Graveyard Keeper [PC, XBone]

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Lee
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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by Lee » Fri Aug 17, 2018 5:19 am

This really needs a blueprint list that you can call up and see what things need without having to travel all the way back to the blueprint board :x

Made headways into the game over the last few hours. Money isn't a problem but fulfilling each NPC tasks is, so I've skipped them and left the Donkey alone and got on with building up everything I can and sort out of the rest of the buildable areas. Then I'll come back to the quests... now to figure out how to make the candles.
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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by Sly Boots » Fri Aug 17, 2018 6:44 am

Lee wrote:
Fri Aug 17, 2018 5:19 am
This really needs a blueprint list that you can call up and see what things need without having to travel all the way back to the blueprint board :x
Oh god, so much this. Just wait until you're unlocking areas outside the churchyard that take half a day to hike to... only to discover you misremembered the blueprint you needed and left a key component behind :cry:
Lee wrote:
Fri Aug 17, 2018 5:19 am
Made headways into the game over the last few hours. Money isn't a problem but fulfilling each NPC tasks is, so I've skipped them and left the Donkey alone and got on with building up everything I can and sort out of the rest of the buildable areas. Then I'll come back to the quests... now to figure out how to make the candles.
I would suggest getting the donkey-cart going again asap, as you'll quickly reach the point where you need to research stuff in order to progress... and to research stuff you need the thing you get for doing church services once a week. And while you can do those now, they only have a 50% success rate (and waiting a full week for another go because you failed one is $^*&%$%) and to get up to a 100% success rate you need to improve the church. And to improve the church and get the items you need to carry out the research you need a cemetery full of bodies that you've processed in the mortuary. For which you need the donkey. Getting him going isn't too hard, hopefully by now you have the deed for the garden so set up a small plot with seeds you can buy from the farmer below the wheatfield - the donkey wants carrots - they seem to grow after a day and drop seeds when you harvest so you can quickly get a bit of a manufacturing line going (tip if you build the compost heap - again you get what you need to use it when you harvest - and compost each plot before planting you get more seeds upon harvesting). You'll also need some oil which you can buy from the crazy dude camping in the ruins on the east side of town.

Now, if the above sounds convoluted then this leads nicely into my sorta review of the game.

I wouldn't go so far as to say I regret my purchase, but Stardew Valley this is not. Customisability is limited to placement of certain objects - for example your yard will only ever hold stockpiles or crafting points, your cemetery will only ever hold graves in a very specific pattern because of the nature of the buildable plots etc etc. There are no seasons and no real penalty for the passage of time, which is why the limited energy meter quickly becomes pointless. Go outside, do some chores, get tired after approx 20 seconds, go inside and sleep, go back out and it's still the same day so you do more chores, get tired, go inside and sleep... ad infinitum.

While the gameplay becomes quite compulsive once you get the hang of things, it doesn't take too long to see behind the curtain as it were and see everything laid bare. There's no real sense of accomplishment. You're doing things, but you're doing things so that you can do other things that allow you to do other things, which finally give you the thing you need to be able to do that, which of course unlocks this other thing... There's plenty to do but really all you're doing is making more complex versions of things you could make anyway that in turn will allow you to build even more complex versions of the same thing.

There's a mystifying amount of walking around to do to get to the places you need to get to for certain things - the village certainly but also other areas you unlock that allow you to mine infinite iron and stone, a vineyard and apiary... all confusingly long distances both from one another and your graveyard. And the village itself... there are no relationships to be had with villagers as in SV. Here your interactions are limited to fetch quests (many of which are bafflingly hard to complete, involving unlocking multiple technologies, opening up new areas at great cost or building new equipment to do a specific thing). The tavern keeper is just a guy you sell your burial contracts to. The smith is a guy you buy whetstones from. The farm is a guy you buy seeds from. And several others are obsolete even as merchants as you never need the thing they sell (being able to craft near-infinite stone and wood from early on) and money is so scarce you wouldn't be able to anyway.

Then there's combat. Nine hours in I've unlocked the game's dungeon, but while in appearance it's not unlike SV the combat is, for want of a politer term, shit. Your character has such poor manoeuvrability that dodging attacks is impossible and a particular enemy type's speed and attack pattern is such that there's nothing you can do to avoid being half-killed just taking down one of the fuckers. You have to keep running back home to rest every 10 yards of dungeon. They don't respawn in a game session so you're able to whittle your way through by attrition, but if you switch off and restart the game they do all come back, which I discovered last night with a small wail of anguish having almost cleared the first level.

It's not a bad game and you do easily get drawn into the rhythm of crafting and unlocking and crawling your way along the different tech trees to do more stuff... and there's a certain 'just one more day' aspect to that which sees the hours fly by if you're not careful. But it's not a great game either and overall I'm a little disappointed. I'd give this a 7 or even 6/10 while when I played SV the first time I would have definitely scored it a 9 or 10 I loved it so much.

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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by Lee » Fri Aug 17, 2018 8:36 am

Oh I've unlocked said areas so that's where the frustration was kicking :lol:
Spoiler
I've built the second base area, the church cellars all cleared out and running. Garden is off making me my herbs and what nots. And I've unlocked about everything barring the very end tiers. Did you know you could dig up the bodies to get parts to research? I did it to try out the exhumation deed :lol: . I've left the Donkey asking for oil and just carried on making money from the sermons each week and the stuff I mine sold off.

