Waiting For The Raven

[h1]Mechanically complex in the tradition of grand strategy games, but perhaps too convoluted in the gameplay user experience for the faint of heart.[/h1] Political intrigue, machinations, being the secret power pulling the strings of influence… what could be more thrilling? Grand strategy games form a special subset of the strategy genre, using your skills to play with the fate of nations. Although [i]Waiting For The Raven[/i] is a worthy effort in the grand strategy tradition, some of its game design flaws make it suffer in comparison to hallmark games in the subgenre. [h1]Game Universe[/h1] When the game starts for the first time, the only faction unlocked is Oracles of the Night, although it appears that there may be two other factions to choose from eventually. The Oracles of Night have recently had their organization routed, and your character Juliana’s task is to rebuild the network and take power in the city of Glassden. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2355489408 However, despite the fact that you are playing as a specific character, I would say the characters and the story aren’t really a focus of the game. Juliana is a named character rather than an avatar for the player, but her motivations as spymaster aren’t really clear. In fact, there’s almost an overwhelming number of characters considering that most of them aren’t particularly memorable or important in the story. The fact that the player doesn’t really get to know most of the characters makes the stakes not feel very high, which is very strange to say for a grand strategy game. [h1]Gameplay and Mechanics[/h1] The game’s mechanics are complex but fun - IF you can figure them out. For a game that is so complex mechanically, the gameplay experience is hindered by the overall game design not being particularly intuitive and sometimes failing to provide adequate instructions on how to play. The “I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m going to try this and see what happens” approach is the opposite of strategy gameplay expectations and can be unfulfilling at times in terms of enjoyment. The progression tree covers the main categories of options available in terms of gameplay: Business, Espionage, Manipulation, and Aggression. There’s also a fifth area in the progression tree called Cult Practices that I haven’t really delved into thus far. On the map, you can recruit agents and other characters into your network. Each character has different stats like Charming, Intelligent, Stealthy, etc. You purchase and manage properties in the city to earn money and progression points, gather rumors, and make connections to spend furthering objectives. Assassination is a whole thing in and of itself. The entry, method, skills of the participants, and access to required items all factor into your approach and chances of success against the target’s defenses and also earn different stat increases. Even if your plot is successful, there’s also decisions to be made in how to handle the body or bodies. Sloppy disposal of the corpses can increase your risk of being caught by the constabulary. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2355475174 While the majority of the gameplay actions take place at the map table in your manor room, there’s also areas to explore in the room using point-and-click style mechanics. Not all of the letters you receive are straightforward to read, so sometimes you have to decrypt the message to forward the main story or open up sidequests. I had to take photos on my phone in order to perform some of these decryptions because otherwise flipping back and forth between different in-game menus became very confusing. On the rare occasions you leave the room, there are text-based scenes that take place. [h1]Art Style and Graphics[/h1] Sometimes the overall aesthetic is right on point flavor-wise. For example, one of the main fonts used is very medieval in style. However, there are some places where the designers have chosen to mix fonts between the medieval font and a very modern font, and this jarring juxtaposition pulls the player out of the experience. The painted portraits and room decor convey the medieval ambience but are not aesthetically brilliant or standout in any way. The text boxes also have a bizarre design that makes them appear glitchy, although it's unknown if it's supposed to look that way or not since they all have it. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2355481283 [h1]Audio[/h1] Similar to the art and graphics, the musical tracks are pleasing but not particularly noteworthy or memorable. It is interesting though that you can change the music’s intensity by selecting different clothes in the wardrobe. The expositional cutscene at the beginning and letters from faction leaders are voiced, but other characters’ letters and the dialogue of intermediary cutscenes are not. There are some occasional sound quality issues, but not enough to really detract from the gameplay experience. [h1]Replay Value[/h1] [i]Waiting For The Raven[/i] seems to be missing some of the characteristics that tend to make grand strategy games highly replayable. Playing as a named character in a story rather than having more player choice in motivations and playstyle is a limiting factor. While slightly different approaches can be taken to solving the story objectives, the game isn’t truly open-ended compared to the subgenre’s top games. For some players, achievements can create replay value. [i]Waiting For The Raven[/i] has 22 total achievements, and from their phrasing, it’s obvious that some are missable by virtue of requiring different choices. I’m not clear, however, if any of the achievements are unmissable or from the content that is locked on the first playthrough. Depending on that, the game could potentially gain or lose replay value. [h1]Verdict[/h1] I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of the possibilities offered by the game’s mechanics, but my interest is piqued enough that I plan to sink more time into untangling this tale. However, while [i]Waiting For The Raven[/i] is a worthy effort in the grand strategy tradition, I feel I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this game be purchased at full price ($14.99 at the time of review) rather than a discount without first making purchasers aware that not all of the challenge is from the strategy gameplay as opposed to game design flaws. [quote]Visit SaveorQuit.com for detailed game reviews, posted daily![/quote]

