This game was reviewed using Version 1.9.5. Your experience on future versions may vary.

A humorous adventure game with a surprising level of depth in its design. Gameplay that starts overly simple quickly paves the way for some excellent puzzles, but does so through a gameplay loop that can feel too repetitive at times. Completionists will find a very rewarding experience for a low price, but players that aren't will more likely find a test in patience.

Reventure is a comedic adventure/platformer about a wannabe hero who goes on a quest to rescue a princess from the fortress of a dark lord--or who gets himself killed trying to reach the princess, or does get the princess but gets her killed on the way back, or maybe just ignores the whole "princess" thing entirely and runs off to take on some other random quest and/or wreak havoc across the kingdom for no good reason. The game boasts an adventure with 100 possible endings, tons of puzzles to solve and secrets to uncover, and a world that can change with each new ending you discover. It's an ambitious concept for a game, and for the most part it's handled very well--but it's not a game that I think is a good fit for everyone.

Gameplay for the most part is rather simple, with the goal being to explore and interact with everything you can find in order to achieve those 100 endings I mentioned before. Some endings are quick and simple, mostly there to pad out the ending count--for example, there's almost a dozen that boil down to just "stab these different NPCs with your sword". However, many endings involve some pretty inventive puzzle-solving, and unlocking all of them will require you to learn the game inside and out. Each ending also comes with a unique end card and (re)opening dialogue joking about how your last run ended and how you inexplicably wound up back at home despite it. It's good for a few laughs, especially when endings can also alter your character model in silly ways, like falling in a pit of spikes and coming back with a bunch of those spikes still stuck in your tiny pixellated body. Much of the game revolves around meta humor and parodying the adventure games of the past, and while the jokes didn't always land for me, it gave the whole game a certain charm that I found endearing. Games that focus mainly on this kind of meta comedy have been hit or miss for me in the past, as they sometimes focus more on making cheap jokes and less on making an actually fun game. I was hesitant going in because of this, but I'm happy to say that I was worried for nothing--a lot of time and care was placed into Reventure's gameplay/map design, and it shows.

Despite the small size of the world, the team at Pixelatto filled it to the brim with clever secrets such as hidden rooms, easter eggs, and many fun ways to abruptly end your journey. One of the things that stood out to me the most were how many secret paths between maps could be found, and how those became a critical part of late-game progression. One of the main gameplay mechanics is simple inventory management: you can only hold a certain number of items during a run, and most have weight that will reduce your jumping ability with each new item you grab until you practically can't jump anymore. Every path is designed in such a way that you must either stay below a certain inventory size to manage its platforming segments, or have specific items to circumvent them; and picking up any item has the potential to close off one path and open another. This created an element of strategy to later runs, as I had to carefully consider which of these pathways I could use with the combination of items I had so I could meet the requirements for a new ending. Because of this need for strategy, I found myself really appreciating the subtle design decisions throughout each map, and it made the process of full completion feel that much more rewarding.

Reventure was fun, but my enjoyment did falter from time to time while playing. My main gripe was the constant backtracking, which can make the core gameplay loop a bit of a drag at times. Every time you get an ending (new or repeated), you're sent back to your starting home stripped of all the gear you picked up in your last run, meaning you have to recollect any desired gear from its resting spot every single run. Much of the puzzle design revolves around being able to start fresh each time, but it does get tiring retreading old ground after a while, especially if you accidentally trigger an old ending while trying to work on a new one--a mistake you will make many times. Some endings unlock shortcuts that make this backtracking easier, but there's no way of knowing in advance which endings will provide these shortcuts, so you may only unlock some of these long after they would have been the most useful. It wasn't a big enough issue to stop me from finishing the game, but I couldn't fault you if the repetitiveness of the gameplay puts you off of seeing it through to the end.

Getting all 100 endings, as well as completing the post-game content, took me about 10 hours to accomplish. While there are laughs to get out of the writing and artistic/mechanical design elements to appreciate throughout, most of the sense of satisfaction you get from playing comes from the process of unlocking all of the endings. I wouldn't consider myself a die-hard completionist, but I enjoy going for all of a game's achievements or that "100% Complete" save file if I feel that it's reasonably possible to do so. Getting the most out of this game requires that you go in with that kind of mindset, but if that's not your preferred way to play, I don't feel like this is a game that you'll enjoy quite as much. Put simply, Reventure is designed with completionists in mind--you will almost certainly like it if you are one, but may not be able to look past its repetitive nature if you're not.

