Raventhorne is the debut game in the Xbox Indie Games Summer Uprising promotion. A collection of quality Indie games chosen by fans to represent the community. Raventhorne is no no exception to the example.
Raventhorne is a side scrolling action platformer. Mixed with several elements like leveling up and traditional side scroll combat it makes an interesting scenario for the gameplay. The most important part of playing this game you need to remember is that there is a block button and you should know what it is. Blocking is a key part of combat in the the game. The way things work is you have three meters in your HUD. Health, stamina and mana. Each of these meters will fill as you progress through the game. The health meter on the other hand only refills when you level up. The enemies in the game all have the purpose of making you have to play the game differently in different scenarios. You have the option to change your play style on the fly. You can change it from Aggressive, Defensive or Neutral. No matter what way you decide to play you’ll need to keep blocking. If you walk up on an enemy that is alone it should be no problem to continue through, but there are more than less moments when you’ll approach multiple enemies and need to adjust the way you play.
Stamina is something that you’ll always need to keep an eye on as everything you do in the game with the exception of jumping will use some of your bar up. If you block it uses stamina, and so on so forth. When your stamina is depleted you are vulnerable to being hit by enemies. Your other bar is the mana meter. This fills either buy picking up gems or combat. When this meter is full you can hold in the LB and select one of four spells to cast based on the X, Y, B and A buttons. The spells are helpful in combat, but not nearly as much as they should be. With the exception of one of the spells it’s a high impact move that clears the screen of enemies. You also have the option to boost your character for a limited amount of time.
The plot of the game is pretty much paper thin, but Milkstone Studios do a nice job of making the game feel very appropriate for the type of “being protected by the Gods” story that it is. This game has great graphics, even more than I would expect from an Indie game, but I was not disappointed with the general overall feel of the environments and great use of color. With the game looking up to par and the gameplay being solid with the exception of a few kinks in the combat system and the lack of being able to pick up health beside leveling up, this game is a great start to the IGSU. Even though the Indie community is still on the uprise, game like this one for 240 MS points are a game worth buying and also the games will create the kind of attention that the Indie game community needs.
