Ravenlok Review (PC)

There’s one piece of a mask that I can’t find. The idea is to put together a disguise so I can access a forbidden area and then liberate enslaved creatures. But that can’t happen unless I keep an eye out for another fragment that should be lying somewhere in the foyer of this sprawling mansion.

It’s annoying that there’s no way to get a hint of where to look. So far, my heroine has eliminated two powerful bosses, including a bison that gave me enough of a fight that I was forced to use two healing potions after his special attacks caught me by surprise. I have vanquished countless other enemies on the way to those bosses. But a piece of a broken mask is the thing that I have trouble dealing with.

Maybe I should go to the mirror in the basement, travel to another location, and try to deal with one of the many other quests in my log. The Labyrinth area seems promising, although I have trouble finding a way to get a ticket. I have a lot to do before I get the three keys to face this realm’s tyrannical queen.

Ravenlok is both developed and published by Cococucumber. I played a PC version on the Epic Games Store. The game is also available on the Xbox Series X and S, as well as the Xbox One. The title has classic action adventure mechanics with a distinctive art style for its presentation.

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Ravenlok is a young girl, who recently moved to the countryside with her parents who send her on boring fetch quests. She is yearning for adventure and finds it inside a mirror in an old barn that drags her into a fantasy world that’s designed based on the motifs of Alice in Wonderland. The queen there is a tyrant and an ancient prophecy says that only the protagonist can try to defeat her.

There are a lot of characters to interact with and the cast is pleasantly varied, even if they only slightly deviate from classic templates. There’s some humor and zaniness spread through the world but I found myself skipping over dialogue after around two hours of play. The story will probably appeal to younger gamers who are just getting into the action-adventure genre.

Mechanically, Ravenlok has some well-worn ideas to deploy. Our heroine has a dash to avoid incoming attacks, a sword for classic attacks, a shield to deflect damage, and a series of special attacks that recharge over time. She must use them all to move across the fantasy realm, facing classic enemies and some bosses.

The game is structured as an extended fetch quest. Both mother and father ask to move items around before the call to adventure happens. Before any battles, Ravenlok has to find her own shield and sword (one of them is in a pretty unexpected place). From there, characters will ask her to get items and will then offer their own to deliver to others.

There’s a good variety of locations, although all of them are linear, and plenty of interesting enemies types. On the Normal difficulty level, fighting normal creatures is easy. They aren’t able to detect the player until he is very close and then can be easily outrun by making good use of the dash and sprint.

Even if they catch up, eliminating them is very easy. The normal sword attack is fast enough that, if the player hits an opponent once, he remains stunned until his health drops to zero. For groups, the best strategy is to move around to engage one enemy at a time. I rarely used my shield.

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Boss battles are a little harder and might occasionally require the use of a healing potion or bomb. Tactically, it’s a good idea to notice patterns, avoid clearly signaled attacks, and strike while the boss is recovering. But the first special ability players get is ranged and will reliably whittle down even the biggest health bar.

As previously mentioned, the game can be a little confusing outside of combat, especially when looking for an item or pieces of one to deliver to someone. Players will also encounter some light puzzles. Ravenlok also features the usual vendors and a level-up system for the protagonist, both with limited depth.

The developers also made the weird choice of repopulating cleared areas with enemies. It makes no sense given that the entire game seems designed to appeal to newcomers to the genre or younger players. Some fights feature waves of opponents, which are more tedious than they are challenging.

The game would have worked better if it offered a set of tweakable, separate difficulty options. It could’ve allowed its target audience to move through its narrative easily, with no frustration, while giving veterans the tools to create engagements that force them to use all their tools to succeed.

Ravenlok uses voxel-driven graphics that look pretty impressive, especially when our heroine is fighting one of the bosses or the game opens up to show her a sprawling vista. Most of the characters have familiar designs but the developers give them all an extra touch of style and this fantasy universe is a pleasure to look at, even if there are some minor glitches here and there.

Combat sounds are a little troubling, especially when it comes to the little mushroom men that sound like crying babies when hit. The soundtrack is whimsical and well adapted to the Alice in Wonderland theme but never does anything truly interesting.

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The Good

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Conclusion