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Recordkeeping: Reventure COMPLETE
Mar. 12th, 2021 12:15 pmReventure is edgy and cynical about video games, yet it comes from a clear place of affection. Nobody draws pixels this sharp and chunky unless they genuinely intend to, it does not happen by accident. I didn't always enjoy the game but it delivered absolutely everything it promises.
So, you wake up. You're a hero. You go get a sword from the local cave. You decide to stab the old man who gives it to you. That's an ending. You get a unique cutscene.
You wake up. You do not grab a sword. You grab a stack of bombs instead. You plant a bomb and sit on it. You die. That's an ending. You get a unique cutscene. You wake up as an ambulatory pile of ash in the shape of a man. New skin unlocked.
That's two out of 100 endings. I'm not spoiling any others. Every item you collect is a verb, to be rubbed against every noun in the game or enable you to get to other verbs you can bash against other nouns.
This is a frighteningly well-laid-out game, every time I thought "Surely THIS is a softlock" I discovered that, no, there was in fact a secret passage out of the jam I was in or a clever way to use items to bypass it. There's a LOT of secrets in this thing and if you want to genuinely complete the game you're going to need to become intimately familiar with them all.
The humor of this game can feel mean-spirited at times. Getting all the endings requires a lot of shameless murder, and a willingness to do absolutely suicidally stupid things for the sake of an achievement and some pithy text. Like old Sierra adventures, half the fun is casting about and inventing new ways to die, or seeing what the latest game over animation is. That's great, I respect that. I didn't always laugh at the joke but I loved the process of getting to each one, mostly.
I say mostly because by the time you're down to the last, call it 25-ish endings you'll probably know exactly how to checkbox each one OR you'll be completely in the dark as to what the game wants from you. Happily, collectable hint scraps are plentiful, and there's a wiki off-site if you really need it.
You can also grab new skins from the Steam workshop or find them dangling in cages around the game world. (Even ones that, uh, are playing a bit loose with copyright. When I wrecked one of these and the Black Mage from Final Fantasy dropped out, I had a very "what?" reaction. Still cool though.)
I feel like this game would probably appeal most to explorers and achievement-hunters. When you're down to that last clump of items on your checklist and you're facing the slog of walking around the map doing things in a particular order AGAIN just to get another stamp on your card, it can be fatiguing.
Still... yeah, on the whole this is pretty great and I'm looking forward to whatever this team does next time.
So, you wake up. You're a hero. You go get a sword from the local cave. You decide to stab the old man who gives it to you. That's an ending. You get a unique cutscene.
You wake up. You do not grab a sword. You grab a stack of bombs instead. You plant a bomb and sit on it. You die. That's an ending. You get a unique cutscene. You wake up as an ambulatory pile of ash in the shape of a man. New skin unlocked.
That's two out of 100 endings. I'm not spoiling any others. Every item you collect is a verb, to be rubbed against every noun in the game or enable you to get to other verbs you can bash against other nouns.
This is a frighteningly well-laid-out game, every time I thought "Surely THIS is a softlock" I discovered that, no, there was in fact a secret passage out of the jam I was in or a clever way to use items to bypass it. There's a LOT of secrets in this thing and if you want to genuinely complete the game you're going to need to become intimately familiar with them all.
The humor of this game can feel mean-spirited at times. Getting all the endings requires a lot of shameless murder, and a willingness to do absolutely suicidally stupid things for the sake of an achievement and some pithy text. Like old Sierra adventures, half the fun is casting about and inventing new ways to die, or seeing what the latest game over animation is. That's great, I respect that. I didn't always laugh at the joke but I loved the process of getting to each one, mostly.
I say mostly because by the time you're down to the last, call it 25-ish endings you'll probably know exactly how to checkbox each one OR you'll be completely in the dark as to what the game wants from you. Happily, collectable hint scraps are plentiful, and there's a wiki off-site if you really need it.
You can also grab new skins from the Steam workshop or find them dangling in cages around the game world. (Even ones that, uh, are playing a bit loose with copyright. When I wrecked one of these and the Black Mage from Final Fantasy dropped out, I had a very "what?" reaction. Still cool though.)
I feel like this game would probably appeal most to explorers and achievement-hunters. When you're down to that last clump of items on your checklist and you're facing the slog of walking around the map doing things in a particular order AGAIN just to get another stamp on your card, it can be fatiguing.
Still... yeah, on the whole this is pretty great and I'm looking forward to whatever this team does next time.
