Game of the Month: The Raven
Created | Updated Feb 8, 2015
Mags plays the games so you don't have to
The Raven is a point and click adventure game published by Nordic Games. It was originally a PC game and was ported to Xbox in 2014 and came out in three parts.
The Raven was a masterthief who worked in Paris a several years earlier and had supposedly been shot and killed, however, as the game begins one of the 'Eyes of the Sphinx', large rubies, have been stolen and the Raven's calling card has been left at the scene. During the first chapter you play as Constable Anton Zelner, an aging Swiss policeman aboard the Orient Express. You meet Inspector Legrand, the supposed killer of the Raven and discover that he is transporting the second 'Eye' to Cairo to be exhibited there and manage to get yourself involved in the case. As the story progresses you move onto a cruise a ship and eventually to the museum playing the part of two other characters as well.
As with most point and click games there is an element of frustration involved when combining certain objects, not made any easier by the angles and in some cases the lack of light. Having said that, all the combinations are logical and don't require you to search for walkthroughs, which is quite refreshing for a game of this type. There are even a few side quests which are not essential to complete and don't affect the story if they are not completed. There were only a couple of glitches in the first chapter which were actually quite funny. In one, as you are talking to another character, The Empress 1 her head appears to explode and in the other the ship's Captain's moustache looks like it has a mind of its own and wants to leave his face. As I had missed one the side quests, I had to play through the chapter again and still found the hilarious.
With its varied characters, involving plot and rather excellent denouement, The Raven is solid 8/10
