Разработчик: Witching Hour Studios
Описание
In the world of Eclisse, the ruling Empire of Estellion is besieged by a scourge of embittered zealots from the swamp nation of Kaysan, erased from history by the Empire’s hubris. As the Empire struggles against nigh-endless invaders and ruthless political machinations, its heroes must fight to restore the banners of the raven… Or fall to the Scourge of Estellion.
Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion is a turn-based wargame, where strategic troop placement is essential to succeess. Battles employ a dynamic “we-go” system where the actions of allies and enemies unfold in a simultaneous battle phase. As a result, commanders in Ravenmark are forced to think ahead, anticipating all movements of their enemies instead of just reacting to them.
Character traits, active abilities and tons of unit statistics come into play in Ravenmark, and have to be assessed and used in the best possible way. All of these are beautifully accessible in the Ravenmark Codex, where you will be able to learn about the different characters and unit types, as well as the deep and rich lore on which the game is based.
In Ravenmark, you are free to choose your own formations. Making proper use of the unique systems for command will be of vital importance to achieve victory! Will you align your pike formations into a single battle line for easier command and better frontage? Or will you keep your formations small and flexible? This is just one of the many choices you will face while fighting your way through your many battles!
Features
- Rich story-driven campaign: Take command of Calius Septim and a dozen other commanders as you fight your way through the beautiful world of Ravenmark
- Innovative “WeGo” game system: Anticipate all moves of your enemy in order to counter them effectively.
- Limited command: Decide which troops to order around when you have more of them in your force than your leader can deal with.
- Standing Orders: Harness A.I. assisted commands that persist across multiple turns and reduce the complexity of micro-managing large armies.
- Flexible Formations: Group up to three units of a kind into a single Formation, which provides special abilities and buffs to overcome foes with.
- Explore the Codex: Delve into the richly storied cultures and history of the various nations, characters and locales encountered throughout Ravenmark.
Поддерживаемые языки: english
Системные требования
Windows
- OS: Vista / 7 / 8 / 10
- Processor: Intel P4/AMD Athlon XP or better
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: Open GL 1.5 Compatible Graphic Card
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- Storage: 732 MB available space
Отзывы пользователей
One of my favorite games to play as a kid. This story is insanely good.
Not gonna lie, I wish I refunded this while i was still eligible.
I'm not even particularly sure why...? Bought it bc it seemed similar to Banner Saga, and I guess it falls flat in comparison to that beauty of a game.
At least i look at the total review score and see it's "Mixed" and know i'm not alone or weird for not particularly liking this game.
I'd recommend this game but only for those wanting an entry-level strategy game. Probably would have enjoyed it more as a kid than now. Now it's a bit bland to be honest.
Hard but rewarding. Great story, Witching Hour put out some very engaging games in their heyday. If you like turn-based strategy, you should definitely try this!
A fair attempt to try and make a tactical turn-based game. But a convoluted and oftentimes confusing story coupled with repetitiveness and a fairly frustrating system makes this ultimately a pass.
I'm surprised to see the reviews are so mixed for this game; I first played it on iOS years ago and liked it so much that I bought it just to replay it all on PC (and play the Epilogue!). It seems that some people expected more to the game than a series of battles with a storyline - there isn't, but I think the game on its own deserves a lot of respect. For a tactical game that involves so many unique mechanics - formations/flanking, standing orders/command points, turn order, nuanced unit abilities, etc. - it's balanced surprisingly well. The RNG that's incorporated in the combat initially frustrated me, but in hindsight, the RNG somewhat captures the randomness of "actual" battle, and helps ensure that no two iterations of the same battle are the exact same. Whether you're lucky or not, you can always adapt tactically to win (although some luck goes a long way for some of the 3-medal achievements).
There's only a couple things that I thought were iffy - firstly, there were a couple units that felt a little unbalanced (even though, according to the lore, they're supposed to be powerful). And secondly, there were a number of episodes which relied on spontaneous events mid-combat. While they helped illustrate the story, they were sometimes hard to adjust to mid-game, and once you knew what was going to happen, it was easy to win/achieve 3 medals by repeating the level. These events made for good story devices, but it felt a tad overused.
Other than that, I very much enjoyed the design, the art, and the music. It has a medieval/fantasy theme to it, and all the character designs/dialogue are based on such. The story is quite somber and takes itself seriously. I also really enjoyed familiarizing myself with the diverse range of units, and replaying certain levels just to see if I could've approached something differently. I'll always remember this game fondly!
