Ravenswatch Review

Ravenswatch is the newest roguelike around the block that turned a lot of heads with its Early Access release back in April of 2023. It comes from the folks behind Curse of the Dead Gods, Passtech Games.

Curse of the Dead Gods was pretty good, but Ravenswatch is already on its way to surpass it—and for good reason, too. The hook here is the nine playable characters and a co-op mode. Yeah, it's a co-op mode in a roguelike.

For someone looking at Ravenswatch before playing it, I would not put it past them to deem it similar to Hades. Apart from the art style resembling Hades, Ravenswatch feels more like a Don't Starve meets Diablo sort of deal, but none of it ever feels like old news.

Nine playable characters are based on popular fairy tales and fables, including Little Red Riding Hood, Beowulf, Sun Wukong, and the Pied Piper. The game's setting is dark, so Passtech Games has also twisted the characters' lore.

The creative liberties taken here go well with the combat utilities you get in the game. For example, Little Red Riding Hood turns into a werewolf at night. There's also a quest in the first area you play in where you must gather materials for Mr. Pig, whose house is about to be blown away. There are things like this throughout Ravenswatch, which I found quite entertaining.

Getting into the gameplay of Ravenswatch, once you have picked your character, you're set off into an open jungle where you fight enemies scattered in the area, do quests, and get upgrades from clearing certain areas. If you're coming from Hades, don't expect the fast-paced hack-and-slash you are used to there. Combat here is a lot more deliberate and strategic.

Similar to Don't Starve, there is a day/night cycle here, and your goal is to get as strong as possible in four days to face the nightmare of the area or chapter beat it, and move on to the next one.

Currently, there are three chapters and four difficulties in Ravenswatch, each unlocking when you beat the previous one. When you're out and about in the areas, you might feel like you are playing Jungler in League of Legends with how you're meant to go around the map and gather resources and upgrades. The Diablo-like UI and abilities exemplify this feeling a little bit too.

Every character in Ravenswatch has a basic attack, a power attack, a defensive ability, an ultimate, and a special, but then what that character is and does tends to expand slightly on that. So, as an example, Beowulf uses a little worm that follows him around to augment his abilities. In contrast, the Pied Piper instead uses things like song and a swarm of rats, as you might imagine.

I found there to be a lot of depth in the combat. Most of my time was spent playing Scarlet, the Red Riding Hood because her turning into a werewolf really impressed me. Her human form's got knives, a dash, a throwable bomb, and the ability to cloak herself to de-aggro enemies, whereas her werewolf form is the complete opposite. She becomes a beast with a pounce and a life-steal ability at night.

I found her gameplay loop very enjoyable. During the day, I was tactical and sneaky, but I disregarded all of that whenever the sun went down. I also love her ultimate, which is just a huge shotgun blast.

The progression in Ravenswatch feels like it depends on who you are playing. If you're playing Aladdin or Pied Piper, your progress will feel a little slower at the start of the run, with you mostly going for easy upgrades at the start, like going for chests and Raven's eyes rather than the mini-bosses. There is, of course, a satisfying pay-off in the late game.

Generally, though, you will find new talents as you clear little bunches of mobs and complete events and get stronger that way, with the pace depending on who you play. In the early game, it felt like it was really easy to get overwhelmed if I caught the attention of too many enemies at once on pretty much every character I tried.

There are garbage mobs, special mobs, mini-bosses, and bosses for enemy variety. Typically, trash mobs will approach, strike, or fire you from afar. There are also special mobs that usually possess some sort of talent, such as the enemy who throws a hook at you and drags you through and chops your HP down or the ones that vomit at you.

Ravenswatch becomes a lot more fun when you play it in the co-op mode. The balancing is a little off, but it's still the best way to get used to the game's mechanics while you're new. You can play with up to a group of four, and it doesn't take too long to find a lobby.

I get a lot of Hades vibes from the game's graphics. It looks pretty good for an indie game. There are plenty of effects on the screen when you play, but it's never to the point of taking away from visual clarity. I like the grim, dark choice of colors and the general art style.

While the visuals in Ravenswatch won't wow you, it gets the job done pretty well. It's a story similar to the audio. The music is not too memorable, but it works. It's not bland, nor is it exceptional.

Things that Ravenswatch doesn't do the best; the story isn't anything to write home about. You get bits of background when you die, narrated by your character. Clearly, the story isn't the main focus here, and that's okay because the gameplay makes up for it.

Plus, I wish there was a bit more variety in the areas you explored. Only three biomes hold the game's replay value back. Lastly, the game's overall balancing needs some work. There are some enemies who can one-shot you while being damaged sponges, and that problem worsens in co-op.

When you get down, do it, there is a lot to do in Ravenswatch, and there is inherently a lot of replayability with there being a roguelike with a co-op mode. There is a lot of build variety and depth in how you can play the nine available characters. If you can get yourself invested, I can easily see this game being entertaining for over a hundred hours.

Ravenswatch is a fun roguelike romp with a neat co-op mode, tactical combat, and a lot of memorable characters. Perhaps it lacks the narrative complexity or polish of some other titles within the genre, but its inventive retelling of well-known fairy tale characters and that eerie, atmospheric setting does make it interesting.

The deliberate pacing of combat is a nice change of pace from faster-paced roguelikes like Hades, but some balancing issues and an underwhelming story hold it back from perfection. All things considered, Ravenswatch is a good addition to the roguelike genre, especially for players who enjoy playing games cooperatively. It has great replay value and is definitely one heck of a fun, challenging experience.