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[b][u]This game was reviewed using Version 1.9.5. Your experience on future versions may vary.[/u][/b] [h3][b][u]Short Answer:[/u][/b][/h3] A humorous adventure game with a surprising level of depth in its design. Gameplay that starts overly simple quickly paves the way for some excellent puzzles, but does so through a gameplay loop that can feel too repetitive at times. Completionists will find a very rewarding experience for a low price, but players that aren't will more likely find a test in patience. [h3][b][u]Long Answer:[/u][/b][/h3] [i]Reventure[/i] is a comedic adventure/platformer about a wannabe hero who goes on a quest to rescue a princess from the fortress of a dark lord--or who gets himself killed trying to reach the princess, or does get the princess but gets her killed on the way back, or maybe just ignores the whole "princess" thing entirely and runs off to take on some other random quest and/or wreak havoc across the kingdom for no good reason. The game boasts an adventure with 100 possible endings, tons of puzzles to solve and secrets to uncover, and a world that can change with each new ending you discover. It's an ambitious concept for a game, and for the most part it's handled very well--but it's not a game that I think is a good fit for everyone. Gameplay for the most part is rather simple, with the goal being to explore and interact with everything you can find in order to achieve those 100 endings I mentioned before. Some endings are quick and simple, mostly there to pad out the ending count--for example, there's almost a dozen that boil down to just "stab these different NPCs with your sword". However, [b]many endings involve some pretty inventive puzzle-solving, and unlocking all of them will require you to learn the game inside and out[/b]. Each ending also comes with a unique end card and (re)opening dialogue joking about how your last run ended and how you inexplicably wound up back at home despite it. It's good for a few laughs, especially when endings can also alter your character model in silly ways, like falling in a pit of spikes and coming back with a bunch of those spikes still stuck in your tiny pixellated body. Much of the game revolves around meta humor and parodying the adventure games of the past, and while the jokes didn't always land for me, it gave the whole game a certain charm that I found endearing. Games that focus mainly on this kind of meta comedy have been hit or miss for me in the past, as they sometimes focus more on making cheap jokes and less on making an actually fun game. I was hesitant going in because of this, but I'm happy to say that I was worried for nothing--[b]a lot of time and care was placed into [i]Reventure's[/i] gameplay/map design, and it shows[/b]. Despite the small size of the world, the team at Pixelatto filled it to the brim with clever secrets such as hidden rooms, easter eggs, and many fun ways to abruptly end your journey. One of the things that stood out to me the most were how many secret paths between maps could be found, and how those became a critical part of late-game progression. One of the main gameplay mechanics is simple inventory management: you can only hold a certain number of items during a run, and most have weight that will reduce your jumping ability with each new item you grab until you practically can't jump anymore. Every path is designed in such a way that you must either stay below a certain inventory size to manage its platforming segments, or have specific items to circumvent them; and picking up any item has the potential to close off one path and open another. This created an element of strategy to later runs, as I had to carefully consider which of these pathways I could use with the combination of items I had so I could meet the requirements for a new ending. Because of this need for strategy, [b]I found myself really appreciating the subtle design decisions throughout each map, and it made the process of full completion feel that much more rewarding.[/b] [i]Reventure[/i] was fun, but my enjoyment did falter from time to time while playing. [b]My main gripe was the constant backtracking, which can make the core gameplay loop a bit of a drag at times.[/b] Every time you get an ending (new or repeated), you're sent back to your starting home stripped of all the gear you picked up in your last run, meaning you have to recollect any desired gear from its resting spot every single run. Much of the puzzle design revolves around being able to start fresh each time, but it does get tiring retreading old ground after a while, especially if you accidentally trigger an old ending while trying to work on a new one--a mistake you will make many times. Some endings unlock shortcuts that make this backtracking easier, but there's no way of knowing in advance which endings will provide these shortcuts, so you may only unlock some of these long after they would have been the most useful. It wasn't a big enough issue to stop me from finishing the game, but I couldn't fault you if the repetitiveness of the gameplay puts you off of seeing it through to the end. Getting all 100 endings, as well as completing the post-game content, took me about 10 hours to accomplish. While there are laughs to get out of the writing and artistic/mechanical design elements to appreciate throughout, most of the sense of satisfaction you get from playing comes from the process of unlocking all of the endings. I wouldn't consider myself a die-hard completionist, but I enjoy going for all of a game's achievements or that "100% Complete" save file if I feel that it's reasonably possible to do so. Getting the most out of this game requires that you go in with that kind of mindset, but if that's not your preferred way to play, I don't feel like this is a game that you'll enjoy quite as much. [b][u]Put simply, [i]Reventure[/i] is designed with completionists in mind--you will almost certainly like it if you are one, but may not be able to look past its repetitive nature if you're not.[/u][/b] [quote]For more game reviews, check out my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42524563/]Curator page[/url]![/quote]