 2018
    8
    The game does take quite a bit of getting used to and at times it can be a little overwhelming with how much you have to do. There is a little too much grinding included in the game and this can make things become a little tedious.Does Graveyard Keeper do enough to get a recommendation from me: Have you ever wanted to build and manage your very own graveyard? Well now you can with the veryThe game does take quite a bit of getting used to and at times it can be a little overwhelming with how much you have to do. There is a little too much grinding included in the game and this can make things become a little tedious.Does Graveyard Keeper do enough to get a recommendation from me: Have you ever wanted to build and manage your very own graveyard? Well now you can with the very fun and in some ways unique Graveyard Keeper. This game is a management sim at heart, but it also features some unique mechanics which have been done really well and are charming to say the least. In terms of content you’ll easily be able to sink tons of hours into it, in fact there’s that much content that at times you can be a little overwhelmed. The content also features quite a bit of grinding as well so things will become tedious a little bit, but thankfully when you get past the grinding what you get is a game that’s full of life and variety. This variety then makes recommending Graveyard Keeper quite easy and if you have any interest in game’s of this ilk then you will thoroughly enjoy your time with this game.… Expand
  2. metacarp
    Oct 4, 2018
    3
    On the face of it this is the sort of game I really love. Casual crafting and building, and improving your workspaces with no outside pressures or time limits.

    So to begin with, it's clear this game borrows heavily from Stardew Valley (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). Unfortunately, even the features it shamelessly copies from Stardew Valley have then been made so cumbersome and    On the face of it this is the sort of game I really love. Casual crafting and building, and improving your workspaces with no outside pressures or time limits.

    So to begin with, it's clear this game borrows heavily from Stardew Valley (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). Unfortunately, even the features it shamelessly copies from Stardew Valley have then been made so cumbersome and annoying to use.

    Crafting and Farming is stupidly laborious and involves way too many button interactions simply to plant a seed. This is a basic UI issue, not a character skill issue, so there are no unlocks or improvements which make this easier later in the game.

    The game mostly consists of intense grinding and micromanagement of inventory/chests, with very little pay-off or reward other than unlocking the next task (which is more mindless grinding).

    You can build structures and crafting stations, but never where you actually want. You are given a small set of possible locations, and even then the list of structures in a given area are restricted, for some utterly bizarre reason.

    The whole graveyard aspect seems like a casual after-thought, and isn't a particularly fun or significant part of the game. The whole church sermon angle was a great opportunity to introduce humour into the game.. these could have been funny or interesting or at least dynamic, but instead they are just the same identical cut scene each time, with the same brief dialog.

    If that wasn't enough, the game is riddled with performance problems.
    It lags every 60 seconds or so (briefly at first, but then lags longer the more you play), even while just walking around on the map

    Even the graveyard build mode (supposedly the main focus of the game) lags to about 5fps on an Xbox One, as you try to position a new structure. Its a 2D tile based game on a next gen console. What can it possibly be doing to cause such horrible lag?!

    I think ultimately it comes down to the fact that the devs have just added new features and tested them in isolation, but have clearly never sat down and play tested the game as a player would.

    They also seem unable or unwilling to fix the painfully obvious lag issues, which is a real shame.
    This game has a basic concept which could be fun if it was developed more, but its been released way too prematurely    … Expand
  3. Coombs
    Sep 17, 2018
    2
    Everything in this game is a gate. From the crafting stations and their crafted objects to the energy burned 'incompleting' a task; each element presents itself as a hindrance to your progress. You can never just accomplish anything, you have to manage an overly complex mess of interacting dependencies just to advance the world the tiniest bit.

    The bulk of my experience consisted of    Everything in this game is a gate. From the crafting stations and their crafted objects to the energy burned 'incompleting' a task; each element presents itself as a hindrance to your progress. You can never just accomplish anything, you have to manage an overly complex mess of interacting dependencies just to advance the world the tiniest bit.

    The bulk of my experience consisted of walking home to sleep, watching my character sleep and then trying to remember what I was doing before I ran out of energy. Food was practically useless, it provided such little sustenance. I failed to find seeds to jumpstart the garden plot I bought and began to prepare. The sensation of empowerment by accomplishing goals and achieving means was absent entirely.

    It's monotonous and unrewarding, and for me well outside the realm of entertainment. Very nice graphics and a really great concept do not overcome terrible execution. The development studio behind this title might consider hiring someone with RPG experience, as it seems the plot was at one time a priority for the team. I can't speculate as to what happened during development such that the game shipped in the state it did.

    On release, Graveyard Keeper felt like a crash course in cumbersome, user-hostile design.    … Expand
  4. nevinator23
    Jan 22, 2019
    4
    I had fun at first and I really liked the aesthetic and idea of this game, but after pouring 15 hours into this game it felt like I accomplished nothing. Every character you meet, every station you build, all progression you have is trivialized by making the next steps exponentially more complicated.

    I've met ~20 NPCs and the majority of them have some quest for you to complete. Once    I had fun at first and I really liked the aesthetic and idea of this game, but after pouring 15 hours into this game it felt like I accomplished nothing. Every character you meet, every station you build, all progression you have is trivialized by making the next steps exponentially more complicated.

    I've met ~20 NPCs and the majority of them have some quest for you to complete. Once you complete a quest you are rewarded with their gratitude (which is almost worthless) and unlock 3 more quests that are more difficult to accomplish than the last one. This mechanic of ever branching tasks is implemented into every part of the game. I was hoping the further I upgraded my technologies the better my efficiency would get, but it only made grinding for resources that much harder.

