Ravenlok

Ravenlok Review

Welcome to my review of Ravenlok. This game is brought to us by Cococucumber (Echo Generation, Riverbond) who developed and published the game. It was originally released onto Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows (Epic Games, Game Pass) on May 4th 2023.

That means this is an Xbox console-exclusive game! For the purpose of my review, I played the game on PC and Steam Deck via Xbox Game Pass for PC.

Enter the Mad World of A Troubled Kingdom

Continue reading to find out more about this game. Let me tell you now, it’s great fun. I honestly can’t believe this game literally slipped under my radar until it came on Game Pass.

I saw a friend on Twitter commenting on how great this game is and to be fair his judgement is usually bang on. So thanks to Jordan (@BERSERKER_THiiS on Twitter) for recommending this one to your friends!

The Game

The game starts us off in our new home that our protagonist’s parents inherited from some family. After plodding around it for a bit, you’re given some basic tasks to perform. Fetch flowers for your mother for the dining table, help her fix the clocks, help dad find his toolbox, you get the idea. I would forgive you if you thought at this point that this game is boring… but stick with it, trust me.

Not too long after, we’re given a key to a barn where we find a mirror. After cleaning the mirror, our character touches it and gets teleported to a strange world. This is where the fun starts. The strange world is the troubled kingdom that we will be fighting for during our adventure.

This troubled kingdom has been corrupted by the evil caterpillar Queen and it’s down to Ravenlok to save the day. The premise of the game is fairly basic really, a bunch of quests, some boss fights, fetch items to take to this character, you know the sort.

However, it’s how this is all played out that makes it so fun. The troubled kingdom is actually a truly beautifully crafted world. The setting is what Alice would expect in Wonderland, a tea party, harlequins trying to rip your head off, and some whacky characters. Of course, there’s far more to it than that but that’s the impression you’ll get.

Ravenlok
The troubled kingdom has a beautiful setting.

Whilst the game isn’t overly difficult, it sure is fun. Combat is some fast-paced hack ‘n slash fun with your sword and shield. You can also use potions to heal as well as offensive items such as fire and magic bombs. As you progress through the game, you will unlock more skills for Ravenlok to use in her adventure.

Such skills are shooting numerous ice missiles that will lock onto your enemies, or charging through enemies with multiple hits. There is more than just the two skills, but of course, I don’t want to spoil everything!

This isn’t Wonderland

There are many areas in the game, each having its own setting, NPCs, quests, and enemies. I do like the variety of quests in the game, even if the idea of them is basically the same.

It isn’t all about taking down foes and finding items for quests. There are also hidden objects for you to find around the world as well as a shop to spend your coins. These will assist you in unlocking some new items from NPCs. On top of those, there is also a small little shop where you can spend the experience points you’ve accumulated from the in-game battles. Spending the XP will result in Ravenlok becoming more powerful, with higher HP, and more damage per slash, the usual kind of upgrades really.

Ravenlok
Hack ‘n Slash Fun!

So yeah, all in all, Ravenlok is most definitely worth a play or purchase. The gameplay from start to finish is great fun albeit fairly easy most of the time. It’s not always about playing a rock-hard game though, it’s enjoying that journey to the finish. Of course, there is 1000G of achievements here for those on the Xbox/Windows Store version. The only downside is this game is rather short. This is definitely a case of quality over quantity though so I am not marking down on any points here!

Look & Sound

I honestly don’t know where to being. It all looks so damn good. I love the effort the team has put into creating the troubled kingdom. Each different area truly stands out to be its own area and doesn’t appear to have borrowed assets from the next area over. Each area is most definitely unique. Even the enemies that pop up to fight you all have a different look in each area.

The aesthetic of the game has a bit of a mix-up. There are fully 3D high-resolution graphics along with some pixel art chucked in. Cococucumber has done an astounding job with the setting of Ravenlok.

It also runs very well considering how nice it looks. Even on the Steam Deck. I had to up the TDP on the Deck to 11W to get it to run smoother in some higher populated areas, but that’s kind of expected really when a game looks this gorgeous and it’s only a little handheld PC.

I will add that I have had absolutely zero frame spikes/drops on my main PC. Even at 4K, this game is quite easy to run which is surprising considering how it looks, see below.

Ravenlok
Absolutely bloody beautiful.

The audio in Ravenlok is something to behold. You have to hear it to fully appreciate my words, but everything sounds incredible. Even though the soundtrack appears to be some fairly short loops, it still sounds brilliant. Again, each area has its own music playing in the background just like it has its own design as mentioned above. From eery and creepy woodlands to more zen-like tracks for when exploring the lesser infected areas. Your ears will most definitely thank you later.

The sound effects in the game are top-class. I recommend playing with earbuds in or a headset on so you can experience the audio to its maximum potential.

Conclusions

Ravenlok is absolutely bloody fantastic. I love the setting of the game, the aesthetic, the audio, and the story. It runs very well even on the Steam Deck via Xbox Game Pass for PC. However, as this is not on Steam I cannot give it a proper Steam Deck status up the top of this review.

I highly recommend you get over to the Game Pass app and install this game, or, purchase it for £20.99 if you don’t have a Game Pass subscription.

You can check out more about the game on the official site.

I score Ravenlock a solid 10/10. Cracking job Cococucumber!

We Score This Game

rating score: 10

Absolutely Fantastic!

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