Open world with a difference: You can play through the fantasy game Ravenbound in an hour

At first glance, Ravenbound looks like a classic open-world adventure, but the game mechanics are completely different. We were already able to play the beta and talked to the developers.

Open game worlds are now often overwhelming. Whether in an Assassin”s Creed Valhalla or The Witcher 3: there is simply so much to discover, side quests to complete and other distractions that are difficult to avoid. But there is another way! The makers of the dino-shooter Second Extinction, Systemic Reaction, are currently working on an open-world adventure that you can theoretically play through in just under an hour – if you”re good enough.

Ravenbound has quite an unusual genre mix to offer: On the one hand, you experience a huge open world – but at the same time it is also a rogue-lite game. If you kick the bucket, you lose almost all of your progress and have to start all over again.

We have already been able to play the beta and talked to the lead game designer Simon Laserna and creative director Emil Kraftling. The two of them also show and explain 16-minute gameplay in the following video:

What is Ravenbound about?

The story of Ravenbound is quickly summarised: Seven gods ruled the land of Ávalt until one of them changed sides and turned against her brothers and sisters. The remaining sacred beings then worked together to fashion a weapon in the shape of a raven to put the evil goddess in her place. Weakened by the crafting, however, they were subsequently hunted down and their immortal souls imprisoned. Now it”s up to you to seize the weapon, free the gods and defeat the evil.

Ravenbound probably won”t win an award for the most innovative story, but that”s not the focus of the developers. They concentrate much more on the gameplay. In classic third-person action you fight your way through various mythical creatures. Genre connoisseurs will also feel right at home: light and heavy attack, dodge, block – you know the drill.

The focus bar is interesting, though. It works like a slightly modified combo counter. If you hit your opponents, it fills up. If they hit you, it empties. If you prefer to proceed cautiously and always wait for the right moment, the counter will also decrease. You want to avoid this as much as possible, as you will deal more damage with a fuller focus bar. Ravenbound encourages you to constantly go into action and risk a counter-hit. However, you should not do this too often, because life points are your most important asset.

What makes Ravenbound so special?

Ravenbound is a rogue-lite, as mentioned earlier. If you die, you start all over again. So all the gods you”ve freed, bosses you”ve hunted down and equipment you”ve put on are gone. The only thing you have left are the items you have collected but not used. Over time, you will master the gameplay and have the right items to defeat the last boss. If you were an absolute natural, you could play through the title in just under an hour – as unlikely as that may be. The developers estimate the playtime to be closer to 10-15 hours.

In action games like Hades, rogue-lite mechanics can be really motivating! But this also doesn”t have an open world that you have to graze over and over again. The hack-&-slash came at just the right time, you can see in the following video:

Ravenbound wants to offer an open game world without many distractions. There are five different regions to explore, each with a buried god. This is guarded by a boss, which you can only reach once three keys have been found in the game world. The keys are also hidden in a different place after each death, so you won”t always get to the same places.

To get from A to B quickly, you can transform into the feathered black beast at so-called Rab towers and fly around quickly. There are also supposed to be a few side quests, but the focus is clearly on the search for the keys. There is also a small town in each region where you can buy equipment. However, the open world does not seem to have much more to offer.

What do we like so far?

• The combat system: The gameplay is snappy, fun and action-packed thanks to the focus bar.
• The genre mix: We can”t complain that Systemic Reaction doesn”t want to try something new. But whether the math works out remains to be seen.

What remains to be done?

• The combat system, again: The basis is there, but we”re not sure yet if the gameplay can motivate us in the long run. How do different weapons play? Skills? Maybe also spells? So far we have only been able to try out the swordplay. So the question is how much variety is in store for us.
• The Open World: While it”s nice not to be saturated with question marks and quest markers, where”s the point of an Open World if there”s nothing to explore? So far it sounds and looks like we are just running from key to key without discovering exciting places with interesting stories.
• The replay value: Systemic Reaction wants to keep players on their toes with free content after release. With different difficulty levels you have new challenges. But will that be enough to get you into the game world again?

Rogue lites can be incredibly motivating. In Hades, I escaped from the underworld dozens of times. For story and gameplay reasons! I”m unsure if I”ll invest a similar amount of time in Ravenbound.

I like the approach of a less overloaded open game world full of question marks and quest markers, but so far the open world seems very generic and doesn”t really invite to explore – if there would be anything to explore at all. And that leaves the question whether the open world was necessary at all.

The story seems more like a means to an end and certainly can”t motivate on its own. So the battle system has to convince – and it does! At least for the short time I spent with the beta. Whether the various pieces of equipment offer enough variety in the gameplay remains to be seen. But the makers probably still have enough time, because they didn”t want to talk about a release date yet.