6/10 - I love this genre and kept an eye on this game for a long time before giving it a go
Unfortunately the gameplay mechanics do not produce a satisfying experience and I could not get into it
+ Indie
+ Tactical genre
Will likely return to give this another go
Most of my play of this fantastic game was on iOS from when it was new in 2011. The PC Adaptation works flawlessly and the controls are just as effective with mouse as touch screen. The battles are hard, the battlefield tactics are solid and resemble a table top miniatures game. While there is a very interesting character driven story line with a host of characters and layers of intrigue, the story is told via cut scenes, this is not an RPG. The world created for this game is deep and very interesting. Its a shame this is the only game set in it. This world deserves a franchise. Its crying out for graphic novels and a TTRPG.
I'm so split on this one.
I want to like this game.
It has a nicely-tuned rock-paper-scissors tactical combat, every map is a new puzzle that has to be cracked, and quite often you are outnumbered and forced to weasel your way through to victory.
And it also has a complex plot that spans for tens of hours. I wanted to experience this plot, because I greatly enjoyed Witching Hour's second game, a phenomenal linear CRPG Masquerada: Songs and Shadows. But here... I just didn't want to play it for tens of hours, despite loving this kind of gameplay.
Ravenmark is a very good game despite being a mobile project, so I don't want to give it a thumbs down. It just doesn't have the it to keep you playing. Unless the story really draws you in which sadly it didn't do for me.
PS
Masquerada, however, has all the its in the world. Go to it, buy it and play it.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/459090/Masquerada_Songs_and_Shadows/
If it's not on sale for $10 or less I really wouldn't recommend this game. Grand strategy and simplistic combat are not a great mix and that has never been more apparent than in Ravenmark. The game's greatest failure is its lack of ability to provide you information and logistics. You can win the day in a tough battle and the game wont tell you how many waves of enemy forces there are or what directions they're going to come from, allowing them to surprise your general with a random spawn of fast archers that move first and just execute him after he's become exhausted from beating back the last two waves.
Your heroes are critical, if they die you lose the battle and start over. You get bogged down with these heroes, suddenly forcing you to baby sit half your army and work hard to keep them out of harms way because they're really not much stronger than standard troops. So now you have too many troops you can't afford to lose, and sometimes war is just about choosing which troops to sacrifice to win the battle. Here you don't have room for choice.
Perhaps the biggest downfall of the game is the ass backwards attempt at formation fighting. At first it seemed like it would be an awesome concept, as similar units can be combined into larger formations. The problem is the formations are awful. Their ability to move, even around your own defensive obstacles, is non-existent. What's worse is that a formation just makes you massively susceptible to flanking, even by small half dead individual units. It doesn't matter if there are no enemies in front, back, or the other side, one tiny unit on your left or right automatically receives a flank bonus. As a formation, you are too bulky to likewise maneuver, and in every mission you're outnumbered by opposing hordes so even if you broke up your formation to use the same method, you don't have as many expendable infantry as the enemy.
Perhaps the most infuriating thing about the game is that it lies to you. From the very tutorial you are told that all orders are given at the same time without knowledge of what your opponent is planning and then executed by individual unit initiative. So if you order two units to attack the same target, and the unit that goes first destroys it, your second unit cancels their order and stands their ground. This is important because you have a limited number of commands you can issue each turn. The computer ignores this rule. It can issue any number of commands, and they NEVER cancel orders. The computer always seems to give orders knowing what yours are going to be. You could move your cavalry into the most far reach and wildly unexpected order to trample enemy archers behind their own lines, and then suddenly all the infantry will about face as if they knew what you were planning.
This coupled with an awful repetitive trumpeting soundtrack, and constantly questionable spawn points for your units, just makes the experience more work than fun. It feels like you are being punished for the game's inability to prepare you for what you can't see or for the fact that game's rules only apply to you and your units. There is no sense of progress. Surviving units don't seem to improve or gain any veterancy, there are no resources, no gold, no inventory, and no matter how many battles you win or heroes you have with you, the enemy armies of vermin and autistic speech impaired barbarians will always be able to issue more orders than you. Your only real reward for victory is continuing through a needlessly verbose and ham-fisted story.
