Ravenwood Horror

Name: Ravenwood Horror

Developer: MinChan

Story: You wake up in a strange place and must find your way out. Puzzles block your path and creatures roam the halls. You are the prisoner of a madman running arcane experiments on his victims. You have to escape this nightmare before you become one of them. Pretty standard basic. It has multiple endings.



Writing: Well, the story was very well plotted, but the character development was non-existent and the dialogue was forced and unnatural. There was one really good jump scare, but the rest of the game maintained an atmosphere of suspense that it never really delivered on. The graphics couldn't really show what the dev clearly wanted to do, so there was a substantial amount of gross-out descriptions that really didn't help, although, there was a somewhat graphic death scene that must have been inspired by Alien, or at least, that's certainly the movie it invoked. This is a game that wants to be a puzzle horror, but mostly fails to do what a horror game is supposed to do. There were three moments that felt like they should have been scary, but the first, the scene inspired by Alien really only managed to mildly disturb. The second, an attacker slowly shambling towards you, was only annoying because the gun mechanic is so cumbersome. The third was a mysterious woman jumping out at you, which was the only really good scare in the game; actually, a solid popcorn moment. I feel like all three of these scenes could have worked much better if they had lasted longer, and there was functional fight mechanic that wasn't just push-the-button-in-the-time-limit. But...I'm actually getting into gameplay in my writing section, but with a puzzle game, the two are so intertwined, it's hard to know where one begins and the other ends. Now, in spite of these not insubstantial complaints, I found the game, for the most part interesting. Though it had all the elements of horror, it's lack of actual frightening moments compels me to categorize it more as a mystery-suspense. There is plenty of suspense, that sickening sensation that something could happen at any moment. The game just really, really fails to capitalize on it.



Gameplay: As puzzlers go, this one's pretty good. There's a lot of really hard puzzles in this, and they aren't few, either. There are a couple which I think have too few clues; the first one, arranging the initials on the tombstones, I don't think could actually be solved except through using a walkthrough. In fact, I think that when you reach the point where you're just going through all of the possibilities looking for whatever works, the puzzle hasn't been properly presented. So, while mostly good, a couple puzzles are way too abstract. That's fine as long as they're not mandatory to the game, which these are. That's fine. For the most part, the puzzles are really good, and I really can't complain too much. These are much better than you find in most other RM puzzlers.

There is a timed mechanic which the dev refers to as a puzzle, in which you find a revolver and there are sequences where you'll have a timer and have to hit the action button within the allotted time. I wouldn't actually call this a puzzle, and I frankly think it could have been evented better, as it turns out that there is very little indication when you'll have to shoot and what constitutes a good shot, and you're instantly getting hit and taking damage well before your 2 second timer runs out. If you're going to have the PC take damage from the outset, then I think a hand-to-hand (melee) mechanic would be preferable. If you want a gun mechanic, you should give the player a reasonable chance to make use of it. You get a three second timer, and you literally have to fire in less than the first second before you start taking damage.

Graphics: Mostly RTP. The characters don't seem to be standard RTP. Maps are in good perspective. I didn't find any serious errors, though they feel a little bland in overall layout. Now, I have another complaint. As I write this, I have a really bad headache right now, and I specifically blame a particular choice that the dev made in creating the atmosphere of the game. I know that when you're making your horror game darker, you're trying to create an atmosphere like Silent Hill or F. E. A. R., but please, people, please; can we all agree that this just doesn't work with RPG Maker? Please? All it does is make you strain and hurt your eyes...really bad. RM really doesn't have the colors for this and it just makes everything hard to see. This is not a 3D game where you can pull it off. This is a 2D, 24 color display, and it just doesn't work; you hurt the player's eyes.



Music: Taken from games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. They help tremendously to create an atmosphere that the dev just never really takes advantage of.



Glitches: One of the bookcases in the library changes when you interact with it. It must be a charset you didn't set to fixed direction. When you find Travis' wife, if you first come through the north door, she's just standing there and if you interact with her, you say "There's nothing I can do for her." The cutscene doesn't trigger until you leave by the south door and come back in.

Conclusion: If you're looking for a puzzle game that really challenges you, you'll definitely enjoy this. If you're more interested in a frightening horror game, look elsewhere. There's plenty that's disturbing, but don't expect to be scared. Also, don't expect to really come to know the characters. When I reached the end, I didn't feel really compelled to see the other endings. I don't expect anyone else will, either.