An amazing game based on an amazing idea so relevant to nowadays - you have to make an influence on the world around without the ability to leave your house. To be more precise, your room. Normally I say ideas aren't worth much but this case is unique. In this game you must use whatever means necessary - purchase properties, hire agents, employ spies, send assassins - to take over the city. And all of that happens in a medieval setting, where your only communication tool is sending (and waiting for) ravens. Pros: - Unique idea. Relevant to our days. - Very good storytelling. Not just the storytelling itself, but also how it is presented. - Amazing voice acting. Although, sometimes it isn't present. But where it is, it's great. Suggestion to improve: - Make the UI more intuitive. - Improve the learning curve to help new players get on board easily. The game isn't difficult to grasp, but it is overwhelming a bit in the beginning. - Improve the graphics. It's not really difficult given the fact that the game has just one location :)

[h1] Information [/h1] Waiting for The Raven is a Strategy game, developed and published by MuscleBird, which was released in August 2020. The Game is still in Early Access. [h1] Gameplay [/h1] Have you always wanted to lead an empire and act out of the shadows? In Waiting For The Raven this is now possible. At the beginning of your adventure you have a total of three characters to choose from, but two of them can only be unlocked gradually as the story progresses. But now back to the game. The story takes place in a medieval / fantasy world full of consistent decisions where you have to make. You act from a house, or rather from a room, where you cannot leave. This scenario makes the game special, because I didn't know it before and it is unique. A table serves as an organization desk, where you can integrate a card and distribute your tasks. There are also new places with a? marked as we already know from other games. In the course of history, the map will reveal new places that invite you to explore. Next to it is a book that serves as a tutorial and enables you to read various things. A raven serves you as an informant, he distributes letters for your clients or brings you some of them. The narrator of the story / letters has done a good job so far and brings it across believably. Your tasks in the game include different aspects, for example you are buying real estate, hiring agents and spies, and teaching them how to shadow people. You can also recruit assassins to carry out contract killings or to take cities. In your adventure you will decipher letters, solve one or the other puzzle and secrets. [h1] Pro [/h1] + Dark/Fantasy setting + good mechanics in which the story is told and presented + acceptable graphics... + fitting music + Strategy game with brains + good Interface and Tutorial + Narrator brings the story across believably + Achievements [h1] Kontra [/h1] - currently only full screen option available - so far only English language available - ..which in turn looks a bit out of date [h1] Fazit [/h1] Waiting For The Raven is so far a strategy game of the better kind, what I've played for a long time and makes you want more. I'm excited to see what will follow. PS: First of all, thank you to the developer who provided us with this key for the group and here can you can find more good reviews from others and me https://store.steampowered.com/curator/26335619-Adult-World-Gamers/. [h1] Information/Review Deutsch [/h1] Waiting for The Raven ist ein Strategiespiel, das von MuscleBird entwickelt und veröffentlicht wurde im August 2020 Das Spiel befindet sich noch im Early Access Phase. [h1] Gameplay [/h1] Du wolltest schon immer ein Imperium führen und im verborgenen aus den Schatten heraus agieren ? In Waiting For The Raven ist dir dies nun möglich. Zu Beginn deines Abenteuers stehen dir insgesamt drei Charaktere zur Auswahl, allerdings lassen sich zwei davon erst mit voranschreiten der Geschichte nach und nach freispielen. Zurück aber nun zum Spiel. Die Geschichte spielt in einer Mittelalterlichen/Fantasy Welt voller konsequenter Entscheidungen wo du fällen musst. Du agierst aus einem Haus heraus, besser gesagt aus einem Zimmerraum, wo du nicht verlassen kannst. Dieses Szenario macht das Spiel ja schon mal besonders, da ich dies bisher noch nicht so kannte und es einzigartig ist. Als Organisationspult dient dir ein Tisch, wo dir eine Karte zum integrieren dient und du deine Aufgaben verteilst. Auf dieser sind auch neue Orte mit einem ? gekennzeichnet wie wir es auch schon aus anderen Spielen kennen. Die Karte wird im lauf der Geschichte neue Orte freilegen, die zum erkunden einladen. Daneben liegt ein Buch, wo dir als Tutorial dient und dir verschiedene Dinge zum nachlesen ermöglicht. Als Informant, dient dir ein Rabe, dieser verteilt Briefe an für deine Clienten oder bringt dir auch welche von diesen. Der Erzähler der Geschichte/Briefe macht bisher einen guten Job und bringt diese auch glaubhaft rüber. Zu deinen Aufgaben im Spiel gehören verschiedene Aspekte, als Beispiel nutzt du Spione um Leute zu beschatten, kaufst Immobilien, schickst Attentäter um Städte einzunehmen oder auch Auftragsmorde in Auftrag zu geben. Desweiteren löst du das ein oder andere Rätsel/Geheimnis und entschlüsselst Briefe und machst diese lesbar. [h1] Pro [/h1] + Dark / Fantasy Szenario + gute Mechanik, in der die Geschichte erzählt und präsentiert wird + passende Musik + Strategiespiel mit Verstand + gute Oberfläche und Tutorial + Erzähler bringt die Geschichte glaubwürdig rüber + Errungenschaften [h1] Kontra [/h1] - Derzeit nur Vollbildoption verfügbar - Bisher nur englische Sprache verfügbar - Grafik sieht veraltet aus [h1] Fazit [/h1] Waiting for The Raven ist bislang ein Strategiespiel der besseren Art, das ich so schon lange nicht mehr gespielt habe und das Lust auf mehr macht. Ich bin gespannt, was folgen wird. PS: Zunächst einmal vielen Dank an den Entwickler, der uns diesen Schlüssel für die Gruppe zur Verfügung gestellt hat. Hier findest du weitere gute Bewertungen von anderen und mir unter https://store.steampowered.com/curator/26335619-Adult-World-Gamers/.

