Nostalgia is always in fashion. Remakes, remasters, a return to retro … At the same time, the recreation of the classics is sometimes given to the developers much more difficult than it seems. Any forgotten or ignored trifle, any inconsistency with the spirit of that time – and the fans will peck on the spot. When it comes to remakes and remasters, the power of the original can sometimes pull out new artistic choices that have not been accepted by society, but what about imitating the old era? Everything is much more complicated here.
In order to perform well in the old-school genre, simply the graphic performance in the retro style is not enough. Masterpieces of all time like Quake or Blood pleased at one time not only with their appearance, but in general were excellent games with hurricane gameplay. Yes, the level design of that time, involving the search for access cards or keys, is now not impressive, but thanks to the high-speed shooting of enemies and a good challenge, all this went to the side, because it was fun to play, and even now it is too. Therefore, when the developers of the next modern “back to basics” give out excellent stylization, but forget about the gameplay, their projects are quickly forgotten and useless. I learned this truth earlier David Shimanskywho made his DUSK not a trivial homage to shooters of the 90s, but also furious and amazing action. As a result, he was waiting for success and recognition from critics and players. Unfortunately, Graven in its current state of Early Access missed all the lessons taught by predecessors.
The game opens with a small sketch (in the literal sense) about our hero – a minister of the Orthogonal Order, who was exiled for the fact that he went against his own people to save his daughter from the sacrifice. He is sent to gloomy places, plagued by a plague, which has given rise to very unpleasant creatures. And at this moment the plot disappears, there is no development. Basically, if you remove the intro and make the protagonist faceless, the game will lose almost nothing.
From the first steps, you pay attention not only to the graphics, but also to the environment. Unlike what we saw in the forefathers of this game, Heretic and Hexen, here many subjects are subject to physics. It would seem that this is the freedom for developers – work out a minimal program in the spirit of Half-life 2, and you get an interesting fusion of new and old. However, unfortunately, physics here also plays only the role of window dressing – it is practically not involved in solving the same riddles, and it remains only to guess why Slipgate ironworks decided to ignore this aspect.
But what the authors decided to stake on was the repetition of the trends of the bearded times. As a result, we have constant backtracking and archaic level design. The hero must deal with enemies and look for clues, but it is often completely incomprehensible where to go next. I wonder how a player who does not explore every inch of the location should guess that the key with the turtle emblem opens the very gate hidden under the water? Unfortunately, there is enough of this in the preview version of Graven.
And the main problem is that the gameplay in the game at this stage is just boring. This is largely the fault of the balance: the weapons in Graven are too powerful for the small bestiary that inhabits the location. All ground opponents are killed by the simplest tactics – hit and move to the right or left, and flying enemies do not pose any problems at all and are calmly destroyed by small arms, for which there is much more ammunition than necessary.
The most powerful weapon is the sword, and it can be obtained almost at the beginning of the game, thereby reducing the degree of difficulty to almost zero. There is no death in Graven as such. If you die unexpectedly (otherwise it’s hard to lose), the system will throw you back to the respawn point, leaving the world and your inventory in the same position. As a result, there is no challenge, and there are no bosses yet. The magic, which is needed only for setting fire to barrels and cobwebs, is also disappointing.
In some places, all this is surprising, because the previous demo was distinguished by a balance for the better, and more useful magic, and in some places even better artistic solutions. The current early access is very timidly trying to acquaint players with Graven, but as if it is afraid to lay out all the cards at once. At the same time, there are unpleasant bugs associated with the respawn system (sometimes open doors turn into invisible impassable walls) and enemy debris that are able to launch their own airline network with the delivery of the client to unknown countries at ultrasonic speed.
Now Graven is hard to recommend for acquaintance – its potential is not revealed at all, and one visual will not go far. The first feedback has already been received by the developers, and they are preparing in the near future not only to fix bugs, but also to correct some controversial points, which gives little hope for a much more interesting project in the future. The main thing is a little more enthusiasm and ingenuity, because you can’t go away by imitating the classics alone.
Author: Den Leshchenko (dozensnake)
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