Reventure is an adventure game about death. You are tasked with discovering all the different possible endings to your story.
Along the way, you discover items that can help you overcome certain obstacles, like a shovel to help you dig, a sword to help you fight, etc. The gameplay is mostly platforming oriented with very little combat. Outside of the first 10-15 deaths, each ending is similar to a puzzle, where you need to discover all the ingredients for this specific scenario. While this can begin to get frustrating, the game avoids this by randomly spawning hint scrolls for you to find. They give a short hint about 1 undiscovered ending. It ensures that each hint is useful and progresses the game, without completely spoiling the fun of discovery. There are some items you can find that give you new ways to explore levels, giving some variety to the platforming.
Everything in Reventure is centered around finding new ways to die. Visually, this manifests in the form of certain deaths unlocking costumes that thematically fit with the outcome. The art is fairly simplistic pixel art, but the gameplay tends to distract from the graphics, so it doesn’t really hurt the overall game.
The sound design isn’t anything special, but it does its job. The sound effects and soundtrack are decent, but fail to stand out as good work.
The game’s writing is often funny and interesting, even if it falls flat a couple times. The plot is essentially one giant, branching storyline, and surprisingly, it all fits together pretty well.
Repetitiveness is Reventure’s biggest strength and weakness. At its best, the game has you exploring new, yet related, ways to end the game. It’s fun to see all the different possibilities. Yet the big problem is that doing for this for too long makes it boring after a while. This game is best played in short bursts over a long period of time. You always start the game the same way, so you never need to get caught up with what you forgot.
Overall, Reventure uses its unique idea perfectly, creating a great adventure loop. The presentation isn’t the best, but the gameplay makes up for it easily. Strongly recommended to adventure game fans who are looking for a fresh take on the genre.
