Ravensword: Shadowlands – Review (iOS)

Ravensword: Shadowlands – Review (iOS)

It’s not rocket science to realise why a game from one platform doesn’t work as well on another. Some developers are apparently unaware of this.

There’s an interesting phenomenon in our beloved industry at the moment. Both the most technically powerful and technically weakest platforms are experiencing a similar renaissance when it comes to games: small, independently-developed, cheap games are running riot on both PC rigs and mobile devices everywhere. Thus, it stands to reason that there should be some crossover. One needs to look no further than Terraria or Minecraft to see just how successful these miniature monster titles can become on the most powerful rigs and the smallest of tablets and phones in equal measure. Even Blizzard are weighing in next year, bringing their smash-hit card game Hearthstone to mobile devices after enjoying a hugely popular beta testing period on PC.

Still, not everything can make the jump quite so easily. There’s a number of reasons why not any old game on mobiles works as well on the PC and vice versa, and unfortunately, Ravensword: Shadowlands is a good example of a number of these excluding factors.

First of all, let me say that Ravensword is not a bad game in and of itself, by any means. The dialogue is competent, combat is fairly enjoyable, and the open-world setting hits a few decent high-notes. The thing is, all of these aspects are highly amplified on mobiles; there just aren’t any other 3D open-world RPGs on Androids and iOS devices that match up to the execution of Ravensword: Shadowlands. This isn’t a review of the mobile version, though – this is a review of the PC version, and what with Steam and everything, there are a metric butt-tonne of games just like it at much cheaper price points with masterful execution and far more depth. With Skyrim, Oblivion, and even Morrowind regularly selling for less than a fiver on Steam, can you justify the purchase?

It’s not like Ravensword: Shadowlands is different enough to those mainstay bastions of the first-person RPG genre – the Elder Scrolls series – to justify being a game worth buying as a diversion, either. As a first-person fantasy RPG, it’s obviously fairly similar. As a first-person fantasy RPG that plays and looks like a Skyrim homage made on a tenth of the budget, I can only see someone enjoying this over Oblivion if they, I don’t know… actually, no, I can’t think of anything. It may seem slightly unfair to compare an indie game to one of the biggest RPG series’ ever made, but if Ravensword so desperately wants to ape the Elder Scrolls series it has to let itself be judged on the same merits.

Let’s try something different. I’m going to take a look at the core components of Ravensword: Shadowlands and review them in two different ways; first, from the perspective of a bright-eyed and excitable mobile gamer, and then in the manner of the bitter and jaded PC elitist that I actually am. Hopefully this should make my point about how different standards apply to Let’s go.

Presentation

 The Mobile Gamer

MOTHER OF GOD LOOK AT THIS! Look at how many polygons I have on my screen! I didn’t even know I had this many! Wow. And when you whack a bad guy, it falls in the direction you hit it! This is awesome. So many beautiful vistas, punchy combat animations, nice spell effects… this definitely has to be one of the best-looking games on mobile devices. When you factor in the entire open world available to you, it’s incredibly impressive. The music is pretty good too, and the sound effects are as good as it gets. In fact, the overall presentation is a particular high point.

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 The PC Gamer

What the fuck is this, Daggerfall? What year is it? In fact, that’s unfair to Daggerfall. At least that had some originality in its art design. This Ravensword thing has hideously blown-up textures on my big ol’ monitor. There’s a reason that a lot of indie games go for retro art-styles these days, and – though I’ve whined about their over-saturation of the PC market before – it’s a very good reason, and that is because it’s tough to make a really good-looking 3D game on a low budget with today’s screen sizes. If you don’t have the cash to pump into texture quality and anti-aliasing, everything ends up jagged, blurry, and generally ugly – quite a lot like our friend Ravensword here. The music is actually pretty nice in places, though, but that’s the only positive thing I can bring myself to say about it.

Gameplay

The Mobile Gamer

Man, this is fun. This is just like all of those other games people keep talking about with the swords and magics! I’m free to go wherever I like, with the ability to play as a sword guy, a magics guy, or a sneaky bugger with a bow, or any combination of the three. There’s a nice variety of weapons and spells for use and a progression system with… actually, the progression system isn’t very good at all. There’s a talent system where you dump points gained from levels into various statistics but it’s all passive, and leveling up doesn’t feel like you’re actually progressing. Still, while the actual RPG technical components are a little lacklustre, the minute-to-minute gameplay is hugely satisfying and engaging, and combat controls very fluidly. Ravensword is just as great to play as it is to look at.

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There are a few… interesting animation bugs, too.

 The PC Gamer

I have two attacks available to me at any one time. As a relatively long RPG, this just isn’t enough. The combat is not fleshed out enough to stand against other games in the genre from ten or fifteen years ago, let alone some of the ones made in recent years. The difficulty spikes hugely at random times throughout the game and the combat is just not fun or deep enough to make grinding feel less monotonous. Skill barely factors in as purely-statistical advancements are the order of the day, meaning overcoming these challenges doesn’t give you a reason to feel accomplished. To be honest, it’s just boring; I’m already sitting at my computer, so why should I play this skeleton of an RPG game when there are just far, far better ones available to me?

Story

The Mobile Gamer

There’s a story?

 The PC Gamer

… There’s a story?

(Seriously though, Baldur’s Gate is available for both platforms. The story is barely worth paying attention to you unless you’ve never read a Tolkien book, watched any fantasy film, or played any fantasy game. You mostly just saunter from one end of the map to the other to find old artifacts to defeat the evil bad dude.)

The Value

The Mobile Gamer

Maybe the best part about this game is how much you get for your dollar. At just five pounds, Ravensword: Shadowlands offers an experience that, compared to other games available on mobile devices, can’t be beat in terms of bang for your buck. Or quality for your quid. Trademark is pending on that phrase. It’s mine. Back off.

2013-12-16_00002

 The PC Gamer

Sorry, this shit actually costs more on PC? This is not worth £11 or your regional equivalent. Pay 4 pounds more for Skyrim. Hell, pay a quid more for Morrowind – not only is it a lot deeper, it also looks better, and that was made ages ago. Do not buy this at full price.

So, there we go. Ravensword: Shadowlands is, contrary to what you might think at the end of that, a quite competent game; on iOS and Android. It’s entirely not worth your time on PC. Quality is comparative and contextual, and up against the mobile library and played in the kind of environment where you would usually play a mobile game, like on your commute, it’s great. Compared to almost any of the thousands of RPGs available to modern PC gamers – especially at that price point – and as a game that has to hold your attention as the sole thing you’re doing in your home at that moment, it simply doesn’t measure up.

Pros

  • It is a functional and semi-competent game. 
  • Some of the dialogue is actually okay.

Cons

  • You are paying out the ass for what you get, here.
  • Blown-up textures, poor animation bugs and everything else you would expect from a game developed on a mobile budget.
  • There are so many games out there that are both better and cheaper. Shadowlands does not belong on PC.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.
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