An action roguelike, but as a cooperative experience. That is exactly what Ravenswatch offers, which is currently drastically reduced in price on Steam.
Action roguelikes like Hades II are in high demand and loved by a growing community. If you are still looking for a game of this kind that you can play with friends, you should take a look at “Ravenswatch”. For just under €10, the title is currently available and can provide many hours of fun – if you can handle a slightly steeper learning curve.
What is Ravenswatch about? In Ravenswatch, you take on the role of well-known fairy tale characters, all of whom have received a dark twist. For example, you can play Red Riding Hood – only with the difference that you are also the big bad wolf who has eaten your own grandmother.
In the best roguelike manner, you fight your way through a world that is randomly generated with each run and offers different rewards.
What’s interesting is the time limit. Because on each map, you have only 3 days – about 15 minutes – before the boss of the map awakens, whom you must reach by then at the latest. So you need to plan your route carefully from the start to collect exactly the upgrades and bonuses you want before the timer runs out.
Tactical decisions with a lot of variety
The action-packed fights require quick reactions and a good understanding of how the different abilities interact with each other.
A simple example: The Ice Queen plays like a frost mage from MMORPGs or MOBAs. Her spells generally deal quite low damage but enhance each other. When you slow down your enemies, for example, your attack receives a damage multiplier or can deal critical hits.
Similar to Hades, you collect new abilities in each run in the form of talents, level-ups, and magical items that improve your character – but only for that run. You will have to make tactical decisions again and again:
- Do you sacrifice a talent that makes you hit harder, but gain a bit of self-healing in return?
- Do you choose a bonus that benefits you in all fights, or a stronger one that is only active in boss battles?
- Do you head towards a locked chest, hoping to find a key in time? Or do you prefer to go to the healing fountain to be strengthened before the boss fight?
If you find the ultimate death and have no revives left, the run ends, and you must start over.
In contrast to Hades and its successor, Ravenswatch has a cooperative mode and can be played by up to 4 people at the same time.
What is the cost of the game? Ravenswatch currently costs €9.99, which is a steep 60% reduction from €24.99. The offer is valid until June 7. Here’s the Steam page for Ravenswatch.
You can also download the “Romeo & Juliet” DLC for free, which adds two more characters particularly suited for co-op. In addition, there’s a character DLC (Merlin) and some skin packs that are completely optional and provide no gameplay advantage.
Ravenswatch also received a free new update just a few days ago, introducing a new enemy faction and more rewards, allowing for even greater variety in building the perfect build.
Cortyn says: After I was gifted the game and we actually just wanted to “take a quick look,” suddenly the entire evening had passed, and we were already planning strategies and ideas on how to equip our characters for the next attempt to survive a little longer in the challenging fights.
However, Ravenswatch has quite a steep learning curve, as we had a lot of problems with some bosses even on the lowest difficulty level. But it got better with each attempt. Because once you’ve figured out the synergies of the abilities and different characters, you can pretty much slice through the enemy hordes almost effortlessly.
However, carelessness is immediately punished: Some bosses and even normal enemies can easily take away half or more of your health bar with single attacks. If you are careless for a moment, you will soon need your teammates for a revive.
If you are currently struggling with the high cost of games but still want to enjoy top-notch entertainment, our editorial team has presented some top games for little money on Steam.
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