- May 25, 2021
- Slipgate Ironworks™
- 7h median play time
GRAVEN
Graven has enough puzzles, secrets, weapons, and spells to keep it engrossing and compelling throughout.
Platforms
About
"GRAVEN is a single-player or co-op shooter game with puzzles, set in a detailed medieval fantasy world. As a priest, use spells and crystals to combat eldritch perversions and uncover the motives of heretical sects. Despite some bugs and grinding, GRAVEN boasts splendid gameplay, outstanding visuals, and masterful music, with character designs by Chuck Jones and voice talent from Stephan Weyte."











- Graven has a captivating atmosphere and art style that evokes nostalgia for classic games like Heretic and Hexen.
- The game features rewarding exploration with plenty of secrets and upgrades to discover, enhancing the overall experience.
- Combat can be satisfying, especially with certain weapons like the shotgun crossbow and the peat launcher, providing a fun gameplay loop.
- The save system is frustrating, as players are returned to the hub area upon quitting, losing progress and having to backtrack through respawned enemies.
- The lack of a map makes navigation confusing, leading to aimless wandering and difficulty in finding objectives.
- Many spells and weapons feel underwhelming or ineffective in combat, detracting from the overall enjoyment of the gameplay.
- gameplay472 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
The gameplay of Graven has received mixed feedback, with many players enjoying its nostalgic elements reminiscent of classic titles like Hexen, but also expressing frustration over numerous bugs, clunky mechanics, and a lack of engaging combat. While some appreciate the atmosphere and potential for fun, others criticize the confusing level design, ineffective enemy AI, and a save system that detracts from the overall experience. Overall, the game shows promise but requires significant improvements to its core mechanics and polish to fully realize its potential.
“The thrill of navigating through its challenges while enjoying the buttery-smooth Unreal Engine gameplay is an absolute joy.”
“Its distinct gameplay mechanics and immersive world make it truly unique.”
“The gameplay hits all the right spots--upgrades, rewards for exploring, and impressive level design!”
“Gameplay is janky in general with some very frustrating design choices that ruin the fun, such as making you lose money every time you die.”
“It's turned into a bland, boring, poorly optimized, uninspired mess which threw out the imsim spell casting in favor of mechanical and poorly thought out puzzles that have spell casting elements.”
“Overall, I am saddened; I enjoyed the beginning greatly but it failed to capitalize on the core elements of its gameplay, overall failing to create a cohesive story or a consistently enjoyable gameplay loop.”
Graven review
Graven has enough puzzles, secrets, weapons, and spells to keep it engrossing and compelling throughout.
75%GRAVEN Review (PC)
GRAVEN aims for an intriguing combination of exploration, combat, and puzzle solving. All are decent, neither is truly good and the game cannot seem to decide what kind of experience it wants to create. I really wanted to use the spells, especially fire, to kill enemies, without resorting to blades or arrows. It doesn’t help that the fictional world feels derivative, and it is feel a connection to our Orthogonal hero. The game really needs a map. GRAVEN could have offered an interesting update on Hexen but it’s just a sometimes enjoyable mix of combat and puzzle work. Review key provided by the publisher.
75%Graven Review – An Old-School Identity Crisis
Graven feels like it’s a game with a identity crisis. Along with being a boomer shooter, it also feels like it’s trying to be an RPG, a dungeon crawler, and an immersive sim. Sadly, none of these ideas really feel like they come together well enough, and even the core combat feels incredibly unsatisfying owing to a lack of hit reactions from enemies. This is a shame, considering how interesting its world actually ends up being.
60%