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Graven: A Boomer Shooter Review in the Vein of Hexen II

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The famous 3D Realms (formerly Apogee), creators of the Duke Nukem series, has now streamlined the production of old-school action games, aspiring to be the new Doom, new Blood, and so forth. Graven is their latest project, prematurely dubbed the new Hexen II. It's developed by the Danish studio Slipgate Ironworks, known for its mixed reputation: on one hand, they created Bombshell and Kingpin: Reloaded (which weren't well-received), and on the other, the fairly decent Rad Rodgers. Unsurprisingly, Graven turned out to be quite controversial.


An Exiled Priest Against Heretics

Graven was in early access for nearly three years and was initially touted almost as an immersive sim. Eventually, we got a game far from a "corridor shooter," closely resembling Hexen II in concept — a blend of old-school shooter, action/adventure with puzzles, and computer RPG. Initially, it evokes Hexen II mainly due to the hand that casts fireballs at enemies using a magic book.

The hand belongs to a priest of the Purest Order, condemned to lifelong exile for murdering a cultist. The reasons and perpetrators of this exile are unclear. Regardless, on the brink of death in exile, the priest was preparing for eternal rest when a voice informed him that rest must be earned. He then finds himself in a boat in the middle of a swamp, heading towards a plague-ridden city.

Here, we're left to our own devices — free to explore a small dock or venture into the city in search of a library, where our hero seeks answers to numerous questions. But first, the city's tax collector asks to deal with sources of the plague in the swamps. The second act dramatically changes the scenery to frosty lands. The third act takes us to a desert. Everywhere, the priest deals with cultists and heretics. His desire to reunite with his daughter is a recurring theme.

In any case, the plot is secondary, with significant events and cut-scenes occurring mostly during major holidays — that is, after defeating a boss.

Solid Potential

Throughout all three acts, we battle enemies, complete main and side quests, explore the world, including searching for secrets, and solve puzzles. No one explicitly directs where to go — there's no map at all. We freely explore areas until encountering a locked door, for which we must find a key. Or we might need to destroy totems to remove seals from doors, find a lever, or locate gears for repairs.

Yes, Graven's puzzles are standard — we also rotate statues to face a certain direction and arrange symbols on pillars according to found clues. There are more complex puzzles, but it's no Myst.

A good indicator of the game's design and our activities is the first dungeon (more accurately, sewer), where we figure out how to destroy piles of plague-infested corpses. There are many branches and flooded corridors where we fight, press levers, place boxes on pressure plates, remove bodies to access secret areas, and carry flammable barrels to explode them with a precise shot or our magical hand.

Magic in Graven is often used for solving puzzles and destroying obstacles — we can burn boards (not all), melt ice in the cold realm with fire, and freeze water in rivers with frost magic to walk on ice. Electrical charges not only stun enemies but also power certain mechanisms. Nothing special, but magical elements refresh the shooter gameplay.

Weak Execution

There's no conventional leveling system, but throughout the game, we find special altars that increase mana reserves and rings with useful effects. Collected money allows us to enhance weapons or magic at the blacksmith and alchemist. Enhancements don't just increase damage; they add new properties or attacks — for example, upgrading fireballs so burning enemies panic and spread the fire.

The issue is that many upgrades are unnecessary, and increasing mana reserves is almost useless. This leads to problems with logic, game design, and balance in Graven.

Why enhance sword parrying when the first staff upgrade allows pushing many enemies away with one blow? This also makes further staff upgrades pointless. The staff itself isn't used often — the game heavily favors ranged weapons, including several crossbows, a bow, and even a hand ballista, with various types of ammunition gradually becoming available.

Upgrading ranged weapons is possible, but not all upgrades are useful. By default, the bow, akin to a shotgun here, is clearly stronger than others. Its initially rare ammunition becomes abundant over time. As a result, magic is almost unused in combat. Minimal mana reserves suffice for puzzles and world exploration.

This doesn't mean enemies in Graven don't pose a challenge. Even on the third of five difficulty levels, there are issues — enemies can overwhelm in melee and have unreasonably accurate long-range attacks. In the second act, the difficulty curve spikes abruptly and unbalancedly, and in the third act, intricate traps and puzzles that disrupt the game's pace and require tediously searching for items become a nuisance. Overall, the final act feels inferior and disconnected from the rest.

Each act suffers from the lack of a map, leaving players clueless about where to go or what's expected. How can one guess that beyond a huge library hall lies another room with a quest-related book, accessible only by finding and breaking one specific window among many? This would be tolerable for a side quest, but it's essential for the main story. As a result, the already lengthy first act feels excessively dragged out.

It's also worth noting the mostly uninteresting bosses — the first can get stuck in textures, allowing for an easy takedown of its vulnerable spots. Additionally, various bugs of different severity occur occasionally, some critical.

Graven has many problems, which is particularly disappointing given its beautiful, atmospheric presentation that can captivate, especially initially. However, it fails to fully realize its potential.

Pros: Intriguing combination of genres; free world exploration; plethora of secrets; dynamic combat; excellent physics; atmospheric and visually appealing game.

Cons: Background plot; weapon and difficulty imbalance; almost useless magic in combat; lack of a map; uninteresting bosses; optimization issues; unpleasant bugs.


Image courtesy of ShutterStock

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