为了回收成就所以启动重玩了，感觉现在这个时间点已经可以盖棺定论。 [B]好点子，烂执行。[/B] 繁多的恶性bug几乎让人无法坚持。 我已经好久没有见到 “提前获取一个科技会导致主线获取该科技的任务无法完成进而死档” 的游戏了。 新年的第一个dysb， 真的很喜欢这个宅女spymaster的设定，游戏甚至针对三个阵营还准备了三套不同的HQ场景，但恶性bug足以磨灭任何人的耐心。遗憾。

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6142328/][b]Like this Review? Follow The Cpt Froggy Club Curator Page for plenty more![/b][/url][/quote] Upon starting a new game you’ll have to choose your Faction. This is made easy for you at the first time of playing as there is only one Faction available to you out of three factions. You will have to unlock the other two Factions before being able to play as them. The three Factions are Constabulary (solve your first cryptogram to unlock), Cult of Flesh (help Lady Fayette to unlock) and the one only currently available to choose from is Oracles of the Night, a well renowned espionage organisation. The Oracles of the Night are a powerful and secret order which trades in information and espionage. After deciding to choose Oracles of the Night faction (unless you’ve already unlocked the other two factions) a window will open giving you some information on the Faction and its history. It will also detail the games Objectives and Rewards for the current Faction selected. The objective as the Oracles of the Night is to take control of at least Fifty percent of the city Glassden to win the game. You begin in a small room lit with candles, looking around you see a wardrobe, bed and a desk with a map and book placed upon them. A Raven delivers a letter through the open window, it’s from a Mr. K. The letter explains you (Juliana) have been picked to re-establish operations in the city of Glassden. Do well and you’ll elevate yourself in the order but as you are inexperienced, you’ll need guidance so Mr. K. will help you for the time being. Your first job is to recruit new agents so that you can delegate the agents around the city to complete tasks. The city is enveloped in a Fog of War, your starting point is indicated on the right of the map as a purple building, this is your Manor. It’s from here where you’ll send your agents out into the city to do your bidding. Through the Fog of War some building tops appear along with some question marks which are scattered across the map. In order to reveal what lies beneath the Fog of War you’ll first have to send an agent to Scout the place. Sending your agents to Scout a location will allow your agents discover, observe, follow and mingle with the people in that location. Some properties are empty and you can buy these properties as you expand through the city. Other locations can’t be brought such as the market, graveyard and port (public locations). Buying a location costs some gold, so you’ll have to start bringing in some cash to help fund your mission. Turning an empty building into a Tavern will help get you started and who knows what you might hear from loose lips from the drunks. You can also take over property through bribery, arson or the elimination of owners. Owning buildings will allow you to earn Rumours and Progression points. You can use these points to perform actions each turn such as Scouting, Ambush and gather Information etcetera. Gathering enough rumours will allow you to compile them into facts. Use stealth, espionage, plot and ambush your enemies as you gain information and expand through the city. Each new property you gain will automatically have an agent assigned to that building. You can upgrade the buildings like the Tavern, you are able to host events which draws punters in. However, you will have to learn new skills from the Progression Tree before you can make use of them. There are Five categories in the Progression Tree, these are Business, Espionage, Manipulation, Aggression and Cult Practises. As you progress through the game, you’ll gain quests along with your main objectives to complete. In the options you will find settings for Quality (Fastest, Fast, Simple, Good, Beautiful and Fantastic), Resolution, Anti-Aliasing, Texture Quality, Anisotropic, Shadow Cascades, Sound and Music Volume Sliders, Bloom, Window, Mouse Sensitivity, Invert Mouse, Tutorial Screens (Reset Tutorial), Key Bindings and Reset Game Progress. Positives + Nice graphics + Good music + Steam cloud + Has achievements Negatives - Crashed a couple times - No cards currently Plot, ambush, use espionage and stealth, anything which will help you rebuild your Faction as your agents spread across the city of Glassden in Waiting for the Raven. 7/10 [quote]Key provided by developer/publisher for review purposes via THE CPT FROGGY CLUB! Any opinions expressed are entirely my own! [/quote] [quote]For more reviews, great game giveaways and much more. Come join us @ www.Zeepond.Com and [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/thecptfroggyclub]The Cpt Froggy Club[/url] Steam Group[/quote]

