Graven | Review

Győző "FairyEmpire" BakiJune 26, 2024Last Updated: June 26, 2024

0 1,110 8 minutes read

After becoming an FPS powerhouse in the 1990s, mainly thanks to classics like Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior, the studio failed to keep up with the times in later decades, eventually even closing down. A revamped 3D Realms, however, has been hitting us with 90’s style, yet brand new shooters that they either developed or published, such as Ion Fury and Wrath: Aeon of Ruin. So is the case for Graven, a dark fantasy FPS released previously on PC and now available on consoles – let’s check it out, shall we?

This ain’t no boomer shooter!

The retro-oriented shooters that have come out in recent years have, almost in all cases, a lot in common with the likes of Doom, Quake, Heretic, and Duke Nukem 3D. While there’s some level of exploration, puzzle-solving and so on, a huge chunk of the time is spent fighting large hordes of enemies, with a quite generous amount of bullets at their disposal, making for a brutal tango. Players get to strafe around at high speed, maneuvering around and in-between enemies, herding them around to maximize damage and minimize health loss in the smartest ways. Graven is very much NOT like that. At all.

Sure it’s a first-person shooter, and at a glance, it seems to be inspired by dark fantasy classic FPS games like Raven Software’s Heretic and Hexen games. Yet, Graven’s approach also takes several cues from role-playing games, immersive sims, and even soulslikes, making the game feel not only a lot less linear, but also more varied, less focused on non-stop barrages of enemies, and even prioritizing smart and careful planning as opposed to just blasting non-stop. This approach makes Graven a unique experience, in some ways for the better and others for the worse.

Now where were we?

After introducing a plot about a conflicted and now exiled man, trying to reconnect to a daughter that he may no longer see, a plot that quite frankly doesn’t go in any memorable direction, players are set into the action immediately – well, sort of. After an opening sequence in a boat that seems to wink at Half-Life’s iconic beginning, the player enters this world in first person, with 3D graphics mimicking the late 90’s, early 00’s era of shooters – relatively simple models in terms of polygons, not the highest of resolutions on the textures. But it all feels just right: the game’s high resolution and more modern control methods make Graven feel like a positive retro experience, rather than something held back by its apparent time – apparent, because Graven is, for all intents and purposes, a brand new game.

Of course, Graven’s development was… far from smooth. The early access on Steam began bn 2021, with a promising segment of the opening act, inspiring many to invest and look forward to what’s to come. Then the game… sort of disappeared from radars. Sure, there were some updates here and there, but the expectation of the full campaign hitting anytime soon was getting shattered time and time again, only finally arriving on PC in 2024, almost 3 whole years later – with the console ports delayed by another couple months, even. So, how was that opening segment of the game, and does the rest of the game hold up to those standards? Does it perhaps even surpass it? I’d say it’s a bit of both.

I’m lost in these memories

As said, Graven is not your typical boomer shooter, and indeed, the opening set around a small medieval town is proof enough. Players get to interact with townsmen, do small talk with them, get side quests, and run to the local smith or magician to buy new weapons, gear, and potions, upgrading them even as the events unfold. There is a high level of interactivity even within the world itself, as there are tons of destructible items such as boxes and barrels, with almost anything of decent size that can even be grabbed and taken anywhere, offering that “imam”–esque freedom that many players like. And the action is hardly non-stop, with long spells dedicated to exploration, puzzle-solving, or just taking in the game’s interesting lore – with ambiental storytelling, notes to find, convoluted secrets, and more that end up rewarding the more curious and thorough players.

The level design is one of the most peculiar aspects of Graven – both for the better and worse, to be frank. Levels feel closer to something like Dark Souls: interconnected hubs, new paths, and shortcuts that keep opening up as the player progresses, without forgetting the tons of backtracking. Progression is often tied to solving environmental puzzles, finding keys, and so forth, but the game is very cryptic about its clues. This brought me to a lot of standstills, making me wonder if I missed something in a new area, whether I needed to go back to a previous zone, or what to do at this point. An in-game diary helps keep track of certain clues, but they so often feel like arbitrary solutions rather than something logical, making for some heavy time losses in an already meaty campaign. Still, the game’s visuals and art style are legitimately gorgeous, with medieval architecture, fantasy elements and more creating vast levels with excellent vistas that just kept me wanting more and more, even through a few frustrating roadblocks.