Since the walking speed is that slow you can be at the next sermon time just by going back and forth getting metal and coal etc


The one thing that really baffles me is that the villagers are always saying how they have no food but you can never sell them the crafted stuff you've made! Just the wood/coal and metal to the blacksmith. And the place is filled with people growing food too.
Aye agree with what you said there bud I'd give it a 7 myself. Where as Stardew Valley let you build anywhere this is very confined and to a point frustrating as it makes you trek everywhere to do something. Still an enjoyable game but here's hoping to some big fixes to above points to improve it.
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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by Sly Boots » Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:07 pm

Discovered today that the dungeons are persistent between game sessions... so luckily was able to pick up where I finished yesterday. Not sure if that's due to a patch or because the comment I read online related to the alpha but not release version. In any case, a welcome change.

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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by DjchunKfunK » Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:21 pm

The one small bit of combat I did in the half hour I played made me dread the idea of a dungeon being in the game. The more I read about this game the more it feels like they made a Stardew knock-off and stuck it in unique clothes to try and sell it to people.

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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by Sly Boots » Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:39 pm

DjchunKfunK wrote:
Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:21 pm
The one small bit of combat I did in the half hour I played made me dread the idea of a dungeon being in the game. The more I read about this game the more it feels like they made a Stardew knock-off and stuck it in unique clothes to try and sell it to people.
The dungeon is pretty shitty I have to say.

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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by DjchunKfunK » Fri Aug 17, 2018 3:35 pm

How important is the dungeon? Is it similar to Stardew in that there are materials that you can only get from there?

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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by Sly Boots » Fri Aug 17, 2018 3:49 pm

DjchunKfunK wrote:
Fri Aug 17, 2018 3:35 pm
How important is the dungeon? Is it similar to Stardew in that there are materials that you can only get from there?
It's critical in the sense that you need the reward from completing the first 5 levels (of 15) in order to progress the story. There are materials in there but nothing you can't get elsewhere.

At this point I'm not sure if the remaining 10 levels are optional or will be required at some point.

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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by DjchunKfunK » Fri Aug 17, 2018 4:02 pm

OK, thanks.

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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by Snowy » Fri Aug 17, 2018 4:37 pm

I have heard enough to know that this isn't for me.

Shame, I loved SV and this sounded right up my alley, being a darker version of the same, but it just sounds too grindy and flawed.
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Mantis
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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by Mantis » Fri Aug 17, 2018 7:40 pm

Sly Boots wrote:
Fri Aug 17, 2018 6:44 am
There's no real sense of accomplishment. You're doing things, but you're doing things so that you can do other things that allow you to do other things, which finally give you the thing you need to be able to do that, which of course unlocks this other thing... There's plenty to do but really all you're doing is making more complex versions of things you could make anyway that in turn will allow you to build even more complex versions of the same thing.
That's actually an excellent summary for Factorio too. The difference between the two games is apparent though, because in Factorio this isn't a problem so much as a compulsion to continue. The factory must grow. Must make more cogs. Must make more microchips. Must make red and green microchips to make blue ones. The factory demands it.

Man, that game ruined me completely.

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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by Lee » Fri Aug 17, 2018 7:47 pm

I do think it has the balance of ohh's and ahh's moments though. I don't know, I like the game but keep finding faults with it.
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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by Sly Boots » Fri Aug 17, 2018 7:55 pm

Lee wrote:
Fri Aug 17, 2018 7:47 pm
I do think it has the balance of ohh's and ahh's moments though. I don't know, I like the game but keep finding faults with it.
Kind of the same really. I spent hours playing it again this afternoon, unable to turn it off. I was just pottering round, making stuff, unlocking stuff... got my vineyard and beehives going, upgraded the church.

Then logged off to cook dinner and had the horrible feeling of a near-completely wasted day. I play it, find it hard to put down... and then hate myself a little bit for putting so much time into it.

Very conflicted :?

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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by Sly Boots » Fri Aug 17, 2018 8:02 pm

Mantis wrote:
Fri Aug 17, 2018 7:40 pm
Sly Boots wrote:
Fri Aug 17, 2018 6:44 am
There's no real sense of accomplishment. You're doing things, but you're doing things so that you can do other things that allow you to do other things, which finally give you the thing you need to be able to do that, which of course unlocks this other thing... There's plenty to do but really all you're doing is making more complex versions of things you could make anyway that in turn will allow you to build even more complex versions of the same thing.
That's actually an excellent summary for Factorio too. The difference between the two games is apparent though, because in Factorio this isn't a problem so much as a compulsion to continue. The factory must grow. Must make more cogs. Must make more microchips. Must make red and green microchips to make blue ones. The factory demands it.

Man, that game ruined me completely.
Yeah, sounds pretty similar (I've not played Factorio though), as if that was as much their influence as SV was... arguably it's close to that than SV in fact.

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Re: Graveyard Keeper - out 15 August

Post by Lee » Fri Aug 17, 2018 8:09 pm

Sly Boots wrote:
Fri Aug 17, 2018 7:55 pm
Lee wrote:
Fri Aug 17, 2018 7:47 pm
I do think it has the balance of ohh's and ahh's moments though. I don't know, I like the game but keep finding faults with it.
Kind of the same really. I spent hours playing it again this afternoon, unable to turn it off. I was just pottering round, making stuff, unlocking stuff... got my vineyard and beehives going, upgraded the church.

Then logged off to cook dinner and had the horrible feeling of a near-completely wasted day. I play it, find it hard to put down... and then hate myself a little bit for putting so much time into it.

Very conflicted :?
Yep. I ended up playing for a straight 6 hours without noticing it earlier. Got the vineyard just started but getting them frigging bee's for the beehives is slow. Church is just shy of being upgraded and the ass got his wheel's oiled at last.
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