Info about GRAVEN:

Official game description:
  
A faithful priest of the Orthogonal order–exiled unto death for a crime in defense of another–you live again in a small boat, adrift in a swamp. A stranger ferries you to solid ground and bestows upon you a cryptic warning, along with a mysterious staff and book. Go forth, pious priest, alleviate suffering, uncover deceptions, and smash the eldritch perversions encroaching upon reality itself.  
Perhaps you will even earn your peace.  
A marriage between modern development tools and techniques with a stark late 90s aesthetic brings the first person action-adventure GRAVEN to life! Featuring character designs by Chuck Jones (Duke Nukem 3d, Half-Life) and the voice talent of Stephan Weyte (Blood, Fire Emblem, Dusk) in a dark yet distinct medieval fantasy experience.  
*   Solve puzzles and scour lore to uncover the motives of the foul heretical sects behind the plagues and seasons undermining the land.  
*   Spread fires, charge machinery, reveal hidden paths, and freeze rivers to walk across.  
*   Discover new weapons and upgrade them at blacksmiths and alchemists to customize your capability.  
*   Expand your horizons by returning to old stomping grounds with new abilities and seeing how far down the chasms go and what powers they hide.  
*   Slay over twenty distinct enemies and three bosses in an ever broadening world across multiple biomes.  
*   Band together with up to 7 friends in hectic cooperative play.  
*   Walk the parallel path, lest you stumble into the recesses of the world and reality becomes only a bitter plaything.

Release date: 23 Jan, 2024

Categories: First-Person Shooter, Cooperative Multiplayer, Puzzle Solving, Exploration, Metroidvania, Immersive Sim, Weapon Customization, Character Progression


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Atmospheric world, rewarding exploration (weight 0.71): The game's strongest aspects are its detailed environments, cohesive atmosphere, and appealing art style, often complemented by a well-crafted and immersive soundtrack. Exploration is consistently rewarding, with secrets and puzzles integrated into the world.
- Nostalgic, retro shooter feel (weight 0.25): The game successfully evokes a nostalgic feeling reminiscent of classic 90s shooters like Hexen and Heretic, blending retro aesthetics with modern design elements. This appeals to both older players and those new to the genre.
- Strong first act, pacing issues (weight 0.08): Many reviewers noted that the first act of the game is particularly well-made and enjoyable, with engaging exploration, NPCs, and sidequests. Later acts are generally considered shorter or less polished.
- Potential as immersive sim (weight 0.06): The game has potential as an atmospheric fantasy immersive sim, with light immersive sim elements. The aesthetics and environmental design are appealing, and the game design is great.
- Integrated puzzles, sequence breaking (weight 0.05): The game features well-designed puzzles that are thoughtfully integrated into the environment, encouraging exploration and rewarding problem-solving. Players can also sequence break some parts of the game by stacking boxes and barrels.
- Intriguing story, excellent ambience (weight 0.04): The game features an intriguing story set in a dark medieval fantasy world, where players uncover secrets through environmental storytelling and cryptic notes. The game's ambience is excellent, with great sound effects and music that enhance the feeling of being in a plague-ridden world.
- Interconnected levels, useful shortcuts (weight 0.04): The game incorporates interconnected levels and unlockable shortcuts to alleviate backtracking, encouraging exploration without feeling repetitive. This design choice enhances the player's ability to navigate the world and discover new areas.
- Well-designed, challenging boss fight (weight 0.03): The final boss fight is well-designed and challenging, requiring attention to both the boss and ad management. The checkpoint system prevents full resets upon death, allowing players to respawn outside the arena and re-enter with the boss's health partially depleted or unchanged.
- Fluid, responsive movement (weight 0.03): The game's movement animations and fluidity stand out, and the movement feels responsive. This contributes to a more enjoyable and immersive gameplay experience.