    Another progress hindering issue is resource management. It's a never ending juggle of what you can carry vs what you have to store in the multiple storage bins scattered throughout your land. You can never carry enough and there isn't a way to increase your carry storage, so a lot of your time is be spent just walking back and forth storing and retrieving items from said storage bins.

    TL;DR - This game is more complicated than managing your real life and is based on grinding just for the sake of more grinding.    … Expand
  5. Broyax
    Dec 18, 2018
    0
    L'étron indé du jour vous met dans la peau d'un gardien de cimetière... à la fois croque-mort et dealer de cadavres, vous devez les mettre dans le trou et accessoirement en faire des lasagnes, puis les livrer à la taverne du coin. Il faudra aussi gérer et améliorer le cimetière pour qu'il soit plus joli et que les ouailles viennent ensuite à l'église (que vous aurez rénovée) pour filer desL'étron indé du jour vous met dans la peau d'un gardien de cimetière... à la fois croque-mort et dealer de cadavres, vous devez les mettre dans le trou et accessoirement en faire des lasagnes, puis les livrer à la taverne du coin. Il faudra aussi gérer et améliorer le cimetière pour qu'il soit plus joli et que les ouailles viennent ensuite à l'église (que vous aurez rénovée) pour filer des thunes.

    Car entretenir un cimetière, ça coûte du pognon et c'est du boulot... il faut fabriquer des bidules et des trucs, utuliser les outils adéquats et là, dans le genre relou, Graveyard prout est bien gravos et pénible via une interface déplorable et hideuse. Il est gravos également en ce qui concerne son humour (?) de fond de poubelle avec cet âne communiste réactionnaire (il lui manque juste le gilet jaune). Sans compter les bruits, les borborygmes qui servent de "voix" (?) dès que vous parlez à la brochette des trous de balle de ce village miteux.

    C'est donc d'un goût douteux, très douteux à la manière des "graphismes" (?) tout droit sortis d'une vieille Megadrive fatiguenaze qu'on vient de déterrer : du 256 couleurs (et encore) pixélisé exprès à outrance. Pour faire genre "jeu Télérama" et "pixel lard" comme on dit de nos jours.

    Un indé foireux bien gravos donc qu'il faut enterrer... ou plutôt non, balancer à la fosse commune sans cérémonie et sans ménagement.    … Expand
  6. Rbox
    Jan 21, 2021
    1
    I've already spent waaayyy too much time in this game, so in high contrast. I'll keep this short. The grind in this game is beyond aggrevating. it's obnoxious. This is a game for masochists. I want to like it as it is surely enjoyable at first and it would stay so if the grinding would be at acceptable levels. Spoiler: it isn"t. GK desperately needs an overhaul and quality of life cheats.I've already spent waaayyy too much time in this game, so in high contrast. I'll keep this short. The grind in this game is beyond aggrevating. it's obnoxious. This is a game for masochists. I want to like it as it is surely enjoyable at first and it would stay so if the grinding would be at acceptable levels. Spoiler: it isn"t. GK desperately needs an overhaul and quality of life cheats. On PC there are extensive trainer programs - which are a necessity = but on console you're buggered.... Stay clear… Expand
  7. Creiz89
    Jun 3, 2020
    1
    DONT BUY THIS GAME! Its an ok game in itself, but there is good chance your are never going to be able to finish the story/game at all. The devs know about several game breaking bugs, that is already fixed on pc over 6 months ago, but they just abandoned every console release. This kind of game, more than any other, just feels really bad, when you find out that you will never see the end.DONT BUY THIS GAME! Its an ok game in itself, but there is good chance your are never going to be able to finish the story/game at all. The devs know about several game breaking bugs, that is already fixed on pc over 6 months ago, but they just abandoned every console release. This kind of game, more than any other, just feels really bad, when you find out that you will never see the end. Buy Stardew valley instead… Expand
  8. Chunkychipcooki
    Jul 3, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I bought this game in 2018, and I wish I never had. As of July 2020, the game has been in an unplayable state for 6 months. Not only did Xbox owners get charged for dlc that was free on pc, but those dlcs regularly glitched out to the point that you had to wait for a patch to fix them. Buy stardew valley instead.… Expand
  9. viniciuspc
    Apr 6, 2022
    9
    To enjoy this game, you have to be a lover of the game style like Stardew Valley or even Harvest Moon. It mixes crafting, farming and RPG with very intelligent humor. There are many easter eggs like the names of the DLC or the vampire hunter (aka Geralt de Rivia). The history is long and you have to be ready for repetitive tasks - like the other games of the same gender.

Awards & Rankings

70
#70 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 8
  3. Negative: 1 out of 8
  1. GameCritics
    Sep 27, 2018
    75
    Originally, I had planned to write this review after I completed Graveyard Keeper, but after 100 in-game days I still have a ton of quests left, two Church expansions to build, and at least one area left to unlock. I’m not sure how much left there is to this one because it’s the sort of experience that hides its true scope, but I can say that it’s one I have a hard time putting down and I’m looking forward to (hopefully) reuniting the Keeper with his wife.
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  2. XboxAddict
    Sep 14, 2018
    85
    Graveyard Keeper takes a proven, but seldom used, format of game and gives it the fresh twist that needs to feel wholly unique while not straying too far from the blueprints that would make it compelling. Maybe, just maybe, if you aren't too attached to your yearly run through of Luigi's Mansion or Resident Evil 4 for Halloween you'll consider picking up Graveyard Keeper for something different. Or you could do it now... You should do it now.
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  3. TheXboxHub
    Sep 10, 2018
    70
    In all I found Graveyard Keeper to be an enjoyable experience if a little frustrating. It certainly isn’t a game for everyone, but for those that love a good management sim and want something a little different from the norm then Graveyard Keeper is a game I certainly recommend.
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