Raven's Cry (video game)

For 1966 novel, see Raven's Cry (novel).
Raven's Cry
Developer(s) Reality Pump Studios
Publisher(s) TopWare Interactive
Platform(s) Windows, OS X, Linux
Release date(s)
  • WW 30 January 2015

Vendetta: Curse of Raven's Cry

  • WW November 20, 2015
Genre(s) Action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Raven's Cry is a 2015 action-adventure game that interweaves fictional events and characters with historical ones from the 17th century Caribbean.[1] The game is said to feature historically accurate architecture and pirates. The game follows the character of Christopher Raven, who was the only survivor of an attack by pirates, and is now seeking vengeance.[2]

This game is no longer available on Xbox 360 according to TopWare Interactive.[3] The game was re-released as Vendetta: Curse of Raven's Cry on November 20, 2015. As of January 28, 2016, the game was removed from Steam, and is no longer purchasable.

Gameplay

The story is divided into chapters. In these chapters, Christopher, the player controlled character, is tracking down a particular pirate known as Neville Scranton, who he blames for leading the leading some former pirates who took part in the massacre of the only people he has ever loved.

Raven's Cry also features role-playing game elements, including morality system, side-quests, and magic items which can increase character attributes. Systems for 'Fear' and 'Notoriety' make the world around you react to your actions and choices. Killing enemies makes you accumulate 'Fear' which you can use to scare enemies away or as a super attack. The consequence is that everyone in range becomes hostile if you didn't scare them off. 'Notoriety' is increased as you do your murderous thing and similar to Assassin's Creed II's notoriety system with posters on the wall you can rip off. Opponents bleed and suffer which affects the moral aspects of the game. Pirate charms will let you become invincible, summon ravens to rip enemies to shreds, boost attack speed and damage, and even cast some magic.

Development

The original idea and most of work for game was done by a Finnish company called Octane Games which is subsidiary company of Nitro Games. First public announcement of the game happened in 2011 when Octane Games told to local press about the game. They also mentioned that Topware Interactive would publish the game.[4]

Octane Games failed to keep up with development timetables and after many delays in 2013 TopWare Interactive made “tough decision to reorganize the project” which meant that Reality Pump would finish up the game. [5]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings25.71%[6]
Metacritic27/100[7]
Review scores
PublicationScore
GameSpot1/10 [8]
IGN3/10 [9]

Raven's Cry was panned by critics, receiving an extremely rare 1/10 score from GameSpot, the lowest possible score on the site. It received an aggregated score of 25.71% on GameRankings based on 7 reviews; [6] received a 27/100 on Metacritic based on 16 reviews;[7] and a "Mostly Negative" on Steam based on 200 user reviews.[10]

Raven's Cry was accused of being released in an unfinished state, due to the fact that large chunks of the game were missing and the game was unplayable because of frequent bugs and crashes. The game was also criticized for its plot, open world, poor controls and combat, poor voice acting, lack of dialogue, and gameplay that tended to be boring at most points.

Writing for IGN, Brandin Tyrrel gave the game a 3/10, citing its inconsistent dialogue, clunky combat, rigid control and game-stopping crashes. He summarized the review by saying that "I genuinely do think the potential for a good pirate game is in here, somewhere, but Raven’s Cry is a mess of bugs, hazards, hiccups, oversights, and progression-halting crashes. If you never set foot on land, its ship-to-ship combat might be respectable, but this adventure insists on taking you places no self-respecting pirate captain should go." [9]

Daniel Starky, writing for Eurogamer, recommended that people avoid this game. He criticized the plot, stating that "...tension and drama is soon lost...as the plot drops for a noxious cocktail of clichés." He also criticized the open world and combat, stating that " Raven's Cry wants so desperately to have an open world, but never quite understands why" and that "Combat is beyond bland."[11]

Allegra Frank, writing for Polygon, put Raven's Cry among the "Worst videogames of 2015" [12]

Re-release

As a result of the original game's poor critical and community reception, Reality Pump announced on October 19, 2015 that they were planning to re-release the game under the title Vendetta: Curse of Raven's Cry.[13] The new version features new gameplay mechanics, voice-overs, missions, weapons and upgrades. It was finally released on November 20, 2015, and players of the original Raven's Cry will get the new version as a free update.[14] However, the re-release also received negative reviews.

Vendetta: Curse of Raven's Cry was suddenly pulled from Steam on January 28, 2016. Neither Topware nor Reality Pump have released any official explanation for the fact. [15] According to PC Invasion, behind the removal of the game from Valve's digital distribution platform could lie a matter of "fake positive reviews". [16]

References

  1. ↑ "Raven's Cry Preview". IGN. Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  2. ↑ "Raven's Cry". Neoseeker. Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  3. ↑ "NEWS: PIRATE RPG ‘RAVEN’S CRY’ RELEASE DATE RE-CONFIRMED, XBOX 360 RETAIL RELEASE CANCELLED". TheGamesCabin. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
  4. ↑ http://dome.fi/pelit/ajankohtaista/kotkalaisen-octane-gamesin-ravens-cry-julkaistaan-seka-pclle-etta-tehokonsoleille
  5. ↑ http://www.vg247.com/2013/08/27/raven%E2%80%99s-cry-development-now-in-reality-pump-studios-hands/
  6. 1 2 "Raven's Cry for PC reviews". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Raven's Cry for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  8. ↑ Saas, Don (2015-02-09). "Raven's Cry review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  9. 1 2 Tyrrel, Brandin (2015-02-03). "Raven's Cry review: Down with the Ship". IGN. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  10. ↑ "Raven's Cry". Steam. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
  11. ↑ http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-02-13-ravens-cry-review
  12. ↑ http://www.polygon.com/2015/12/30/10689844/the-worst-video-games-of-2015
  13. ↑ Chalk, Andy (October 19, 2015). "Swashbuckling RPG Raven's Cry is being re-named and re-released". PC Gamer. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  14. ↑ Skyes, Tom (November 14, 2015). "Did you buy Raven's Cry? Sign this form to get re-release for free". PC Gamer. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  15. ↑ http://techraptor.net/content/ravens-cry-removed-from-steam
  16. ↑ http://www.pcinvasion.com/topwares-curse-of-ravencry-removed-from-steam-false-reviews-likely-cause

External links

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