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Raventhorne 240 pts, $3
The first title we dove into was Raventhorne, which Milkstone Studios graciously provided for us gratis. It's a hack-and-slash game with an interesting animation style and a good graphic polish to it, and reminds me of the always enjoyable arcade game Rastan. There is a decent depth of gameplay, starting with your fighting style. You can go all-out aggressive with double weapons, or you can use a less aggressive yet still manageable defensive style. Your health will not be affected, but your stamina will wear down and, if you empty it, your character will slump a bit and be open to attack. The good thing, however, is the regeneration of stamina- it's automatic. Below is the set-up of your gauges:
The Mana bar gives you magic powers, which are activated with the LB button combined with either the A,B,X, or Y buttons. Your Fight Stance is changed with pressing the RB button, and it allows you to be aggressive, neutral, or defensive. Of course, aggressive makes you more violent but uses more stamina, the defensive keeps your hits lower powered but your stamina will not drastically drain. Leveling up will give your strength and stamina much needed boosts, as you'll be attacked by more difficult and more aggressive enemies. Levels are not terribly large, but they do have branching paths that eventually lead to the same end. They are simple in design but look great, and animate well as you travel across the levels. On the way, aside from monster battles, there are gems floating in the air. Each gem is colored to fill your gauges, and are easily picked up. Even the ones you think you can't reach, using the trigger buttons will make your character dash to either side, even when in the air. This is also good to use in the thick of battle to get away from incoming monster attacks. The monsters are imposing looking things, except for one of the flying dragons. It looks dangerous with lots of teeth, but it seems a bit on the silly side. Actually, looking at it, all I can think of is Robert De Niro in the movie Analyze That, when he says a rorshach card looks like "A pussy with teeth". A silly observation, sure, but I can't help it. It's exactly what I thought when I saw it. Graphically, Raventhorne looks great, sometimes rivaling the bigger studio's look and polish, and the ambient music is pretty good, growing louder as the game dictates during fights. The animations of characters remind me of the segmented characters from games like Contra Hard Corps and Castlevania for the Sega Genesis. Very smooth, very retro. The sound effects of the fight are so-so, it sounds like Double Dragon back in the day. Not bad, but not really there. You could hear the sounds in Raventhorne if you went back in time to the 1980s and were in a pizza place with videogames in the back. Being one of those pizza place dwellers, I appreciate the unintended results Milkstone Studios has delivered. The one thing that I would have wanted was an awareness of how much damage the enemies were taking and how much they had to begin with. Beating things and slashing things to death is fun, but I like to know how much damage I'm dishing. A damage bar would be a good addition via a patch of some sort. In the end, at 240 pts/$3, it's a good title to pick up and slash and hack through, and an admirable job by an indie group. This is one we can definitely recommend you check out. Raventhorne 240 pts, $3 Cute Things Dying Violently 80 pts, $1 Train Frontier Express 240 pts, $3 Battle High San Bruno 80 pts, $1 T.E.C. 3001 240 pts, $3 Doom & Destiny 240 pts, $3 Take Arms 240 pts, $3 SpeedRunner 240 pts, $3 Chester 240 pts, $3 Redd: The Lost Temple 240 pts, $3 |
