It eventually moves from the elegant train cars of the Orient Express to the elegant decks and cabins of a luxury steamship, but after a murder takes place, you still spend all your time just going through the same motions. For the first half of the game, The Raven is more than happy to go along acting like a pretty simple Agatha Christie knock. May 5, 2021. It comes down to things like the personalities of the characters, the excitement of the story, and the cleverness of the puzzles, and in all of these areas, The Raven flounders. Developed by King Art Games and published by THQ Nordic , this point and click, detective game will have you solving the many mysteries that unfold on your journey around the world. Carolyn Petit There are other games out there that do more with character and story, even inside the adventure genre (see The Longest Journey). The game addresses adult themes, but it does it with the soft gloves of a thrilling children’s bedtime story. GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers. This is a review of the Switch version. Is this just a copycat thief? On January 10, 2018, a trailer for The Raven Remastered was released by THQ Nordic. As it stands now, The Raven is a perfect afternoon jaunt. Classy locations evoke Agatha Christie-style mysteries, Basic puzzles that require no deductive reasoning. This point-and-click adventure has many of the trappings of a good old-fashioned mystery, but fails to re-create the irresistible allure of a captivating whodunit. A priceless jewel, one of the two Eyes of the Sphinx, has just been stolen in a daring museum robbery. Play as Lutum, the last man alive after a devastating plague has swept the Earth clean. There's a haughty baroness, a suspicious violinist, and an Agatha Christie-esque mystery novelist among them, but interacting with these characters is typically a bore. Everyone that was once alive, now lies in their grave, returned to the Earth that they were born of. The developers claim you’ll change characters at some point, playing as “the villain” of the game. It has a Illustrated realism style, presented in Realtime 3D and is played in a Third-Person perspective. At the crime scene: a raven feather. Paris, 1960. Easy, right? You engage in a dry conversation with one character who tells you to go get something from another character, so you go talk to that other character. However, The Raven is a glass of cleanish water pulled from a lake full of garbage. Learn More. Episodes two and three release in August and September, respectively. PCWorld helps you navigate the PC ecosystem to find the products you want and the advice you need to get the job done. In real life, my Zellner would have died a dozen times over simply because he refuses to run anywhere, even in an emergency. I should love the puzzle design in The Raven. Read reviews and ratings of The Raven from our experts, and see what our community says, too! About all you can say in The Raven's favor is that its locations have the flavor you might expect from a classy mystery in the Agatha Christie vein, and that it functions as you expect a point-and-click adventure game to function, except for the moments when it doesn't. Review for The Raven Remastered on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The Raven: Remastered Nintendo Switch Genre- Adventure Number of Players- 1 Player Publisher- THQ Nordic Developer- King Art Release Date- Jan. 22, 2019 The Raven Remastered from KING Art Games… PCWorld |. The process of solving this and most of the other problems you encounter during The Raven is so straightforward that to refer to those problems as puzzles would be generous. You're basically playing as a Swiss Santa Claus, bumbling through the game with a litany of terrible jokes and a real small-town sincerity to your actions. How can I keep up with life without you, Your Majesty? Would it make sense for Zellner to put the axe in his pocket? In 1960, the master thief known as The Raven was … Except the man who killed him, an Interpol agent named Legrand, isn't so sure he killed the right person anymore. Read our, Learn more about PCWorld's Digital Editions. The Raven: Chapter 3 - Launch Trailer. The Raven Remastered for PlayStation 4 game reviews & Metacritic score: London, 1964. Myst, at more than 3.5 million units sold, is the world's most popular PC entertainment title, and after four years is still riding the top of the charts. The game does an especially good job at depicting Zellner's relationship with Max, a young kid who you foster almost a grandfatherly relationship with. Is it a fascinating central character whose investigative methods are a pleasure to watch? Episode 19. Carolyn is an avid reader of mystery novels and a fan of classic mystery films. I'm not going to claim The Raven revolutionizes storytelling in games—it doesn't. Point and click adventure games are renowned for their atmosphere and The Raven is no exception. London, 1964. For example, one puzzle required me to craft a torch so I could see better. We love indies and we REALLY love their soundtracks. The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief Review The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief superficially resembles many a classic mystery, but doesn't have the intrigue or the soul. Note: The Raven is an episodic game. In keeping with that 1960s globe-trotting mystery film setting, the stakes of the game are always rising. Or is the Raven back? Objects you can examine or interact with in the environment aren't typically highlighted in any way. Genres : Adventure on October 8, 2013 at 11:47AM PDT. As such, this review only covers the first episode of the game. It starts to sound repetitive after a few hours, but composer Benny Oschmann does a pitch-perfect '60s Disney impression. The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief superficially resembles many a classic mystery, but doesn't have the intrigue or the soul. The Raven Remastered is a full graphical remaster of the classic whodunit adventure that lets you explore a thrilling crime story through the eyes of multiple characters. Is it a perplexing crime that pulls you in immediately and leaves you eager to discover