RPGWatch - Raven's Cry Hands-On Preview

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As we promised from the latest news-bit here is Fluent's preview of Reality Pump Studios latest Pirate Adventure-RPG game Raven's Cry. We also added a few videos.

Thanks for checking out this article here on RPG-slash-Action-Adventure-slash-Simulation-Watch.com! Wait, what? This isn't that site? Gah! Well, today we will be previewing a game that I would consider one of these strange and wonderful hybrids, rather than a more traditional, "hardcore" computer role-playing game. But hey, that doesn't mean it's a bad thing! Let's check it out then, shall we?

The game I'm referring to is the brand new RPG from the Polish developer, Reality Pump, called Raven's Cry. Reality Pump is best known around these parts for their work on the Two Worlds series, including Two Worlds II and the Pirates of the Flying Fortress expansion. Raven's Cry is a 3rd-person, story-driven pirate RPG set in the 18th Century Caribbean. You play a wily character known as Christopher Raven, a pirate scourge of the seven seas, matey! Arghh! Mr. Raven's entire family was killed, and now you're out for a bit of revenge and doing all the pirate-y things that one would expect along the way.
More information.
 
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I somehow missed this game. Seems quite nice. Thank you for the preview and I hope the game is as you describe.
Looking forward to it.
 
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Thanks for the preview, Fluent! :)

#1 - The game is heavy on the cinematics. You can expect a lot of cutscenes, voice acting and an overall movie-like experience.
Ok for me!
#2 - There are some choices to make in quests. You can choose different ways to achieve the results you want.
Good.
#6 - You have a crew of sailors that you have to manage. They all have different traits and personalities that will affect your overall ship's wellbeing in both positive, and negative ways.
Can you actually interact with your sailors in dialogs etc. Or are they just shallow assets to your ship?
#8 - There is an inventory system and various items you can carry. Everything from new weapons to potions and herbs are here.
Inventory looked good to me. :)
#11 - There are some consequences to your choices. Tick off the wrong person during a quest and it may come back to bite you later.
Fine!
#15 - There are many unique characters you can recruit to your crew. They all have a back story and history.
Is there a difference between sailors and crew?
#17 - The cities you visit are large and sprawling, with NPCs everywhere doing various little things to make it feel alive.
Good, I like cities in RPGs.
#27 - If another NPC spots a dead body, they will loot it.
Haha, greatz. :D Never seen this before.
 
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Thanks for the preview. It actually made me more interested in picking up the game.
 
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Hmm...feels a bit uncertain about this one.

Heavy on cinematics, is usually a negative for me. Since it often goes hand-in-hand with games that are linear and more focused on telling a story than letting the player create the story.

Lack of worthwhile exploration, is another huge warning flag to me. Exploring off the beaten path, making discoveries and feeling that wherever you go there's something for you to examine, loot, harvest, steal and generally just "interact with", is pretty much of *critical* importance in an rpg to me.

Available character stats: Health Points, Damage, and Damage Reduction stats. Is a third possible issue for me, since (at least on the surface) it sounds very simplified and like something that may make developing your character less interesting.

I dunno, maybe I'm reading too much into these comments so I paint an exaggerated picture of the potential problems. ;-)
 
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So, there isn't really anything to do in the cities, or is this just due to the fact that you are basically free to move everywhere at the moment? I can for example think of some possibilities when I see that execution scene.
 
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You guys are welcome! Here's a few more questions I will answer.

Thanks for the preview, Fluent! :)

Can you actually interact with your sailors in dialogs etc. Or are they just shallow assets to your ship?

Each sailor is a fleshed out NPC. For example, Donovan, whom I added to my crew thus far, has a story to be told. I met him in a tavern and he talked with me, had dialog options, etc. He even had a quest to be completed, as some people were trying to blackmail him. Here was a really cool part - if you don't help him, you run the risk of him being assassinated and gone forever from your crew!

I'm not sure if you can interact with them in the way of a game like Mass Effect or something. I don't see any central ship hub at the moment. But it's very possible that they make appearances and have dialogs throughout the story.


Is there a difference between sailors and crew?

I'll have to check, but certain crewmembers are "special" NPCs, such as our example, Donovan, above. Then you have a generic amount of crew, say, 50 crewmen aboard your vessel. They can be killed and also board enemy ships, etc., but they are under the control of your special NPCs who influence their stats a bit. If we go back to Donovan again, he will actually have a slight negative impact on the crew that board an opposing ship, because he is a bit indecisive himself.

The generic crew cost a certain amount of reales to keep up and can be gained by plundering other ships and simply regenerated in the menu system at the cost of reales.


Haha, greatz. :D Never seen this before.

Yeah, it was pretty cool to see a few dead bodies laying about, and then some random drunk comes walking down the alley and loots them! :D

Responses in bold on this one.

Hmm…feels a bit uncertain about this one.