Grave Souls

I wouldn’t call Graven “the Dark Souls of shooters”, except maybe for the memes, but the similarities to the From Software-created franchise and genre don’t end there. It’s quite difficult, due to a relatively limited amount of ammo and enemies taking away plenty of health – though there are 5 levels of difficulty to choose from, allowing even newcomers to have a good time. Graven does not feature a quick save system, not even manual saves. It mixes save and respawn points in a somewhat convoluted fashion. Sensing a pattern here, are you? When the player dies, they lose some of their gold and are then respawned with a good bunch of health but no added ammunition or mana at the closest respawn point – which is usually never more than a minute’s walk or so away. But unlike most games, and more in line with something like Bioshock, the progression itself isn’t lost – enemies that were already damaged or killed stay in that state, and never seem to come back. Except when they do, I guess?

Destroyed and grabbed items do get restored when crossing a loading screen, which happens pretty often when crossing from one hub to another, but not too consistently. Likewise, enemies normally don’t respawn, apart from some that sometimes do for no apparent reason. Did we venture too far? Did an invisible timer run out somewhere? I don’t know, but I’ve revisited certain areas half a dozen times, only not to find enemies beyond the first passage and then, several hours later, suddenly find more. Oddly enough, however, when exiting the game, the player is sent back to the nearest town/village, which is sometimes very far away – and, most worryingly, every single enemy (except for bosses) is then respawned all across the world. This never happens otherwise, only when exiting the game, and it feels like a needless waste of time and effort that just makes the necessary re-exploration of certain areas a slog. Word of advice? If you’re on Xbox, use Quick Resume and try not to ever quit the game – and if you have to, do so before moving on to a completely new area, rather than in the middle of a segment. Quick Resume enhances Graven by circumventing one of its bizarre design quirks.

But when do we shoot?

It’s funny that in a lengthy review for a first-person shooter we barely even talked about how the actual shooting feels – but fret not, Graven is a lot of fun, even on a controller. With a moderately high movement speed, a well-made aiming system, and generous aim assists, this game feels at home with an Xbox controller. The inventory system may need some getting used to, as few shooters nowadays have you switching between weapons and items using the D-pad, but once you get used to that quirk it’s all good. The shooting feels punchy, and satisfying, with enemies leaving bloody cadavers that can even be further dismembered – not unlike in Soldier of Fortune. If anything, melee combat could have been a tad better, because there are limited visual cues about distances and hits, making it easy to miss a target close-up or be hit by an enemy that felt far enough to miss us. Granted, after a couple of hours, I pretty much only used melee weapons to break crates or to kill weaker enemies with them, predominantly to save ammo.

While there’s medieval weaponry in the form of swords, crossbows and so on, one of the game’s core features is magic. There are various potions to use, but most importantly a very cool spellbook from which we can shoot elemental attacks, engulfing our hand into fire or lightning in a satisfying manner. Yet, this magic is mainly used to stall enemies or to solve puzzles, with the actual damage-makers being the ranged weapons, such as the fantastically precise cuff arrow and the devastating fletchant, shooting 8 bolts at once for ludicrous damage. This ends up undermining Graven’s dark fantasy themes a bit, because magic feels weak and extremely situational, with the actual combat boiling down to using fairly standard (if varied) weaponry. With a limited quick inventory to pick items and weapons from, players are encouraged to effectively stick to the 3-4 weapons they’re most comfortable with and get through any challenge with those.

How much is the fish?

The game features three meaty acts that can be run through in a couple hours each if you so desire, but that offer so much more. Plenty of side quests, optional routes, shortcuts, and secrets to find, with weapons, and spells that can be upgraded greatly as well. If you take your time exploring, you’ll easily find 15-20 hours or more of gameplay, even more so if you end up losing time (as is probable) due to some elusive key, a convoluted puzzle, or some prolonged backtracking, made by worse by the game’s interconnected level design and the complete lack of an in-game map. Interestingly enough, the whole campaign can be played in online co-op to up to 8 players, though the developers (and even I) would not recommend more than a couple buddies with you, as the chaos ensuing from that many allies kinda ruins the game’s dark, oppressive atmosphere and challenging difficulty. Anyway, the game generally keeps a nice 60 frames per second with its 4K resolution on Series X, though the massive co-op sessions can make you lose a bit of FPS here and there.

Graven is an old-school dark fantasy first-person shooter that somehow feels like no other, taking cues not only from classics like Hexen but also throwing in elements of RPG, immersive sim, and more, creating a mix that feels unique and engaging. The game’s lengthy campaign does feature some questionable progression at times, with somewhat needless soulslike elements, time-consuming puzzles, and an uneven balance, but none of these flaws could ruin the game for me. Graven is not just a mechanically fun FPS, it’s also a great journey worth experiencing for yourself – but next to spellbooks, metal swords, and medieval armor, do remember to pack a healthy dose of patience, as its often convoluted design can cause some frustration.