Listen, I wouldn’t put it by you if you thought an article for an Isometric Action RPG coming through the pipeline was about Diablo IV, but we aren’t talking about that until the servers actually work properly in July.  There’s always plenty of fresh content flowing through the gaming world and while I’m never a big fan of the Early Access platform for fear of liking something when it’s potentially not ready…I’ve found an Early Access game I like. It’s not ready yet, but you really should keep Ravenswatch on your radar.

You can’t really slot Ravenswatch into just the “Isometric Action RPG” window, as the title plays with more color in its features like it was a pane of Cathedral Glass.  You’ll find accents of MOBA-like features from games like DOTA and League, with shades of Roguelike like the developer’s previous foray, Curse of the Dead Gods.  A cast of characters rummage through a dark, tempered land with 4 nights to rid as much monstrosity as possible while beefing up for the inevitable introduction to a Shuma-Gorath-like final boss looking to rid you of your mortal coil and probably your ability to walk.

Ravenswatch’s bread and butter is its method of stuffing as much of entertainment into its runtime that’ll bead some sweat from you.  Ideally your goal is to reach a max level of 5 while upgrading your abilities to increase your stability and damage, while completing quests for gold for better items, while fighting boss-spawn to reduce the main boss’s HP pre-fight, while trying not to get killed: all on a tight 24-minute budget.  Days and Nights go by quicker than expected, especially in the first few feel-out runs, and juggling all that you need to run a competent run is very much part of the fun.

As of this writing there are 6 characters to choose from (the 7th character, Geppetto, drops May 31st and I’m already so stoked for the Old Man), all running their small pieces of Victorian-era styles and 19th century folklore.  From the dual dagger wielding Scarlet loosely carrying Red Riding Hood vibes who turns into the wolf at night, to Franz, a literal Pied Piper prepping explosive rodents to pepper his opponents, to Beowolf.  Think of “Beowolf” in your head, now add fire.  Youuuuuu got it.  Each character brings a nice visual flare but also fun archetypes of support, mobility, and Beef to add as many flavors of gameplay as it can within its world.

Your character is dropped into Chapter 1’s darkish-purple gloom, a thick fog of war blocking the 4 to 5 blocks of land.  Characters are given a MOBA-deck of abilities: basic attack, passive, 3 abilities, and an Ultimate unlocked at Max level.  A singular dash is also available for quick dodges or increased movement with a healthy timer behind it.  In the starting area, you’re given your one and only “Town” where you can spend acquired Gold on anything from upgrading abilities to bonuses to your stats.  Take the time to learn your buttons and your abilities, because once you leave Town, the timer starts.

The mini-map shows a few places of interest, and they’re generally a good starting point as the land’s easier enemies will dwell within these areas.  Procedurally generated checkpoints ensure a different route every game, and knowing what’s out there will make deserting the beaten path a risky but rewarding choice to your run.  These camps, color coded from green-to-yellow-to-red for difficulty purposes, can carry chests with random goodies like ability upgrades or items that you can’t get in Town.  There’s large hunks of Gold guarded by beefier enemies, as well as Totems that when activated will show more Camps on the map to guide your way.  Locked Tomes will test your mettle for big EXP boosts and item drops, or finding a smaller boss-like arena can lop a chunk of the final boss’s Max HP before you even fight it.  But failure can also occur in these last two areas, and if you fail, you’ve wasted your one chance and probably a good half of a day.  There’s a few other tidbits on the field (I was Asshole at the quests, good luck grabbing materials for that poor soul), but again, the mitigation of the day/night cycle with the risk and reward of what you feel you need for the run is such a satisfying inclusion that even with experienced players field every run is a sweaty one.

As you venture through the map accumulated experience will grant level ups for your character, capped with a flashbang of gold and a full HP bar (you’ll learn to love this).  Each level from 1 to 4 will provide you two options of styles to your abilities, which is not only an upgrade to your base stats of the move but also adds additions to your movesets.  These can compound onto a single move or compliment other moves that you can build on to make devastating combos against your foes.  It’s not a lot of change, but it does give some flexibility to work your build into the dice-roll of the map’s camps and feel what could go best for the situation.  Variety never hurts games like these.

And you’ll need to find your comfy builds that can punish accordingly, because everything in Ravenswatch fucking hurts.  This game is brutal at first and 2 to 3 hits from some of the average tiered enemies will put you in a world of hurt, while higher tiered foes can do upwards of 80-90% of your HP.  I never figured I’d need footsies in a top-down Action RPG, but if you caught slackin’ you will get thwacked.  HP can be restored by HP drops from fallen enemies and Health Camps, so staying high on HP is necessary.  If you do fall you’ll have a set number of Raven Feathers that will bring you back to life with a small invincibility timer to get you out of your sticky situation.  Friends can also pick you up from a Down But Not Out state that puts a 30 second timer on your head before you’re forced to Feather Spawn.  Once you’re out, you’re out for that run and what’s dead is dead.  No buying more feathers, keep your circle close in the darkwoods.

Once the clock strikes Midnight for the final time, or if you feel confident enough to reach the designated area and end your journey early, the final boss of Chapter 1 will arise.  I’ll try not to allude too much to what it does or how it works, but it made our resident Final Fantasy XIV player a little giddy with its red-indicator attack patterns and shump-style shenanigans.  The boss is rough on your first few go-arounds, and my team and I got trounced the first few times we played him.  But the small-sized runs help give you plenty of time to learn patterns and perfect your builds to finally trounce the foe.  It was a jubilant event to finally tower over the boss that caused so many ass-beatings that we were absolutely stoked to see the next Chapter.

Well, it’s not here yet.  Only 1 Chapter is currently available.  Once you beat the boss, that’s the end of your run.

Ravenswatch has included additional Nightmare difficulties, 10 in total, that will not only make the enemies a little beefier and harder/longer to kill but will also implement changes to the world, like higher ranked foes in easier territories or fewer feathers to start off with.  These genuinely cause concern on the battlefield, but also were able to stretch our time spent in the one area we are currently allowed to be in.  Ravenswatch is planning on 3 Acts and an “End Game” in its 1.0 release, but we won’t be seeing the fully realized title until an estimated Holiday 2023, potentially into 2024.

I absolutely adore the foundations that Ravenswatch has settled upon, and the land around it is rich with possibilities to really make itself at home within this top-down/isometric community, to where I’m legit more excited to see this game in full than Diablo IV.  But it’s also in a state where I can’t really tell people to get invested unless you have the weird ability myself and friends do to stretch 30mins of runs into several hours of repeated runs because good brain vibes happen when final boss go Boom. It’s the give-and-take of the world of Early Access: essentially a paid beta with grander promises of what’s to come, and it’s especially hard to sell 25% of your product with the hopes people want to see all 110% of it in the future. Once this gets closer to release, or at least past its Summer Update which will add the 2nd Act, I’ll be singing the continued high praises of a game ready to rip and tear into some “Best Of” lists this year.  But now I almost wish I stuck to my guns and waited, because I’ve been given a scoop of some of the best gaming this year and now I have to sit in the corner and wait for more.

Damn Early Access.