Waiting For The Raven takes the best part of Crusader Kings II, the intrigue mini-game, and makes it a whole game. You're a spymaster, you manage agents. Here's where it goes downhill. So soon? Yep. The game about managing agents has an abysmal UI for managing agents. When you have two or three or five agents, the UI holds up nicely. You select an action, and the game pops up a little wheel of your agents to choose from. Once you have ten, fifteen, twenty agents, the whole thing comes screeching to a halt. The little agent selection wheel doesn't scale. So now all of your agents are indistinguishable green bubbles barely offset from each other in a circle, making it impossible for you to see any of them without painstakingly mousing over each sliver of an exposed bubble. Well, forget that, what if we click the option in the center to show all of our agents? Well, now we get to see them in a tree. Except instead of the tree being centered, it's inexplicably left-aligned, meaning that you will spend most of the game scrolling to the right through an endless procession of agents. Now you can see their names and their relationships to other agents again, but you still have to mouse over each one to see their stats. That's right, each agent has different skill values which directly affect their efficacy at different tasks. But the most commonly used UI, the agent tree, doesn't have sorting by skill. So when you want to assign an agent, you have to either remember which of your randomly generated names and faces has a Stealthy rating of 9, or you have to mouse over every single one until you find the agent you're looking for. I can't get over this. This is a game about managing agents, but once you have enough agents to manage, you spend more time fighting the UI than playing the game. There are other rough spots that could have used a lot more polish, like the clumsy dialogue, which offsets hammy speech by see-sawing from text boxes overflowing (sometimes literally) with text to others with so few words that the font size is comically inflated to take up the remaining room, or the excessively-high-pitched rain sound effect that starts to sound like bad static after a while (and it rains a lot). But why mention them? This is a fantastic game concept with a very workable, feature-complete implementation. Great start, time to refine it, right? That's when I learned, to my shock, that this game used to be in early access prior to reaching "1.0" in December. I honestly expected these issues to have arisen from the developer not soliciting feedback. How did this game make it through early access without anyone pointing out that the spy managing game makes it a chore to manage spies? I don't want to talk about the bright spots in the game like the crypto letters and Hebrew, or pick at flaws like the dialogue, because I'm so taken aback that the core game loop survived this long without someone screaming, "Hell's bells, fix the UI so I can see what I'm doing!" I hit that issue in about an hour of content. I assume people played the game for longer than an hour in early access, right? I assume the developer played the game for more than an hour, right? And they saw the big pileup of agent icons that was an unreadable mess once they started getting more agents? And then they spent a 30 seconds scrolling slowly through every agent they had before making one assignment? And then if they wanted to assign another agent they had to do it all again? And again and again and again, for every agent they wanted to assign to a specific task? And the next turn, when they wanted to assign those agents to a different task, they had to do it again? And they thought that was okay? Forget the graphics, forget the price point, forget the audio, forget everything else. Devs please go back, look at the UI for agent assignment in the map, the central part of your game where players spend the most time, and tell me that it's easy for players to manage agents. Please. Once you have at least 20 agents, take your five agents with the highest Awareness stat and tell them to gather information on someone. Oops, don't forget they have an Intelligence minimum for that task as well. Then wait a turn and do that with a different target. Is it fun? Does it feel good? Was it quick and easy to do? What if you had 30 agents total? What if you wanted to assign four agents each to three different people, and you again wanted to ensure those agents had the best Awareness possible? This is the basis of your core game loop. Did you enjoy it?