I wish steam had a rating system instead of a simple up or down rating system. I would give this game about a 5 or 6 out of 10. It's not the worst turn based game I've played, but it definitly has its issues. There is 0 character or army management. They don't gain experence, you have no say on what units you get in each battle, they're preset for every scenario. That is my biggest issue with the game. There are other problems though. The way turns and movement work is just really bad, units constantly get in each other's way. Almost every game I ended up just staying put and waiting for the enemy to come to me. The unit formation doesn't work well either. The formations become so unweildy that again they can't move without other units/terrain getting in their way. I tink there is potential for this game to be good, but there are just too many bad game designs holding it back. It also seems the developer has abandon this game.
Ravenmark is one of these solid games which get more disapproval than they deserve. Considering the price tag of 14,99€ it certainly delivers a fair amount of fun and some hours of highly interesting battle scenarios to a fair price.
The story is solid and you get the feeling the Devs put their heart into it. It certainly has a fair amount of stereotypical characters which use their own repertoire of catchphrases and lingual oddities, which certainly isn't everyones taste and seems to bug some people the wrong way. But overall the story has depth and some interesting developments, believable character interaction as well as some serious meaning to ponder about. I for one certainly enjoyed experiencing the campaigns and consider the storytelling to be the strongest part of the game experience.
The beautifuly hand-drawn battle environments and intermission scenes sure do their thing to put up atmosphere.
Then there is the gameplay:
Well, it is NOT Total War. It also did not copy the state-of-the-art other turn-based strategy deploys, like, for example, Zone of Control. It has it's own set of rules, and gets pretty harshly judged on them in some other reviews.
However: I believe it works very well with its own rules. Having the limit, for commands you can give, surely seems unfair, considering the same restriction does not apply for the enemies. However: It adds another layer of depth. A question of priority. You have to think carefuly which elements to deploy and which to save. The AI does not have the restriction for commands, but it has the inherent problem that it is a simple AI and is therefore somewhat predictable. Some elements just wont need commands, as they fight themselves when engaged or by ranged combat. The combat system also awards planning ahead with the four avaiable standing orders like "advance" (move forward automaticaly each turn) or "pursue" (hunt down an enemy unit and ignore everything else). It also defines the interesting decision when to put units together into formation to move them with less commands and when to split them up for single action. From my experience there won't be a lot of idle units if you play smart, and apart from the early phases of the game you won't need more than those 6 commands per turn (likely even less).
Then there is the utter lack of progression: No, you do not level your units, you do not gain stuff, you do not build stuff. You sit by, get a story told, get units and characters set for the next scenario and fight out puzzle-like battles to take part in their adventure.
It is a story-driven linear experience. So what? Last I checked not EVERY game needs to be a sandbox game or needs to stuff your face with goodies to be legitimate. (Not that I don't enjoy sandbox games or getting stuffed with goodies... >..> ) The scenarios are diverse enough to keep the whole thing interesting. At least if you didn't search for a sandbox-game.
Bottomline:
Solid experience with a good price<->game ratio. If you do not expect more than a good linear story of some individuals which get caught up in war, kings, queens, nations and duty, with interesting battles in between, this is just your thing, and I'd definitly recommend it.
First things first : it's a tactical game, it has no strategic layer whatsoever. You are facing predetermined set of tactical tasks to solve, with abundance of story and lore in and between.
Pluses :
+ Polished. Works as it should, no crashes, glitches or errors at all.
+ Variety of scenarios. There are lots of different battle situations, including sieges, ambushes, survival, chases, 2-vs-1, terrain hazards, you name it.
+ Difficulty. Technically two difficulty levels present, Easy and Normal, but to get more achievements you can complete additional mission tasks, a-la Hard difficulty. It's very finely tuned and absolutely doable, but require certain planning and "save/load" trick in tight spots.
+ Writing. Lore itself is young adults dark-ish fantasy mashup, with steampunk and the dwarves and of course mad zealots. But it's exceptionally well written, with great attention to dialogues and the lore. Ravenmark is a joy to read!
+ Sheer amount of content. 59 missions total, that's a whole lot of gameplay.
Minuses :
- Production value. Yep it's a mobile game port, but still, oh how many times during the game I wished for some animation, voiceovers, etc.
- War isn't over. Not exactly a cliffhanger, but finale leaves you craving for the sequel, and there's none at the moment. :(
If you like to solve tactical puzzles Ravenmark definitely worth a try. Rich fantasy storyline included.
If you want strategy and tactics with formations of medieval battlefield - pick Total War.
This game has close to nothing in comparison. Every battle is a pre-made scenario in which your troops positions at the start is a complete and total fustercluck.
If you still want to give it a try for some inconceivable reason, keep in mind these things:
- Formations of 2 units suck
- You have command limit. enemy does not
- If you told troops to pursue, they will pursue that exact unit, not a formation\group of units; if the unit you told to pursue is (usually via sudden critical strike) dead, your troops will just stand and do nothing like complete retards. Because battlefield is obviously a place where you just stand and do nothing.
- There is no strategic layer. You just fight one battle after another.
- Every battle is stacked against you. Every. Fraggin. One. (remember what I said about positioning?), and since there is no strategic layer whatsoever, there is no way to fight a battle in even somewhat favorable conditions.
Little, yet not too small fantasy tactical game with turn-based combat. Quite enjoyable for some time, just not take it too seriously, like an AAA-project. It's obviously not.
Well, it looks cool enough, it plays cool enough - for some time given. The way I see things - it's worth its price. Especially with some discount or bundle. All the negative reviews comes from one major misconception, tied with the store tags for this game. It is not a RPG for one bit, and it is not a strategy game, but rather a tactical one. More to it, it's a mobile port, which means Ravenmark kinda simplified by gameplay, when lined with some obvious PC strategy top-sellers such as Total War. Yeah, there is no for any strategic impact, you do not call shots on the global map, or choose anything between missions. You just start a new map, with some units and some tasks given, win the day, and go for the next map. Sometimes during the missions, sometimes between them, you watch cutscenes, which are revealing the story, and other small things, like characters motivation or some game hints.
Talking about lore and story, it's kinda nice, by fantasy standards - if you're really ready to pay any attention to it. If you're a "skip it" kind of guy, I don't know why you're still reading my review! Anyway, to get things going smoothly for players who don't like to actually read and get into things, there are cliches! So, Ravenmark is basically some early-medieval state, based on the Roman empire, with legions and such. They march through some wilderness, messing with some locals, who are looking much like the Celts from known history. But then, the Ravenmark getting some major problem from another empire-size state, which seems much teocratical and based on magicka-users. Oh, yeah, there comes magic! And elves! And even some "greycoats" with rifles, who seems much gnome-ish to me.
But enough with lore stereotypes. Let's just say it's story-driven turn-based game with some units of different abilities, with typical weakness square "sword beats pike, pike beats cavalry, cavalry beats bows, and bows taking out the swords". You can assemble some columns of units, for more control or brute force, or use those units separately, to take advantages of mobility, flanking and using various terrain features. There is some challenge to beat the map tasks faster and cleaner - to get usual mobile "3 stars" and all achievements in the end. Or you can just switch on "daddy's little girl" mode, like so many impatient and inflexible low-skill players do, take some beating from AI, scream and downvote the game for being "too hard".
Like I said already - the game is good enough for the price given. To enjoy it, you're supposed to patient, ready for turn-based tactical planning type of player. The story is also good enough, again, if you're patient and able to actually read and delve into. On my usual grid, it's somewhere like 7.3/10. Could be better, if the challenge wasn't always about speed and casualties, but, we eat what we can gather. There's always some lack of good turn-based games, and this one is certainly on the right side.
A very pleasant fantasy setting to put your wargame in.
You move blocks of units in a grid based system while using the abilities of your 'heroic' commanders which are attached to certain units.
The game has many chapters, good troop variety and a cast you'll grow attached to it.
It's miniautre wargaming meets Fire Emblem... and I like what I got!
A quality port of a quality tactics title from devs who clearly enjoy tabletop gaming, tied together with a fantasy soap opera. Not an RPG though, it's a string of simultaneous-turn-based scenarios.
They're honest about what they're selling and give a meaty enough campaign here that the parsimony of some reviewers is inexplicable.
Disregard the Strategy and RPG tags, this is a turn-based tactical game in a fantasy universe. Literally, there are no strategic or role-playing choices to be made, just a series of different maps. It is however a pretty good tactical game and I find it to be quite enjoyable, but don't expect your actions to make any difference in the campaigns.
What breaks it for me is the price. It's just not worth 15 Euro. Make it half that and it's just slightly overpriced.
Also, it's painfully obvious that it's an iOs port, with graphics, sound, UI and tutorial you'll recognize from iPad games.
Edit: After playing some more, I grew tired of the cutscenes (they just kept coming, and new characters involved all the time). I guess the "story rich" tag is correct, but the story is not interesting enough to bother to follow.
While I must recommend it for being an actually good GAME, with interesting and very innovative tactics which make sense and are fun and challenging on many levels, being a TRULY good turn based tactics game, I do give this warning:
The writing and story are some of the cruelest atrocities you'll have to suffer through, with near endless, completely incomprehensible text, 1000 boring, empty characters introduced as soon as the game begins, and character arcs which are straight off of the absolute worst anime children shows, complete with the insecure but brilliant hero that everyone belittles, the girl that pretends to hate him while having "the hots" for him, and a collection of childish sarcastic idiots which I grew to despise with every one of the endless forced screens of unnecessary text which completely fail at establishing a plot.
Trust me, you'll hate it too.
But the actual game is good. So Enjoy!
This wouldn't be a terrible game, if not for the incessent loading to a cutscene, only to load to yet another cutscene, and sometimes, to load to yet another cutscene. If the cutscenes themselves weren't so aweful, that wouldn't be as big of a deal.
Overall 6/10
Ravenmark is a turn-based tactical game in a fantasy setting.
The player commands a small number of units battle after battle as a story unfolds in the background.
Ravenmark is NOT an RPG, there are no role-playing elements whatsoever.
Ravemmark is NOT a strategy game, as the player does not manage the army and does not make any decision out of the battlefield.
Ravenmark is NOT an interactive story, as the player can only read the story, but cannot interact with at all.
PROS:
+ The combat system has some nice elements to it (formations, facing, abilities, terrain)
+ There’s a good variety of units and maps, and it doesn’t get repetitive too soon.
+ It’s very easy to understand how it works, yet some battles present interesting tactical challenges.
CONS
- The player’s actions have no impact at all once a battle is won, all you get for a win is access to another battle, with a predetermined setup.
- For a IOS port any price tag above 5$ is too much.
- The story you get to read is uninteresting at best.
- Little to none replayability.
Overall:
Tiny turn-based tactical game that should be taken for what it is: do you want to spend 15 minutes moving pieces on a chessboard-like map? This game does that. Anything else, look elsewhere.
When I saw the videos and description of Ravenmark, I thought I had stumbled on another hidden gem like Valkyria Chronicles. Alas, there are not much hidden gems and most times you will just pick up another little pebble. Ravenmark is such a disapointment that looked good at first glance.
A warning should have been the fact that Ravenmark is an iOS port. While that doesn't mean that it automatically has to be a bad game, there are still some implications that come along with it. Games for portable devices almost always don't want to bother the player with decisions that he made in earlier stages of the game. Concerning an RPG or strategy game, this effectively means that there are most likely no player choices to be made like specialising the skills of your units, upgrade units after a battle and carry it over to the next or RPG-choices that affect the course of the story. In short, you can expect that everything that adds salt and pepper to a RPG or strategy game will be left out. This, sadly, is the case with Ravenmark.
The following list rates the different aspects of the game using a scale from very bad (---) to very good (+++):
Stability/Bugs: +++
No bugs or stability issues encountered. Good job.
RPG-aspects: -
The story is a railroad slideshow without any interaction or possibility to make choices by the player. The characters are flat and either unmotivated good, bad and/or naive. Sometimes there's a voice narration of the character's conversations, which is nice.
Tactical aspects: +
You can give direct commands only to a maximum of six units during any given turn, while you will have at most times more than six units of yours on the battlefield. You can group units together and these new formations can be commanded with only a single command. Unfortunately, formations will often times not do or will not be able to do what you've ordered them to. All in all the tactical aspects are okay and the formation system adds a nice new idea to the genre.
Strategic-aspects: ---
There are simply no strategic decisions to be made. You can't upgrade units or characters, you can't decide which units to bring into battle, you can't decide on which terrain to fight, you have no choices regarding infrastructure, unit supply, economics or whatsoever.
Price: -
Considering the fact, that this is an iOS port, 15 € comes pretty close to a rip-off. With the lack of RPG-decisions and no strategic value, Ravenmark comes down to a casual game with some boring slideshow story. Honestly said, I wouldn't want to pay money for that no matter the cost.
Игры похожие на Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion
Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | Witching Hour Studios |
| Платформы | Windows |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 20.01.2025 |
| Metacritic | 75 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 67% положительных (51) |