The game has an entertaining story to it, but due to its many flaws comes out rather disappointing.

User Rating: 5.5 | The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief PC
By skizzo2711 | Review Date:
One of the most important aspects to an adventure game is the story. The Raven does not disappoint in that aspect: in the game (which consists of three parts, but is basically just one game) you take on the role of an officer who is on a train, protecting a jewel from getting stolen by the master thief The Raven. This of course is not as simple as it sounds and this classic point-and-click adventure game will soon have you chasing this mysterious thief through various locations. The game will also throw you in the role of two other characters, but all are connected to the same story and the character switch gives you an interesting change of perspective on the story.
With a good story, set in the Europe of the 1960's is off to a good start and there are many references to Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot which I rather enjoyed. Sadly, this good story alone isn't enough to make it a great game. The puzzles the game throws at you are easy, too easy. You will never find yourself stuck with a big challenge and the hardest puzzles won't take you more than a couple of minutes to solve. The amount of dialogue is okay (not too little and not too much), but you often find yourself just taking some minor action, triggering some rather extensive dialogues and automatic actions, which will give you the feeling that you are watching an interactive movie instead of playing an adventure game. Another disappointing feature is the number of interactive objects: these too are far too few. And as soon as an object in the game no longer serves a purpose, you can no longer interact with it. Not only does this make for a very sparcely decorated environment (interaction wise), but it also dumbs down the puzzles a lot.
The graphics look pretty good, but they are indeed very buggy. On more than one occasion my character simply disappeared from the screen. Not by walking off it, but by a simple interaction with an object onscreen. Only another interaction with an object would make him visible again.
The simplicity of the puzzles, the scarcity of objects to interact with and the bugs in the graphics make the game feel rushed. The game itself isn't very long either: you will find that you will have finished it in under ten hours easily.
Although I liked the story and its surprising (although maybe a bit farfetched) ending, the rushed feeling the game gives you takes a lot out of the fun of playing the game. A shame, because without those issues I would have given the game 7 to 8 out of 10 points. Now it gets a meager 5.5.
If you enjoy the classic point-and-click adventure games and are a fan of the Poirot genre you still might give this one a try (but only for the story), but I'd say wait until it is on sale.

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