Spiritual successors to classic games have been all the rage over the last few years, and the latest is GRAVEN, which owes a bit to Hexen II. Developed by Slipgate Ironworks and co-published by 3D Realms and 1C Entertainment, the game is being billed as a “dark-fantasy action-adventure FPS.” GRAVEN casts players in the role of a priest from the Orthogonal Order. After the priest’s daughter is sacrificed by a heretic, the priest retaliates and finds himself exiled in disgrace. In order to find peace, the priest is sent on a mission by the Creator to hunt four heretical sects.
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“GRAVEN began as a game we had often dreamed of,” said Frederik Schreiber, game director on Graven in a press release. “‘What would a spiritual successor to a Dark Fantasy series such as Hexen have looked like if it was made in 1998 in the original Unreal engine?’ We think the answer is GRAVEN. We hope you do too.”
Those looking to enjoy the title solo can do just that, but GRAVEN will support split-screen co-op for two players, as well as four-player online co-op. The game will boast three regions with over 30 unique enemies, and more than 30 weapons and spells to dispatch them with. Players can also use those spells to interact with the game’s world in order to solve puzzles. As players acquire new abilities, they’ll be able to backtrack to discover new secrets in the game’s regions. It seems that players will also have some freedom in how they explore the world, as they take up missions by listening to the townspeople and take on the threats that plague them.
All in all, GRAVEN sounds pretty ambitious! Spiritual successors have been a great way for players to experience games inspired by franchises that might have been forgotten over the years. It remains to be seen whether or not GRAVEN will manage to deliver the type of experience that Hexen II fans have been craving over the years, but Slipgate Ironworks seems intent on filling that void. For now, fans will just have to wait and see!
GRAVEN is set to release in 2021 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Are you excited about GRAVEN? Were you a fan of Hexen II? Let us know in the comments or share directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
