Ravensword: The Fallen King Review

By Andrew Nesvadba, on November 20, 2009

Publisher: EA Chillingo
Genre: Role Playing
Released: 17 Nov, 2009
Size: 64.2 MB
Price: $2.99

PROS

Huge game world; Beautiful graphics.
Simple and useful combat system.

CONS

Controls can get sticky at bad moments.
Only automatic saving available.

VERDICT

Frustrating and complex controls are the only tarnish on this otherwise impressively ambitious game.

Full Review
App Store Info

Many have tried before, but Chillingo has brought traditional Western 3D RPGs to the iPhone in a big way with Ravensword: The Fallen King. Ravensword combines traditional RPG elements with and a story focused gameplay system that tries to live up to games like The Witcher making it a stand out addition to iTunes and well worth checking out.

At first the controls can feel a bit confusing as they combine on screen elements with on screen dragging to look around and select items or people. This comes into its own when you get to fight, selecting enemies by tapping on to them and locking the camera making it easy to move around dodging attacks. The analogue stick can feel a bit sticky which makes any tricky maneuvering difficult, but modifying the game's sensitivity will generally sort that out quickly.

For a game that's under 70mb to download, Ravensword is amazing to behold. Much of the game takes place in large open areas that have an amazing view distance and are well designed. The effects are spectacular - though magic tends to take a back seat in most fights - and if you can stand the lower frame rate, turning on shadows gives the game more visual depth to enjoy.

This is a huge game and one that you can keep coming back to as it removes a lot of the fiddly bits of RPGs like inventory management and modifying statistics while keeping the adventure and story elements intact. One of the best RPGs available on the iPhone and worth getting into.

Screenshots