Reventure (2019) [Switch]

Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning, every poem an epitaph.

-T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

We can trace the contemporary saturation of indie games back to a certain few key titles from the previous decade. Cave Story, La-Mulana, and so on captured audience’s attention both by hearkening back to the classic games of yesteryear and by being surprisingly decent for their asking price – which was nothing, incidentally. Note that we didn’t talk about the graphics or presentation in either case. That’s because while both of these titles looked great given their low-fi look, that probably wasn’t the reason people loved them.

Naturally, indie developers decided around the turn of the 2010s that the pixel art aesthetic was absolutely why those were beloved games. Thus began an era we’ll call Pixelragnarok, several years of nonstop pixel art indie games. The market drowned under pixels. It was horrifying. Eventually, though, indie developers moved on and we were all safe… mostly. The odd pixel art indie game still shows up every now and again. Reventure, for instance, which is all about sending up video game cliches as you plumb a game world for its secret endings.

 Visuals: 6/10

Reventure’s a close adherent to the modern school of indie pixel art games. In other words, it’s a game that really likes the idea of pixel art but isn’t especially clear on what made that style great back in the day. The greatest pixel art games weren’t about desperately trying to cram the most detail possible into a limited space – they were about making the best graphics possible with the space available.

Reventure, on the other hand, looks both simplistic and confusing at times, with certain sprites becoming a little too jumbled to understand. Certain monster and character sprites are far too abstract to make sense without taking a few moments to wrap your head around them, which misses the point of pixel art entirely. For what it’s worth, this never actually impacts gameplay; it’s just a pain every now and again.

 Audio: 6/10

As with the visuals, Reventure leans heavily on the retro aesthetic when it comes to music and sound effects. That’s not the end of the world, but it’s not especially inspiring after a decade or so of bandwagon-hopping indie games doing the same thing. None of the audio is offensive or distracting and some of it’s even a little catchy – the early “town” theme, for instance. This might just be my cynical “don’t we have enough ‘love letter to 8-bit masterpieces’ games by now” side talking.

 Gameplay: 7/10

Reventure’s an interesting beast in that it aims to combine a standard adventure game with something resembling a collectathon. Your goal isn’t necessarily to beat the game and see the ending – it’s to see all the endings, regardless of whether that means you beat the game or not. There’s a hundred different endings to search for, each with their own little text blurb and image. Some of them even change your character’s sprite or other aspects of the world, though mercifully you’re able to select from an array of characters as you unlock them via endings.

Early endings are easy enough to find. For instance, you’ll probably get one by stabbing the Zelda-reference old man that offers you a sword without too much trouble as you swing the blade around trying to get used to it. Others are somewhat better hidden, like the ending for brutally stabbing away at the game’s first monster. Finally, you’ve got your actual challenges, like managing to complete the game in a traditional sense – this means playing Reventure like a real game, so to speak, as you assemble the knowledge you’ve gained from finding other endings in order to understand what you need to do and where. This last one establishes Reventure’s entire concept as a sort of long-form tutorial, where ending collection is actually a means of helping you understand the game piece by piece until you’re ready to conquer it.

 Narrative: 4/10

Technically, every ending leads back into the game proper, meaning that your entire playthrough of Reventure amounts to one connected narrative. That narrative isn’t anything to write home about, though. This is one of those self-aware games that’s packed to the brim with references and gaming in-jokes, so it’s not going for something new and exciting. Rather, it’s here to make you laugh and maybe stump your brain a little. This isn’t the place to look for a thrilling tale of swords and sorcery.

 Challenge: 7/10

On the other hand, if you’re the kind of player who generally enjoys looking for things, Reventure’s got you covered. You’ll find many of the hundred endings by just playing around and exploring the limits of the game world. If you want to fill out that list, though, you’re going to need to think outside of the box on numerous occasions. There are some endings that are absolutely devious. You’ll be thankful that Reventure has a built-in hint system, though even these might not be enough to get you where you need to be. Expect to be at this one for a while if you’re a completionist.

 Uniqueness: 5/10

This isn’t a new concept by any means; Reventure owes a lot to the Flash games of old. Ten years ago, in fact, you’d probably be playing this for free on Armor Games. The modern industry giveth and the modern industry taketh away… your eight bucks, I suppose. Self-aware games like this were pretty big back then, as well.

If you want an idea of what you’re getting into with Reventure, look up the This Is the Only Room series of Flash games and you’ll get the picture pretty quickly.

 Replayability: 9/10

That’s… kind of the point, isn’t it? Calling Reventure’s gimmick “replayability” might be a cop-out, since I’d argue you’re not really done until you’ve cleared out the endings list. Still, you’re technically finishing the game and playing it again… and again… and again. You can’t get more replayable than that.

Personal: 7/10

As much as I want to play the cynic and as much as Reventure’s tired concepts wear me out, I can’t argue that there’s a lot of heart here. By golly, those developers were trying. Trying alone isn’t enough to make a game good, no matter how few people worked on a game, but for $8 you could certainly do worse. Reventure’s inevitably going to end up bundled. Once it does, it’s worth the time it takes to install and finish, even if it does bring back terrifying memories of Pixelragnarok. Can you really get a stronger recommendation than that?

Thanks to Pixelatto for a copy of their game in exchange for this honest Reventure review.

Aggregated Score: 6.4

Cory G. believes the pen is mightier than the sword…well, depending on how sharp the pen and sword are. A child of the ’90s and a prolific writer, he strews his work about like Legos made of words, just waiting for your brain to step on them. He enjoys a devilish challenge, so when it comes to talking about some of the more difficult games out there, you might just run into the Infernal Accountant Mage. Some advice: hold on to your soul around this guy, and don’t sign anything. Read more at popzara.com.