Ravensword: Shadowlands

About

In Ravensword: Shadowlands, players explore a vast and detailed world as a descendant of an ancient line of kings, capable of wielding the Ravensword to restore order in a chaotic world filled with dark elven invaders. The game features reflex-based combat, various weapon types, horses and flying mounts, and hundreds of items to discover, all presented in gorgeous and realistic landscapes with seamless first and third-person views.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

49%

Audience ScoreBased on 338 reviews

story26 positive mentions

graphics22 negative mentions

The game offers a nostalgic experience for those who enjoyed it on mobile, with engaging gameplay and a decent skill progression system.
The world map is well-sized, allowing for easy fast travel and exploration, with a variety of environments to discover.
The inventory and quest log systems are well-implemented, making it easy to manage items and track objectives.

The combat system is clunky and unresponsive, often leading to frustrating encounters with enemies.
The story and characters are generic and lack depth, making it hard to become invested in the game's narrative.
The graphics are outdated and do not meet the standards expected from a PC game, especially considering it was originally a mobile title.

story
150 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
73%
10%
The game's story is widely criticized for being generic, bland, and unoriginal, often relying on typical fantasy tropes such as fetch quests and a straightforward quest structure. Many players found the narrative uninspiring and the characters forgettable, leading to a lack of engagement with the plot. While some appreciated the world-building and side quests, the overall consensus is that the story fails to deliver a memorable or compelling experience.
- “For its time, the game offers a huge immersive world with an active and detailed environment, lots of characters to interact with, and an engaging storyline.”
- “They spent a lot of time on the story and the world to really make you feel like you're in this realm, experiencing these experiences.”
- “The story is really cool, simple but entertaining, with a straightforward leveling up system.”
- “The story is nonsensical and very boring.”
- “The main storyline is cliche and straightforward that creates no memorable experience whatsoever.”
- “Boring story, boring dialogue, very little voice acting and even the voice acting itself was bad, no replayability, no care for any of the characters.”
graphics
110 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
61%
20%
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many users noting that they are outdated and lack the polish of more recent titles, often comparing them unfavorably to games like Skyrim and Morrowind. While some appreciate the retro aesthetic and find the visuals acceptable for a mobile port, others criticize them as sub-par, with issues such as poor animations and graphical glitches detracting from the overall experience. Overall, the consensus suggests that while the graphics may not be impressive, they can be overlooked in favor of gameplay and story for those willing to accept the game's limitations.
- “The graphics and OST were done pretty well for a mobile game, and some of the environments were dazzling.”
- “The graphics are amazing for such a low-priced game.”
- “Graphics are nice, the game is smooth, and combat is fun.”
- “The graphics are not the best for a 2013 game, but it is made for mobile and a PC port, so it gets forgiven.”
- “The graphics are very outdated, and they should at least create a patch to enhance the graphics.”
- “The graphics look like a PS2 game, and there are some spoken dialogues, but it's mostly just text, much like a PS1 game.”
gameplay
63 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
68%
14%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players noting its rough mechanics, lack of depth, and numerous glitches. While some find it enjoyable and engaging, especially for a budget title, others criticize it as being overly simplistic and reminiscent of mobile games, lacking the polish expected from a PC RPG. Overall, it seems to offer a basic experience that may appeal to those with low expectations, but it falls short compared to more established titles like Skyrim.
- “The gameplay is quite fun, but there is not a lot of content. I have beaten this game 3 times on my computer and once on my iPad.”
- “The basic gameplay was enjoyable for me, and I liked the straightforward quests.”
- “As for gameplay, the controls are easy to pick up and the gameplay and quests are engaging, as is the storyline.”
- “I won't sugarcoat it, the gameplay is pretty rough, and it's pretty hard, definitely not for the faint of heart.”
- “The gameplay is kind of barebones for an RPG, with a small skill tree where most branches aren't really needed.”
- “While some aspects of the game are admirable, the short length, glitches, and simple gameplay drag the experience down.”
stability
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
96%
The game suffers from numerous stability issues, including visual bugs, glitches that hinder gameplay, and an overall lack of polish. Many players report frustrating experiences with uncompleted quests and combat mechanics that feel broken. While some aspects of the game are enjoyable, the pervasive bugs significantly detract from the overall experience.
- “The game runs smoothly without any bugs.”
- “I experienced no crashes or glitches during my playthrough.”
- “The stability of the game allowed me to fully immerse myself in the experience.”
- “The biggest problem for Ravensword, however, is the amount of technical glitches and overall lack of polish.”
- “This game is incredibly buggy; I experienced several bugs within the first minute of playing.”
- “Buggy as hell, the landscape and geometry are boring and not even put together right (giant spaces between walls and floor, floating houses), boring combat, and the 'dark elves' look like humans except that they have red armor.”
music
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
58%
13%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising its quality and ability to evoke nostalgia for titles like Elder Scrolls and Might and Magic. However, the limited number of tracks leads to repetitiveness, and some players noted that certain soundtracks can be overly dramatic for their settings. Overall, while the soundtrack is generally well-received, it suffers from a lack of variety and can feel derivative at times.