Common complaints:
- Unfinished, buggy, and lacks direction (weight 0.97): The game suffers from numerous issues that detract from the overall experience.  These include a lack of a map, poor direction, confusing level design, a flawed save system that causes backtracking, and significant bugs that can halt progress. Many reviewers feel the game was released in an unfinished state.
- Poor combat and enemy design (weight 0.53): Combat is a significant weakness, with simplistic boss battles, unbalanced enemies, and poor AI.  Enemies often respawn in illogical locations, leading to frustrating encounters and undermining any sense of progress. The limited enemy variety and repetitive actions further contribute to a monotonous experience.
- Obtuse puzzles and objectives (weight 0.18): The game's puzzles and objectives are often vague and poorly designed, leading to frustration and the need for external guides.  Exploration is often unrewarding, with critical items hidden in obscure locations and a repetitive structure that involves finding keys to find other keys.
- Poor inventory and weapon balance (weight 0.15): The inventory system is restrictive and poorly designed, making it difficult to manage weapons and items.  Weapon balance is also an issue, with many weapons feeling weak and underpowered, leading players to rely on a limited selection.
- Poorly implemented stamina system (weight 0.14): The stamina system is poorly implemented and unnecessary, restricting basic actions like sprinting and jumping.  This system adds tedium to exploration and combat, with little apparent benefit.
- Underpowered and useless spells (weight 0.12): Spells are underpowered and ineffective in combat, primarily serving as puzzle-solving tools. This limits player options and makes combat less engaging, especially for those expecting a magic-focused experience.
- Harsh death penalty (gold loss) (weight 0.09): The game penalizes players for dying by removing a significant portion of their gold, which is needed for upgrades and gear. This harsh death penalty, especially when combined with game bugs, adds to the frustration.
- Melee ineffective in later acts (weight 0.09): Melee combat becomes ineffective after Act 1 due to enemy damage and health scaling, combined with stamina consumption. This forces players to rely on ranged weapons, limiting combat options.
- Lacks a clear identity (weight 0.08): The game struggles to find its identity, attempting to blend elements from various genres without success. This lack of focus results in a disjointed experience that fails to satisfy players expecting a specific type of game.
- Uninspired story and locations (weight 0.06): The game's locations and story are uninspired and forgettable, failing to create a compelling world for the player to explore. Areas often feel empty and lack meaningful content, diminishing the overall experience.
- Tedious crate-breaking for loot (weight 0.06): Players spend an excessive amount of time breaking boxes and barrels for loot, which becomes tedious and detracts from the core gameplay. This repetitive action is often more prevalent than actual combat.
- Negative emotional experience (weight 0.06): This cluster contains emotional language without specific details. It also contains hyperbolic claims without evidence. Therefore, the importance score is reduced by 90%.
- Game is receiving undeserved hate (weight 0.06): This cluster contains emotional language without specific details. It also contains hyperbolic claims without evidence. Therefore, the importance score is reduced by 90%.
- Ranged weapons lack impact (weight 0.06): Ranged weapons, particularly the crossbows, suffer from poor hit feedback, accuracy issues, and inconsistent damage. This makes ranged combat less satisfying and reliable.
- Short campaign, limited content (weight 0.05): The game's short campaign and limited content suggest potential DLC plans that were likely abandoned. The later acts are smaller and less developed, possibly due to development issues.

Gameplay feedback:
- Exploration-focused, lacks map, save limitations (weight 0.24): The game emphasizes non-linear exploration through intricate, interconnected levels reminiscent of Soulslike games and old-school FPS titles. However, the absence of a map and limited save points can lead to navigation challenges and backtracking, frustrating some players.
- Mixes FPS, RPG, Metroidvania elements (weight 0.15): The game blends FPS, RPG, and Metroidvania elements, drawing inspiration from classic titles like Hexen and immersive sims. This combination results in a unique experience that emphasizes exploration, puzzle-solving, and strategic combat.
- Magic is mainly for puzzles (weight 0.09): Magic is present in the game, but its primary function is puzzle-solving rather than combat. Some reviewers found this disappointing, as they expected magic to be a more integral part of the combat experience.
- Game divided into acts (weight 0.03): The game is divided into acts, with the first act being the most fleshed out in terms of design. Later acts are more streamlined and resource-rich.
- Weapons and spells are upgradable (weight 0.03): Players can upgrade weapons and spells to enhance their effectiveness, allowing for some customization of their play style.
- Kick attack is weak/useless (weight 0.03): The kick attack is considered weak and unreliable, providing little utility in combat.
- Inconsistent number of enemy types (weight 0.02): There are conflicting reports on the number of enemy types in the game, with some reviewers claiming over 30 and others reporting only 5 or 6.

Performance notes:
- Good customization options (weight 0.03): The game offers a range of customization options, including gamma, FOV, frame rate limit, audio volumes and key rebinding. These features allow players to tailor the game to their preferences and hardware.
- Crossbow obscures visibility (weight 0.01): The crossbow's excessive particle effects obstruct the player's view, making it difficult to track enemies and confirm kills. This negatively impacts combat clarity and player feedback.
- Items stuck in environment (weight 0.01): Money and items from chests can become stuck in the environment, preventing the player from collecting them. This can impact resource acquisition and character progression.
- Performance degrades after loading (weight 0.01): The game's performance degrades after loading a save file, suggesting a potential issue with save game implementation or memory management. This can lead to a less enjoyable experience over time.
- Fire spell lacks effects (weight 0.01): The fire spell lacks visual effects, making it feel underwhelming and less impactful. This detracts from the overall visual experience and feedback of using the spell.
- Kicking skulls causes spinning (weight 0.01): Kicking skulls causes unintended character spinning, disrupting player orientation. This can lead to disorientation and control issues.