who did it and how? These mechanics are the same as those found in so many point-and-click adventure games, but they've never been what make or break such games. master thief, and a dazzling jewel walk onto a train. Featured. It’s hard to know how The Raven will shape up over the course of episodes two and three. I’m in a train surrounded by plush upholstered chairs, luxurious curtains, and various other accoutrements. © 2021 GAMESPOT, A RED VENTURES COMPANY. For years we've been promised the opportunity to play as an “everyman” character. It instantly sets the mood for the game. Full of twists and turns, it immerses you in both sides of the story, combining thrill-of-the-chase whodunit with the risk and reward of a heist story. Apr 28, 2021. A unique culmination of an indie forge-your-own-adventure and idle game, THE LONGING will pique the interest of players. Games Reporter, The Raven Remastered Review – PS4 John-Paul Jones / March 23, 2018 The Raven Remastered review code supplied by the publisher. Tags CGRreview, pc, review, The Raven, The Raven: Remastered, THQ, THQ Nordic King Arts Games and THQ Nordic (the company that owns The Adventure Company) released a new title called The Raven. Everyone agrees the theft was reminiscent of methods used by the titular Raven, a master thief who was killed four years ago. At most, we’re talking Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory levels of discomfort. Copyright © 2021 IDG Communications, Inc. No, it's not the setup to a lazy joke; it's the launching point for The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief, the latest game from King Art, developer of Book of Unwritten Tales and other classic point-and-click adventure games. In 2018 the remastered version The Raven: Remastered swooped in allowing gamers to enjoy a polished version of its gameplay. An ancient ruby is stolen from the british Museum. Perhaps it's a sense of urgency as the investigator races against time to prevent the criminal from getting away with any more nefarious deeds? Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Raven - prologue at Amazon.com. This is a review of the Switch version. The hardest part is typically just finding the items you might need. That plot moves forward in fits and starts, and each time it seems like it's about to shift into high gear, it slows down again. Otherwise, maybe hold off until episodes two and three come out to see whether the narrative arc remains strong and satisfying throughout. Take a look at the launch trailer for the third and final chapter in the Raven series, A Murder Of Ravens, out now for PC, Mac, and Linux. Zellner has some real moments of insight in the game, but he's not some superhuman cop with a loaded gun and a chip on his shoulder. The Raven is right in King Art's wheelhouse—it's another point-and-click game, this time a mystery story a la Agatha Christie set in the 1960s. May 5, 2021. Another enthralling Poirot game has released! Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. It’s not the best or the deepest adventure game, but it’s got a lot of charm and well-defined characters. The score deserves special praise. There’s a hint system if you really get stuck, but the puzzles are easy enough you shouldn’t ever have to use it, except when you can’t make the leaps of logic the game requires and need it to spell out precisely which gewgaw you need to click to progress. As such, this review only covers the first episode of the game. It is a point and click mystery game that requires good old fashioned detective work. Mystery is at the heart of The Raven Remastered, and it proves to be the game’s biggest asset. Oh wait, what happened to Poirot that he's degraded from master crime solver to constable. In the shorter game, there are only 5 hands, the first four listed above, followed by a “ravenclaw round” in which the only trump is the Raven. To some extent these are caricatures more than real people—you’ve got your hard-nosed detective, the kid and his single mother trying to reconnect while on vacation, the German doctor who is either menacing or simply awkward around people, the bookish professor—but they’re all portrayed with warmth and passion. This isn't The Last of Us. THE GAME RAVEN REVIEW PODCAST. Hayden writes about games for PCWorld and doubles as the resident Zork enthusiast. It’s an interesting premise, but I’ll miss ol’ Constable Zellner when the switch happens. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Think of the excessively upbeat, adventurous music in Mary Poppins, or even the Disney-esque Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He's old, balding, rotund, with a charming naïveté that's lovingly out of place in a detective. In keeping with the setting, King Art claims all puzzles are “Hollywood realistic.” In other words, the world adheres to the same set of rules as films: heroes are never shot, you always solve the puzzle at precisely the right time, and household objects become the most skillful of tools in your nimble hands. The Raven - Legacy of a Master Thief is a fun adventure game, but a few issues prevented me from really liking it. Nothing you do involves any deductive reasoning or anything resembling actual detective work. Legacy of a Master Thief is just the first chapter in what will ultimately be a three-part story, so there's still hope for this to evolve into a gripping mystery that actually makes you feel like an active participant in deducing its solution, but it's off to an inauspicious start. The opening of the game takes place en route to Italy by way of the Orient Express, if the game's influences weren't already clear enough, and it's a globe-trotting adventure from there on out. Play The Raven games in an arcade style format! They dryly convey information about the people and situations Zellner must deal with, but they have no spark of humor or tension. Players follow The Raven's trademark black feather clues to … My main issue with it is that the universe is not very convincing. At one point, when you make Max mad and end up bribing him with some candy, I couldn't help but picture my own grandfather patiently trying to reason with my eight-year-old hellion self.