- “Nice music reminding me of Might and Magic 6-7-8-9.”
- “The soundtrack is surprisingly high quality and pleasant to listen to.”
- “Music sounds nice and is setting-appropriate.”
- “The soundtrack has some bangers, but the fact there's only something like 4-6 tracks makes it a bit repetitive.”
- “The music score is repetitive (probably to keep file size down) but well-done, and there's a decent amount of varied enemies to fight.”
- “In every aspect, it tries to remind you of Oblivion, especially in the first city, where the music is almost the same.”
grinding
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The reviews indicate that grinding is a significant aspect of the game, with some players finding it enjoyable while others view it as tedious and excessive. While a few users appreciated the balance of grinding for experience and resources, many criticized the repetitive nature of the gameplay and the lack of engaging content, leading to a diminished replay value. Overall, opinions on grinding vary, with some tolerating it for the sake of progression, while others feel it detracts from the overall experience.
- “Game requires massive grinding to get anywhere.”
- “The controls are glitchy, the game is grindy, it's just plain not fun.”
- “Ravensword is generic, contains mostly empty non-detailed areas, boring fights and a lot of grinding - feels like an MMO without other players.”
humor
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is characterized by a blend of unintentional comedic moments, such as animation bugs and quirky enemy deaths, which often elicit laughter rather than frustration. Players appreciate the game's charm and the amusing references to other titles, particularly the Elder Scrolls series, despite its overall lack of polish and technical issues. The lighthearted tone and funny gameplay quirks contribute to an enjoyable experience, making it more of a "funny bad" game than a purely frustrating one.
- “I was chuckling to myself the whole 20 something hours I was playing this game.”
- “It has the perfect mix of unpolished gameplay, length, and charm to be more funny bad than frustrating bad.”
- “The enemy soldiers die in such a weird, funny way during the prologue that it only misses a Wilhelm scream to make it so funny that I would laugh - this way I was just giggling.”
replayability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Overall, the game offers around 8 hours of content but lacks significant replayability, with many players noting a boring story and minimal character engagement. While the gameplay is enjoyable on the first playthrough, the absence of compelling elements for subsequent runs diminishes its long-term appeal.
- “There isn't much replay value, but it does have a fair story and fun gameplay.”
- “On a first playthrough, I kind of like a little bit of grinding, whether it's for experience or for gold, but in a shorter game like this, it would kill replay value.”
- “The only downside is I wish there was some replay value.”
- “It's roughly 8 hours of content but not much replay value.”
- “On a first play-through, I kind of like a little bit of grinding, whether it's for experience or for gold, but in a shorter game like this, it would kill replay value.”
- “Boring story, boring dialogue, very little voice acting and even the voice acting itself was bad, no replayability, no care for any of the characters.”
emotional
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The emotional aspect of the game is perceived as lacking, with users noting a boring story, poor dialogue, and minimal character engagement, leading to a lack of emotional investment. While some appreciate the game's low-stress nature for casual play, it ultimately fails to evoke strong feelings or connections with the characters.
- “But when you just want a game that you can sit down and play on a Saturday and won't have to ride an emotional, stressful roller coaster game (like Heavy Rain or something like that), then this is nice.”
- “Boring story, boring dialogue, very little voice acting, and even the voice acting itself was bad. There is no replayability and no care for any of the characters.”
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game's optimization is a mixed bag; while it is accessible for casual players, many users report significant performance issues on PC, including low frame rates and a lack of graphical options. Overall, the game struggles to run smoothly, even on high-end systems, leading to a frustrating experience for players.
- “The game is pretty optimized for a casual audience.”
- “If this game was less buggy and able to run smoothly, I would give it a 7.5/10 stars.”
- “The game itself is poorly optimized for PC, running far worse in certain areas than games of much higher quality and detail ever would, and also looks rather poorly to boot.”
- “It's also horribly optimized; even on a high-end PC, I get 10-15 FPS, with no options for changing graphics.”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
67%
The atmosphere of the game is characterized by a blend of 1970s fantasy and horror elements, but is undermined by inconsistent graphics and unappealing textures. While some improvements have been made over the mobile version, the cartoonish design of the environments fails to resonate with players, detracting from the overall immersive experience.
- “Some of the monsters have a sort of 1970's art style to them, giving an atmosphere of fantasy with some savage horror.”
- “Some of the monsters have a sort of 1970's art style to them, giving an atmosphere of fantasy mixed with savage horror.”
- “The graphics are a mess in some places, and it really detracts from the overall atmosphere.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
100%
Many users express frustration with the prevalence of heavy microtransactions in mobile game ports, noting that it's rare to find a game without them, with "Ravensword: Shadowlands" cited as a notable exception.
- “This is because they're usually saturated with heavy microtransactions, which are very common in the smartphone marketplace.”
- “This is because they're usually saturated in heavy microtransactions, which are very common on the smartphone marketplace.”
- “Rarely do we see a port without microtransactions; Ravensword: Shadowlands is one of these examples.”