Heavy on cinematics, is usually a negative for me. Since it often goes hand-in-hand with games that are linear and more focused on telling a story than letting the player create the story.

You can influence the story with your decisions a bit, and somewhat create your own story. Do you use the moneylender to buy a ship? If so, maybe you screw him over and never pay him back. You have little decisions to make at times that will influence the game a bit.
Lack of worthwhile exploration, is another huge warning flag to me. Exploring off the beaten path, making discoveries and feeling that wherever you go there's something for you to examine, loot, harvest, steal and generally just "interact with", is pretty much of *critical* importance in an rpg to me.

I'm usually the same way, but the draw in this game is the questing and main story. I'm hoping they further develop the wildnerness a bit, though. I would love to have some more open exploration.

Available character stats: Health Points, Damage, and Damage Reduction stats. Is a third possible issue for me, since (at least on the surface) it sounds very simplified and like something that may make developing your character less interesting.

I was told there were other stats under the hood, but the team is having a dialog about whether or not to show them to the player.

You can, for example, increase your proficiency in various aspects with the skill tree. Those stats won't be shown exactly in the game, but they are there.


I dunno, maybe I'm reading too much into these comments so I paint an exaggerated picture of the potential problems. ;-)

Responses in bold here as well.

So, there isn't really anything to do in the cities, or is this just due to the fact that you are basically free to move everywhere at the moment? I can for example think of some possibilities when I see that execution scene.

There's quest content to be done in the cities. I didn't show any because the voice acting isn't fully implemented in the build I'm playing. The execution scene in particular is used for a quest sequence that I saw.
 
Ah, okay. Sounds as if there will be a bit more to do than managing the ship and battles if the crew is more than just a ship stat card, and you mentioned that island with unfriendly inhabitants. Sounds promising. Thank you.
 
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Interesting, nice preview.

Based on the ship battle and walking in town videos, it seems heavily inspired by AC: Black Flag and Pirates of the Caribbean. That's not a bad thing though, as I enjoyed both of them.

That being said, some of the voice overs heard in the town were shockingly bad..
 
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it seems heavily inspired by AC: Black Flag
There is Hangin' Willy in AC games? I must buy them then.

Pirates of the Caribbean.
Which is de facto Sea Dogs 2 with name changed to sell better.
And, just as it's predecessor, it had fair share of bugs. I honestly hope Raven's Cry is not inspired by those bugs.
 
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Please keep in mind, the voice overs currently in the game are not the final ones. In fact, some of them were created in the mocap sessions by the developers themselves. Many of them are likely to be changed in the final product. Sorry I didn't mention this in the video description.
 
Fluent there is no need to mention that separately, it's a preview version thus it's normal not everything is in.

I didn't watch the vid since I've preordered the game ages ago and got a nice token from devs because of game delay (5 RPGs freebie!).
And the game should be released in about a week, so… :)

But there is one thing I want to know actually. And that is if I can, during the game, instruct whenever I want my crew to get into a tavern and have fun singing "hangin' willy". I want to keep their morale up! Okay, maybe not just the morale. ;)
 
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Thanks for the response Fluent !

Yeah I really want to think the best of this game, especially since it's both an obviously ambitious rpg-project, in an entertaining setting and also a Linux release. (an OS that I've been using more and more for gaming lately)

So in my case it's practically a foregone conclusion that I'll buy it. As long as it has a decent amount of side-quests and some reasonable level of "messing with skill-stats" I think it'll probably be enjoyable enough :)
 
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The lack of world interactivity and open exploration make me a sad puppy. Let's hope that is amended in the final retail version.
Does that mean you run into "natural" barriers when you venture outside the city? A la Witcher 2?

EDIT: Oh, and thanks for the preview, Fluent. :)
 
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You're welcome, wiretripped.

In the build I played, one of the cities did not have any borders. You could actually travel the entire, huge island by swimming around it. There was nothing to find, though. Deeper into the forest I did find a campfire, so it's possible something will be placed here eventually and this area will be open for exploration. I only received 20% of the game, so there was a lot missing.
 
How much EA paid to topware to push this game to 2015.? That feature solely would have killed their Bears game. Imagine RP's advertisments during release week of DA3:
We give you RPG with swimming.
 
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Thanks for the review, Fluent - I always liked games like Seadogs, Pirates!, etc.
 
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Thanks for the preview! I bought both Two Worlds games cheap and finished both of them, and actually enjoyed them for about 10-15 hours or so.

I had the following problems:
*I didn't like the main PC. He lacked the charm/depth of the main PC in the Gothic/Risen trilogies.
*I didn't like the alchemy systems.
*I thought the writing was pretty bad.
*I found the concentration of opponents, especially in Two worlds 2 too heavy.
*The balance, especially in Two Worlds 1 was often quite poor.

On the other hand I thought the RPG systems for mostly well done. So if this game has good writing/acting/story, I'd definately give it a try. If its another Two Worlds 2, well I'll probably pass.
 
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