Graveyard Keeper Update

 I kind of gave up on Graveyard Keeper not too long after I wrote that review. The story was fun, BUT...

There are WAY too many ingredients for potions and things and the chain to make some of the stuff you need is VERY long without clear instructions or hints on how to get there. You have to mix two or three things together to get a new ingredient that you then have to mix with two or three other things to get a new different ingredient which you then mix with more, and keep repeating until you finally manage to figure out how to make the stuff you really wanted in the first place. Oh and did I mention that all of these mixing and grinding and whatever steps can take place at any one of six different stations? Yeah, it got way more complicated than I wanted to deal with.

The reason you want these things is to eventually make zombies for yourself so you can automate all the fiddly little things like wood chopping, stone mining, grape growing, etc. I managed to get two or three zombies but then ran out of the bonus potions I'd found. See the paragraph above for why I gave up on trying to make more. The potions to make the zombies do what I wanted just took way to long to figure out and were too hard to make.

Did I mention that all of this potion making is trial and error until you accidentally stumble on a set of ingredients that make what you want? It's not always the same ones, either. Multiple ingredients can end up making the same thing. What they make also depends on if you grind them, smash them, blend them, cook them, or decompose them.

Another pet peeve were some of the quests. Why hand a player a quest right at the beginning of the game that they have no hope of finishing until they are more than halfway through your long, involved story? It's frustrating to me.

So, overall it was a fun game, but unless you're willing to spend a lot of time fiddling in the alchemy lab trying to figure things out, it drags horribly. And if you're like me and like to see progress by checking off quests, even if they're dumb fetch quests, this game will only make you frustrated. Half of the quests they hand you near the start aren't even possible until you've unlocked most of the items in the game which doesn't happen for a looooooong time.

I'm dropping my rating to 5/10.

Graveyard Keeper

 Rating: 8/10 😼😼😽🙀😿😺😹😸

Ages: 10+ (mostly for theme)

My son bought Graveyard Keeper with all the DLC. I've been thinking about it for a while but haven't grabbed it yet, but I played my son's copy. I'm maybe 1/3 of the way through the game. It's going to be a long haul. There is a lot of resources needed to gather and create.

I'm enjoying the quirkiness of the game. The bits of story I've found so far are amusing. But, and it's a big one, there is so much you have to gather and figure out. This game will not hold your hand. You pretty much have to experiment with everything and keep trying it again and again until you figure out what you need to do to get to that next step so you can figure out how to do the next fifteen steps to finally get that one thing that a character wants. Thank goodness for Google. I'll try it for a while until I get frustrated, then I ask my son to look up a hint or two for me. The alchemy lab in this game is way too complicated. At least it remembers recipes once you figure out the correct combination so you can easily make more.

You also get to make zombies, once you figure out all the steps to make your zombie juice potion. The zombies will do some tasks for you. I'm still trying to figure out which ones. The one that I really really really wish I could hand off to a zombie or three is the stupid fishing minigame. Yes, you need fish and yes, you have to fish for them, and yes, the fishing minigame is horrid. At least the game gives you the option of buying your fish and fish fillets from the fisherman character at the lighthouse. I'm just really hoping I don't need to catch the super-rare fish for a potion somewhere down the line because, frankly, if that becomes necessary to playing the game, I'll quit. I managed to catch one fish and I detest the minigame. It's a deal-breaker for me. Which is sad, because the game is such a fun mix of quirky, dark humor and happy beekeeping and everything in between. Plus it has friendly zombies.

For the first third of the game, I'll give it a solid 8 stars and a thumbs up recommendation, BUT, that might shift as I finish playing through the game.