Retrospective - Graveyard Keeper - Strange - Bizarre - Fun

©Lazy Bear Games
All rights reserved

For all the followers of TL;DR

Chronicles Conclusion : 

Good game but not for everyone 

Pros :

Addictive and fun gameplay

Bizarre context but well approached

Interesting world &Npcs

Small but useful tutorial

Plenty of progression via skill trees

Story is acceptable

Dlcs works some problems like the zombies one (The zombies one it's free)

The tone and macabre core wins a lot on originality and fun

Cons:

Need a external help like the web to enjoy the game much more

The map is giant but with a lot of empty space 

Grindy way to obtain some resources and not fun to obtain after a while(Science & Faith)

The progression drags sometimes quite a lot more than necessary

Quests are pretty basic

You never ride the donkey

Frustrating on some management parts

The progression of the skills seems like a choice but it's a must

Welcome to this new Chronicles Review, I have to say that some changes are on the way but expect an specific entry for it.

For now let's see this mix of farming simulator with the mechanics and without the farm, instead we will be working a graveyard!

Forget the happy atmosphere and vividly colors, we are on the middle age and every man is for himself.

I won't do a story section because there's little to say, you start the game having an accident and for some reason travels in time to a middle age graveyard.

It's not that the story is bad but it's pretty basic and only works as a reason to do the quests the game sends our way, there is an ending for anyone interested but the meat is the gameplay and the routine you have to develop.

The Gameplay:

First of all, as a graveyard Keeper you have to  work with corpses, dead and not so dead so if you're not interested then it's not your game, the contrary, if your younger self dream was to be this keeper for the dead then follow me because you're in for a ride.

Just 5 minutes in and you have to learn the traits of the morgue

Your graveyard works with a system of points, when you have to bury a corpse the system enter to play from the morgue all the way to the graveyard.

For example you will have to prepare the body, things like removing certain organs, the fat, skin, etc, nothing graphical enough because you only see the progress bar, nothing else.

Then you carry the body to the graveyard and you have to dig a hole, put the body and fill the hole to then put a tombstone and call it a day.

Sounds simple but not preparing in the right way the body or not doing the maintenance to the tombstones will result in a decrease of points that helps you on different matters.

The loop ends with you burying the body and getting a certificate that you sell for profit and that's it, on later points of the game this money are so little that don't pay to keep it in your routine.

This is a labor that require lot of work, repairing the graveyard will need materials and skills to help you

Let's talk about the quests, this game wins a lot from it's characters, they have a charming personality and some attitude, the problem is that the quests are very basic and tends to drag a lot.

For example the majority of these are getting a quest, then an item and then giving to someone that item but sometimes the routine of the characters (They only appear certain days) will stuck you 7 days waiting to give that item to finally progress.

The progression is all over the place on certain moments asking you for items so advanced that stucks you or something pretty basic but that you can only get it on specific days so the sequence is not so smooth.

You will also have the need of planning your base for all the diverse crafting methods that you need.

Let's talk about the most big problem this game has, some people maybe like this aspect but for me it's a pretty bad decision.

You have a lot of skills to get but the game never tells you the most optimal way to upgrade your character, this can be good for those that hate the Hand-Holding but for the average player or the first playthrough this takes a giant blow to the player engage with the game.

You can easily make the wrong choice getting a tech that don't help you in the near future and blow all your points letting you fall on a grind hell to make up for that bad decision, this is more important on advanced techs because they cost a lot more and not getting the right ones means hours throwed away to make up for those points.

The church is at certain point more important than your graveyard work

To summarize everything, this game does a lot of things but the progress tends to leave on the dark a lot of items, just to say, the money that you get from the graveyard to certain point will be useless because always nets the same and the game has also a progress on prices.

Another is for example the body parts or the crops of low quality that from certain point will be completely useless and only will take space on your chests.

The game tends to progress and let out great quantities of items without any use and any person on it's first playthrough will never know that.

Yes, we have combat and works well, the only thing is that we only have one weapon style

The Conclusions:

The game has the problem of taking you as an expert on mechanics that you don't even know of their existence but after pouring some hours in you will be able to make it.

Also gives a false sense of choosing your character traits because at the end you will need everything, every table, crafting station, item and tech for being capable to end this game.

To end this you have absolutely freedom to aboard the days, you need to sleep to recover energy but not exactly on the nights, looks pretty good and you will be smiling a lot chatting with the diverse chart of characters.

By macabre vibes I refer to things like this

A well rounded game with some edges that people with the taste for discovering things by themselves will enjoy a lot, others not so much but for something to do on a weekend or seeking the next game to master, then this is it.

Thanks for reaching the end, we see you on the next one!

Additional note : If you like the content please consider following us on:

Twitter: @TheChroniclesOG 

Facebook: The Chronicles Of A Gamer

Support the project: Buy Me A Coffee

Quora as The Chronicles Of A Gamer for more relaxed content like memes and other things relationed with the world of videogames.

We have a community on Reddit too, see us as r/TheChroniclesOfAGamer to be the first one to see our new content.

Also you can consult the Contact Us page for a direct way of contact for business or feedback, feel free to get in touch.