Ravenbound Mixes Open-World Action with Roguelike Punishment to Satisfying Effect

ign.com:

In the sea of roguelites at our fingertips today, it’s pretty easy to get lost among the procedural tides. Luckily, Ravenbound seems to have found a unique and ambitious take on the genre with an open-world action-adventure that’s filled with clashing blades, incredibly nasty bosses, and, of course, birds – because if I can’t turn into a bird and back into a human at-will, what even is the point? The massive map filled with optional random encounters to tackle and loot to claim is a gimmick that helped break up some of the more familiar roguelite elements, like repeatedly confronting bosses and steadily unlocking upgrades after each attempt. After several hours running around the massive, Scandinavian fantasy-inspired world and getting myself killed with my unrelenting curiosity, I’m definitely interested in seeing more.

If you’re into roguelites, most of the notable elements are present and accounted for. I spent plenty of time rolling new characters, engaging in various upgrade systems to improve my stats in the short-term and long-term, and getting beaten down by enemies that were clearly beyond my current power level. But what sets it apart are the absolutely massive open-world hubs I explored as I made my way through the campaign. It’s a fresh twist that made it all feel unlike anything I’ve played before. If you’ve played any of the open-world games for which developer Avalanche is known, like Just Cause or Mad Max, then you might have a pretty good idea of how Ravenbound works as well: I was primarily roaming around an open-world fighting things and improving my character while causing as much mayhem as possible.

But beyond that, the developer throws out the usual formula in favor of design elements that supports