Ravenswatch its very brown (Nacon)Hades is the inspiration for a new four-player co-op game that features an inspired array of folklore heroes, from Sun Wukong to the Pied Piper.Roguelikes have always been popular with indie developers, because they let you stretch relatively modest amounts of content a very long way. The runaway success of Hades has done nothing to dim that enthusiasm and that appears to be the main inspiration for Ravenswatch, which is another story-driven action roguelite, this time built around folklore characters rather than Greek mythology.With nine heroes to choose from, five of whom youll need to unlock by completing the opening chapter with different characters, the first thing that strikes you is their diversity. Scarlet is Red Riding Hood, but rather than hiding from the Big Bad Wolf shes co-opted it, turning into a werewolf every time it gets dark in the games fast-moving day/night cycle.Theres also Beowulf, who specialises in crowd control; Sun Wukong, who would have been relatively unknown in the West until Black Myth: Wukong gave him some much-needed profile raising; and more unexpectedly, The Pied Piper, who attacks at range using notes from his pipe, and auto-spawns rats that you can direct to attack enemies.Each comes with a number of special moves on brief cooldown timers, and one ultimate that takes longer to recharge. You unleash these as often as you possibly can, taking on groups of mainly melee-based enemies that stand waiting for you in the games procedurally generated levels, making use of the mini-map in the corner of the screen to help locate points of interest as you explore, slowly removing the fog that covers it.While procedural generation is a roguelike standard, it does mean levels are totally un-memorable, their walls and fences gating off power-ups, forcing you to navigate your way around them, while making little architectural sense and looking visually uninteresting. The game also has bizarrely long load times, which actually made us think the game had crashed the first time we played it.Each of the three chapters is played against a timer, with the boss turning up after a set number of in-game days. That means youre always working against the clock, killing enemies for experience points, snagging new abilities and power-ups, and adding to your health until the inevitable chapter ending showdown. Because youre never completely sure whereabouts everything is, that means some runs are randomly a lot easier.You will at least find that the heroes are completely unique, and some prove to be far more useful in combat than others. Scarlet, with her nightly werewolf cycle, is great. Enemies also change slightly after dark although just looking at the screen its impossible to tell day from night making the rhythm of her runs totally different from the feel of other heroes.The Pied Pipers ranged attacks manage to set him apart, making his runs a little closer to a twin-stick shooter. The Snow Queen has a distance attack, but it only ever points the way shes facing, limiting its usefulness, and Aladdin, while mainly melee, can throw his scimitars, a feature that fails to make up for the fact that his abilities generally feel pretty lacklustre.Thats a wider problem in Ravenswatch than some unexciting special moves. You start each run drastically underpowered, with the initial batch of upgrades you collect hopefully fixing that before you have to face the first chapters boss. But it soon becomes clearly that its primarily designed with four-player co-op in mind.Played solo, the over-simplicity of the combat, and the fact that your single defensive move is on a cooldown timer, means battles lack nuance, degenerating into slugfests where you simply unleash as many special moves as you can until everyones dead.If you die, a teammate can bring you back to life, or in an emergency you can use one of your partys limited supply of raven feathers for an instant revive. Playing solo, all you have are the feathers, although youll also find there are fewer monsters to fight, helping you to avoid the feeling of being overwhelmingly outnumbered.More TrendingThe cel-shaded graphics are reminiscent of developer Passtech Games last action roguelike, 2020s Curse Of The Dead Gods. It looks fine, even if levels tend to have a muddy monotone to them, with only small splashes of fairly muted colour. Enemies are similarly brown, their slim variety eventually making chapters feel samey, especially given how unrewarding some of the heroes are to play.If youve got friends who are planning to buy Ravenswatch, theres fun to be had smashing your way through its three chapters and final boss together. Played solo its harder to recommend, the unsophisticated combat never feeling interesting enough to sustain motivation. Especially as each heros story which is read out at the end of their runs accompanied by nothing but still images feels tacked on rather than integral to the game.The success of Hades may have made top-down roguelites more viable but the problem for other developers is that its set such a high standard that anything else tends to pale by comparison. The focus on co-op was a good idea but even then Ravenswatch struggles to feel like even second best.Ravenswatch review summaryIn Short: A co-op action roguelite with simplistic, special move-based combat and some heroes that dont quite pull their weight, which while fine in multiplayer is not satisfying enough to take on solo.Pros: Unusual collection of folk heroes with very distinct abilities and theres definitely fun to be had in co-op.Cons: Combat is dull without multiplayer. Not much enemy variety, heroes arent well balanced, and its mid-brown cel-shaded graphics get monotonous.Score: 5/10Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PCPrice: 24.99Publisher: NaconDeveloper: Passtech GamesRelease Date: 28th November 2024Age Rating: 18 Ravenswatch we have no idea why this is rated 18 (Nacon)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy