The Raven: Legacy Of A Master Thief Review

The Raven: Legacy Of A Master Thief Review






With the exception of Telltale’s wonderful Walking Dead series or the reworkings of Monkey Island, there’s not a lot of love for point and click gaming on the Xbox. Sure, the genre’s slow-moving trappings may seem bland and tedious to a new generation raised on Modern Warfare and adrenaline-soaked bombast, but we’ve still got a soft spot for the cerebral challenges of searching rooms and weighing up the possible contribution of inventory items – which is why we’d really been looking forward to The Raven.


Centered around an infamous thief, a daring robbery, murder and a whole host of intrigue, it’s a classic Agatha Christie detective story (to the point where one character, a successful writer called Lady Westmacott, effectively is Agatha Christie – Mary Westmacott being a pen name of Christie). Set in the mid-Sixties the story is split into three episodes, between them taking in a ride on the Orient Express, a luxury cruise ship and an Egyptian museum, and it brings all the twists and turns of any good detective novel together nicely.



The general character movement is often awkward at best, with Zellner moving at angles that contradict your thumb stick movements, occasionally sliding into railed positions and even turning at 90-degree angles – all very annoying when you’re trying to line up an interactive item. Plus there are often linked areas where you exit walking up the screen, only to enter the next area at the top of the screen, and so if you keep pushing the thumb stick you simply turn around and walk out again in some frustrating circle of stupidity. The Raven: Legacy Of A Master Thief

Bizarrely there are also sections played in terribly poor lighting and even near-pitch darkness, with some crucial items invisible to spot without using an on-screen prompt and pointless cut-scenes played out that you just can’t see. Indeed, we could quite easily have spent a lot more of this review giving The Raven quite a kicking for its technical ineptitude, but thankfully there’s a cracking adventure to be had that more than makes up for its shortcomings.


The story line is very much in the Agatha Christie mold, with a handful of characters drawn together and all under suspicion for one thing or another. As Zellner you’ll get to speak to all of them in some detail, sometimes to get information crucial to your investigation, at others just to unearth a surprising amount of background detail or the extenuating circumstances behind their behavior. There are dialogue trees in place, but there are precious few moments of genuine consequence behind what you go for, and most of the time you’ll be able to run through the whole list in sequence and not miss a thing.

As for the engagement with the world itself, interactive items will be highlighted with an icon when you’re nearby, with a flick of the right stick scrolling through multiple items and, as you’d expect, there are things that can be added to your inventory ready to be combined with other elements through a little bit of trial and error. As mentioned, it’s not a flawless system and you’ll frequently have to examine the same item several times to get all the information you need, but once you've exhausted an item the icon will either disappear or you’ll hit a tell-tale conversation loop.


What makes The Raven both challenging and enjoyable is that it rides a pretty fair line when it comes to logical progression. There are no patronizing way points or markers to follow, but for the most part you’ll have some idea of what you need to do, even if how you need to do it isn't quite so obvious. If you get stuck you have a case notebook that details all the information you've gathered and offers up hints as to what you should do next. Similarly a tap of the X button will highlight all possible interactive items on the screen – though at the cost of a few points that will affect your overall rating in each episode.

 There is something of a rigid linearity to events at times, with things having to be approached in a certain order with little scope for shortcuts – and often that means walking between the limited number of environments repeatedly (and enduring the load times between each one) to check and recheck the same places with new tools.

There are also several moments where the solution to a situation isn't entirely obvious, regardless of the clues provided, or options won’t appear unless you’re holding a certain item (such as brandishing a rag before seeing the prompt to mop up some otherwise invisible grease). But the trial and error process isn't overly taxing and, in fairness to the game, it only highlights possible combinations of items so you can quickly discount a lot of things that won’t work.

 Despite getting stuck a fair few times, our main problem with the whole investigation side of things is how sometimes you can get rewarded for exploring all areas and every possibility in a scene, and at others you get punished for it. Not seriously, but there’s nothing to indicate that speaking to person X before person Y will cause you to miss a small chunk of the game or some information that, while never crucial to your investigation, is still of interest. Perhaps this gives The Raven a limited replay value, but we’d prefer a little more openness. The Raven: Legacy Of A Master Thief Review

 Seasoned point and clickers will soon find it easy to get to grips with The Raven’s nicely simplified system, though, and once you settle down into the story driven adventure it really is surprisingly difficult to put down. There’s a solid list of staple Christie characters, including a wealthy baroness (complete with downtrodden butler), a professor, a creepy German doctor and a slightly annoying kid, and the whimsical banter of Zellner’s lead character is largely charming throughout as he mixes educational and case-related explanations with character deconstructions and cheery asides.

The voice acting is solid, if a little slow-paced at times (with more than a few awkward pauses between lines) and there’s a quality orchestral score to help cement the overall tone. What also makes the series interesting is how the story takes a twist in the middle of episode two, with you taking on the role of one of the antagonists – a cohort of The Raven – with a third playable character in Episode 3. This takes you back to the same settings and events already played out, but seen from an all-new perspective. Cynics may view this as a cheap ploy to reuse assets, but it creates an intriguing dynamic as you put into play the very events that you've previously investigated as Zellner – and while some things begin to make more sense, it also adds further layers to the ongoing narrative.

 There are plenty more twists and turns along the way as well, and the game does what every good detective story should and explains numerous seemingly minor events and odd quirks before its third and final episode concludes in an entirely satisfying manner.

 It’s worth pointing out that, unlike the episodic nature of The Walking Dead, The Raven is most certainly a singular adventure split into three parts. There’s little merit in playing just one episode and so if you’re going to commit to the game, you really should consider it a £24 title, which makes it a rather pricey Live Arcade purchase. Depending on your sleuthing skills there’s still a good day to be spent on each one, though – we replayed the first episode using a walk through to check what we’d missed and this highly slip streamed approach still took five hours. The Raven: Legacy Of A Master Thief




While lacking the technical finesse that we've come to expect from Arcade titles these days, there’s a certain charm to The Raven that makes it hard to begrudge despite its obvious flaws. Perhaps its rough and unready façade is a part of that appeal, but there’s a great story supported by a decent cast of characters (some likable, others not so much, and some oddly stilted in conversation) and if you grew up watching film or TV adaptations of Agatha Christie novels on a Sunday afternoon before booting up Maniac Mansion or Monkey Island, then this is very much for you. If not, we’d still encourage you to hunt down The Raven because though it’s not a great game, it’s still a largely enjoyable adventure.

Conclusion:

With a very low-budget look and some occasionally awkward game play, The Raven is probably a game to be enjoyed more for its story than for its point and click action. But while there may not be a lot of excitement to this slow-burning saga, there are plenty of moments to bring a smile to the corner of your mouth or that sweet sense of satisfaction when you finally solve a problem and the next vital clue is revealed. At £24 for what needs to be considered as a three-part singular story it’s a rather pricey, investment and certainly not one that everyone will get the same rewards from, but for fans of a certain vintage there’s a great little adventure to be had. The Raven: Legacy Of A Master Thief Review




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