Thursday, December 12, 2013

Raven's Cry- Why you should be interested.

I've been keeping an eye on this game for quite a while now. Raven's Cry, initially announced in 2011, is set to be a very dark and mature "Pirate" open world game, with RPG elements. When first announced, the game was slated to have a level design, with a nonlinear structure, so as to let the player decide the outcome to various events. After being set back a couple times, the game slipped off my radar, and I kinda forgot about it. However, not long ago, Topware Interactive (the initial developer/publisher) announced that the game would be sent to Reality Pump game studios to finish it out. This little announcement made Raven's Cry jump back to the forefront of my watch-list.

Reality Pump is the studio behind the (in my opinion) excellent RPGs Two Worlds and Two Worlds 2. I've reviewed both games on my blog, and have easily sunk 100 to 150+ hours into each. The fact of the matter is, Reality Pump may not be as well known as Bethesda Softworks, or CD Projekt RED, but they're sure as hell good developers, and know how to keep the player entertained. The Reality of what got me Pump'd (hehe) is that in the announcement they mentioned the fact that Reality Pump would be implementing an open world into the game.

An open world can be a valuable asset to any game. I say "can" because there are situations when free roaming can distract from the story, or make gameplay confusing, however, in this situation, I believe it will be a huge positive addition to Raven's Cry. Being a pirate game set in the Caribbean, the ability to free roam will almost be vital for the longevity of the game. I've played a little of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed IV, and I really did have fun, but the game felt very lighthearted. Dark and gritty pirate stuff didn't really happen. (From the little I did play) I was never forced between bad and evil, and I never thought twice about pirating a merchant's ship and ruining his career, and possibly his life. From the get-go, Raven's Cry has been described as a very dark and gritty adventure. It's a revenge story, and you play as a man who, well, is getting that revenge. You're more or less going to be the bad guy.

Too often, games tend to take a mild route when it comes to violence and player choices. Yes, there might be explicit detail regarding violence and gore, and I'm ok with that, but the violence generally tends to be mindless slaughtering. "HEY LOOK! BAD GUYS! TAKE THIS, YOU LITTLE ************* *****!" There is rarely any weight or consequence to the actions/killing you do in video games, and although a light stance on the issue can make for an amazing game, having darker characters and heavier approaches to the player's actions make for a much deeper playing experience.

Now they haven't said much on the line of naval battles, but the general opinion has been that, yes, they're going to be in there. Whether or not this means that ACIV-esque ship sailing is going to be in there, or if this will just be a scripted type of battle remains to be seen, however the fact that it's in there at all is definitely a plus. Being an open world, I'd say the game would greatly benefit from real-time sailing, but we really just don't know how it's going to be. What I do know is that Reality Pump can implement it. Two Worlds 2 had a very fun and simple sailing mechanic, and I don't see why it wouldn't work on a slightly larger scale.

So all in all, I'm very excited for the release of Raven's Cry. Slated to come out in May, 2014, the developers have plenty of time to get it wrapped up and out the door, and hopefully this game will push Reality Pump's name and popularity up there with the big ones.

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