I think there's some really great ideas at display here. But the product isn't finished nor cohesive. It's supposed to be a story about espionage, but a lot of the time the 'espionage' is simplified to nothing more than a few values and button presses. And a lot of the time, money and resources is at the focus point, rather than subterfuge. It feels more like a mafia-styled game, all in all. You own establishments like a mafia would. You off people who own establishments so that you can buy them like a mafia would. You rough people up like a mafia would. You focus on profits like a mafia would. It has so little to do with espionage. The puzzles are a nice touch, but beyond that, it plays like a obtuse version of the retail owning minigame from Yakuza 0 with elements from Crusader Kings. To nail just how little this has to do with espionage and subterfuge, I haven't send a single letter in the entire game. You heard that right, you play a master spy who, not even once, sends a cypher of their own. When I first bought this game, this was a mechanic I expected to be central to the theme - I expected a sort of 'letter synthesizer' minigame, where you wordings and the like would determine your success. Instead, I got Crusader Kings style agents who just 'get hired when you press the + button and have the connection resources'. To the game's credit, the whole first person thing that it's got going, good UI or not, is awesome. I like actually picking up letters. I like that the little room you're in has secret puzzles you can solve if you want to and then get some bonuses. I like looking out the window and seeing time passing. (Though I couldn't find a clock or calendar in the game for some reason. Maybe I missed it?) And back to the cons, I tried some optional side content where an event just killed me, seemingly without RNG or warning (or maybe I just wasn't paying attention). Not too sure as to what to think of that. The narrative is, even if you receive letters all the time, kind of abstract and in the background rather than at the forefront. I'm not entirely sure what'd happen if you just ignore the story entirely and won the game without it. You have a 'cause', but I don't recall figuring out what that cause was? And of course, the UI. It's bad. And my goodness me, why do the agents have stats? I really don't see what this adds to the game. I feel like this is an element too directly ripped from Crusader Kings without attention to as to what it actually adds to the game. With how many agents you can get, it just becomes muddied and you have no real way to train the characters once hired(at least not at the point in the game I'm at). It would create a cleaner strategic game for me to have agents without stats and then have to plan around problems using other means than stats, such as plotting, scheming and subterfuge. Either that, or there should be no need for as many agents as there currently is. Perhaps have 6 super agents and have the rest be 'regular agents'. All in all... I kind of like this game, but I can't recommend it. It just feels unpolished and really rather too frustrating to play overall. I hope the developers keep at it though.

I was nervous about purchasing another early access game but so far I've been very pleased with this find. I love the story and the overall tone of the environment. The controls are a little confusing but with time and future updates I'm sure they'll get easier to manage. I'm incredibly eager for the game's future and development because I can see there is loads of content here (more than what is shown on the store page). So far I would recommend this game due to the story, voice acting skills, mechanics, and mystery behind the characters. The developer seems to really want to include player chosen mechanics and features which I think will be great as long as people continue to be vocal about their likes and dislikes.

The graphics, screenshot and the trailer didn't make me have interest with this game, although the premise of the game make me a little curious. In the end I was glad that my curiosity won me over. This game is more interesting and more complex than I had imagined for. in short this game is small scale CRUSADER KINGS 2, but instead of nations or the world, you only control a city ... and you are a CULT who tried to control the whole city with any means necessary You will try to control the whole city, building by building, and characters by characters. Each person has their own stats and identity ... to able to kill, abduct, bribe, threaten, blackmailed, or criminalized them, you need to identify them first like a detective. And one people will lead to another people. And not only that, you also has a very interesting story mode, where you need to decipher coded message and solving puzzles. And the mechanic is very interesting, made me addicted to this game. Don't let the graphic fooled you ... this game has greater value than that ... and yeah, the price helps too

Idea is good, concept is interesting. And that's only thing that's good. Ui is awful. Game looks like unfinished project, so clunky, buggy, outdated, so hard to get any info about anything. Unfortunately not recommended at this state. Refunded game sadly.