Recommendations:
- Unpolished with unrealized potential (weight 0.75): Many reviewers express mixed feelings, acknowledging the game's potential and interesting premise, but ultimately find it difficult to recommend due to a combination of bugs, lack of polish, and design issues. Some suggest waiting for updates or purchasing only at a steep discount, while others advise avoiding the game altogether in its current state. The game's unfinished state after a long early access period is a recurring concern.
- Compared unfavorably to classic FPS (weight 0.19): Many reviewers compare the game to classic titles like Hexen, Heretic, and other '90s FPS games, with mixed results. Some find the game to be a nostalgic throwback that captures the essence of these older titles, while others feel that it falls short of their standards or implements the Hexen-like elements poorly. Some reviewers recommend playing the original games instead.
- Tedious and tests patience (weight 0.08): Some reviewers found the game to be tedious, testing patience more than skill. Some suggest quitting after the first act, while others recommend taking your time to soak in the game slowly. The game's difficulty is also a point of contention, with some advising against playing for those who dislike challenging experiences.
- Only worth it on sale (weight 0.07): Several reviewers suggest that the game is only worth purchasing on sale, with some feeling that the full price is too high for the amount of content or the quality of the experience. Some reviewers accuse the developers of trying to cash in on nostalgia or releasing an unfinished product for profit.
- Inconsistent boomer shooter experience (weight 0.05): Some reviewers feel the game does not deliver on the boomer shooter experience. However, some reviewers find the atmosphere great and the developers put effort into recreating an old-style FPS.
- Needs improvements via patches/mods (weight 0.03): Some reviewers suggest mods that fix certain issues. They also hope for patches to improve the game, particularly the combat, saving system, and fast travel.
- Rushed release speculation (weight 0.01): One reviewer speculates that the game may have been rushed to release the Ion Fury sequel, which is also rumored to be of poor quality. This is a potential concern about development priorities.
- Uncertain patch improvements (weight 0.01): One reviewer expresses uncertainty about whether the game will be improved through patches. This highlights a lack of confidence in the developers' ability to address the game's issues.
- Game is dull (weight 0.01): One reviewer simply states that the game is dull, which is a subjective assessment but indicates a lack of engagement or excitement.

Other player notes:
- Dark, immersive medieval fantasy setting (weight 0.1): The game is set in a dark, medieval fantasy world with a grim aesthetic, drawing inspiration from games like Hexen. Reviewers highlight the detailed environments and atmosphere as key elements of the world-building.
- Uncertain development status/support (weight 0.09): The game's development status is a concern, with some reviewers noting slow updates, lack of communication, and potential delays. Others mention active development and improvements, but uncertainty remains regarding the final release and developer support.
- Potential softlocks/progression issues (weight 0.04): Some players have encountered softlocks or progression blockers, while others haven't experienced these issues. The developers are reportedly working to address these problems, particularly given the game's Early Access status.
- Intentionally high difficulty (weight 0.02): The game is designed to be difficult, with the difficulty impacting enemy placement, enemy types and loot scarcity. The game emphasizes its difficulty.
- Co-op mode with bugs (weight 0.02): The game features a co-op mode, although some reviewers have noted the presence of bugs within this mode.
- Broken dog petting animation (weight 0.02): The animation for petting the dog is reportedly broken, which is a regression from the demo version of the game.
- Atmospheric music (weight 0.01): The game's music complements and enhances the overall atmosphere, contributing to the immersive experience.
- Exiled priest protagonist (weight 0.01): The player character is a priest exiled for saving another, setting the stage for the game's narrative.
- Sudden episode transitions (weight 0.01): The game abruptly transitions to the next episode after a boss fight, potentially catching players off guard.
- Misleading 'extra missions' (weight 0.01): The game advertises 'extra missions' but only contains one additional mission.
- Notable character design/voice acting (weight 0.01): The game features character design by Chuck Jones (Duke Nukem 3D, Half-Life) and voice acting by Stephan Weyte (Blood, Fire Emblem, Dusk).

Emotions:
No emotions}