A brand new outing by 3D Realms, the company once known for being one of the founding fathers of first-person shooting as we know it, and now one of the main publishers of retro-styled shooters out in the market? Wait a sec, a game that does indeed feature elements from retro shooters, but is also an RPG hybrid? Yep, there were lots of reasons for me to be drawn towards Graven like a moth to a flame. At first glance, it felt like something I’d be interested in from the first few minutes. Sadly, for as much as I found interesting elements in it, and for as much as I did enjoy a good chunk of its combat, I have to say I am somewhat disappointed. I expected more from Graven. Let me explain why.

My worries began as I soon as I booted up a new save file, and had to deal with an FMV that basically froze every three seconds, also completely out of sync with the audio. It was also impossible to skip, and impossible to pay attention to, so I was already out of loop on what the game was even supposed to be. I had to deal with press releases and the Steam page description in order to understand that I am controlling a priest, who was found guilty for committing a crime, and being exiled to this s***hole of a town in the outskirts of a swamp. Think of it as if Yarnham from Bloodborne was located in the Louisiana bayou.

The priest arrives at said town, realizes there is a lot of crap going on with a plague and some eldritch horrors, so he’s now the only one who can save the day. Oddly enough, a game stylized as a retro shooter rarely, if ever, has such a big emphasis on storytelling with walls of text. This made things a bit more annoying to deal with, as I was being treated as if I knew what the hell was going on with the information I did not get from the intro FMV. But sure, let’s not complain about it for much longer. We’re here for the action, after all. The main question stands; is Graven fun to play?

Well, it is, at least whenever it doesn’t try to bite off more than it can chew. Gameplay-wise, Graven is indeed a mixture between a dumb shooter 3D Realms would have released in the 90s and a mid-range PC RPG from the early 2000s. Think of it almost as Duke Nukem meets Gothic, in a very very very VERY loose sense of comparison. You move around the map, mowing down enemies with extreme prejudice, all whilst collecting health pickups to keep yourself safe. On the other hand, the world is basically one gigantic interconnected hub, with quests, sidequests, NPCs, puzzle-solving, dungeon exploration, and so on.

In theory, fun. And when the game works, it sure is! There were moments when Graven did feel like a borderline first-person demake of Bloodborne, with some occasionally well-designed areas, and gruesome hordes of enemies to take care of. But that would all be hindered by lots of design and performance issues. Starting with the latter, Graven suffers from massive framerate and frame pacing problems. The game freezes constantly, and for no good reason. With its visuals emulating an earlier PC title from the 2000s, it’s not like it’s pushing an RTX 3060 to its absolute limits. It shouldn’t also make the framerate go from 120 to 40fps from out of nowhere, with no particularly good explanation. If this rig can run Resident Evil 4 on ultra settings, there is no excuse for these hiccups.

Other massive issues stem from some questionable design choices. One of them is the fact that, once again, I’m dealing with a first-person “shooter” with a huge emphasis on melee combat. It’s Witch Rise all over again. As you can imagine, there are camera, depth of perception, and collision detection issues. You never know the proper safe distance when attacking an enemy, nor are you able to properly calculate if they are actually close enough to you in order for them to hit you with some ludicrously overpowered attack. Ranged attacks are scarce and kinda crappy; your spells feel super ineffective, with your MP depleting incredibly fast, almost to a point of not being able to kill one enemy in the process.

There’s also the issue with the level design, though this is a bit less egregious. At times, it is pretty good. It feels maze-like, but never confusing enough to frustrate you. This can be seen right in the first “dungeon-like” area of the game, a sewer system (hella original, I know) full of zombies and a few piles of corpses you need to detonate in order to unclog the city’s pipes. In other cases, the lack of a decent map feature makes it very easy for you to get lost, turning a challenge into an exercise of patience.

What is frustrating about these issues is that they somewhat made me ignore some of the best aspects about Graven. It really looks the part, despite the repetitive color palette. People who have previously worked on Duke Nukem and Half-Life have worked in this game, for instance. The sound design had its moments as well, namely in the soundtrack. I may not have liked the sound effects that much, but when the music kicked in, it did make a lasting impact. If it wasn’t for the 16:9 aspect ratio, you could have fooled me into thinking this was actually a remaster of a long-lost first-person game released in Germany back in 2001.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot to like in Graven. In terms of atmosphere and creativity, this game is going places. The mixture of retro first-person shooting and RPG elements is excellent, and the presentation was pretty good. When the combat clicked, it made for a fun time. Sadly, the game was also hampered by a ton of framerate issues, random freezes, a completely pointless and forgettable plot, and a lot of questionable design choices. I don’t think all of those issues can be easily fixed, but that doesn’t mean this is a surefire disaster. If the team behind it learns from its mistakes (especially regarding the glitches), they can easily come up with a banger of a game in their next attempt.

 

Graphics: 7.5 More detailed than your average retro-styled 3D Realms outing, but still clearly meant to feel nostalgic. The color palette feels very repetitive, but the game itself is appealing to look at.	Gameplay: 6.5 The fact it’s heavily centered around melee combat is an issue, due to the depth perception issues caused by a first-person perspective. Spells also feel ineffective. The control responsiveness is still decent enough, but the game is plagued by inexcusable performance issues.
Sound: 7.0 Sound effects and voice acting aren’t very impressive. The soundtrack, on the other hand, has its moments.	Fun Factor: 6.5 The mixture of retro first-person shooting and RPG elements is excellent, but Graven‘s level design and performance issues bring it down several notches.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Graven is available now on PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Graven was provided by the publisher.