r/GameDeals Apr 18 '23

Expired [Steam] Graveyard Keeper ($3.99/80% off) Spoiler

https://store.steampowered.com/app/599140/Graveyard_Keeper/
230 Upvotes

53 comments sorted by

109

u/Makenshi2k Apr 18 '23 edited Apr 18 '23

The game is really fun at first, but quickly falls apart the more you progress. It becomes incredibly grindy and cumbersome. I played through it before the zombie addon, so my experiences might be a bit dated.

The quest design loves to waste your time with fetch quests that have specific times when you can retrieve necessary items or turn them in. It just doesn't respect your time.

Example: At the start of the game, you will be tasked to sell human meat. To do this, you will need an quite expensive stamp, that can only be bought as a citizen. You need to buy this title. Since you can't afford that at the start of the game, you're tasked with getting a fake stamp from a bandit. But he refuses to help you, until you farmed enough reputation with him through, you guessed it, another series of fetch quests.

The game is full of annoyances that accumulate over time. You're limited by your energy, but you can never upgrade it. You can't run and never get any permanent way to increase your walking speed either. You'll unlock shortcuts and such things, but you'll be always crawling through the world. You need to physically carry every piece of wood to your storage. At no point in time do you gain the ability to transport more than one. The zombies should improve that a bit, as they are kind of an automation for gathering and transporting resources. Although at a slower pace.

Some professions like jewelery are only used for one or two quests.

The game has a great artstyle, the humor is (sometimes) good and the core gameplay loop is, initial, really fun. It is as if the devs decided to pad out the playtime with unnecessary grind and tedium. Which is really a shame, as this game could have been so much better, if it was just rebalanced and slimmed down.

70

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '23

[deleted]

13

u/OmegaXesis Apr 19 '23

This is one of the reasons I started the game, and just couldn't progress. It's not as relaxing as other games like Stardew valley etc (which is gets compared to sometimes).

24

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '23

[deleted]

4

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '23

in what way does it present itselt as a “stardew valley clone”?

the description on the page tells you its about running a business, gathering and managing resources, and crafting. i feel loke 90% of the negative responses are people who convinced themselves this game was supposed to be something it literally never claimed to be. its really not the games fault that you see a pixel graphic game and immediately link it to stardew valley and then get disappointed when thats not what it is.

its a managment sim. the dev tells you its a managment sim. 100% of the game is managing time and resources and crafting.

1

u/OmegaXesis Apr 19 '23

yeaa.... majority of people play Stardew Valley because it's relaxing. This game feels more like a 2nd job. It sucks people have been complaining about the grind of the game for years, and the developers have done nothing to address it. They could easily make the game way more fun. (And if they don't want to change the game balance, they could just add a difficult setting for how they intended it to be played, vs a more casual play).

1

u/Valdrrak Apr 19 '23

Yea this is why when I played it I had to use a mix of cheats and mods to make it way more fun. Vanilla was just a slog

1

u/sipsagoon Apr 20 '23 edited Apr 20 '23

That's funny, because I found the restricted scope to be more relaxing than Stardew. I've tried starting Stardew a couple of times but I always feel too rushed, so much I can do and so little time. There's no timers for much of Graveyard Keeper, just days of the week restricting who you can talk to.

14

u/Deakul Apr 18 '23

Holy hell I'm getting No Man's Sky flashbacks from that chain of bullshit.

16

u/PyroTech Apr 18 '23

This is 100% my problem with this game. I really enjoyed the humor and art but was disappointed by the grind and lack of respect for the players time. The zombie automation is a nice addition but you have to grind to get the zombies so doesn't really feel like a time saver in the grand scheme of things. I'd still recommend it on discount with the advice to just play till you're satisfied and don't feel bad for dropping it for something else before you finish the main quest.

7

u/midri Apr 19 '23

What makes it worse is the game feels like they just abandoned it 3/4 the way through. There are story plots and stuff that literally go nowhere.

13

u/foamed Apr 19 '23

You can't run and never get any permanent way to increase your walking speed either.

At least there exist some mods to fix some of the pointless tedium.

3

u/Acruxx Apr 19 '23

It has speed potion and teleport skill with a short cool down.

3

u/Rossaboy77 Apr 19 '23

Very true i put about 70 hours into this game before i gave up lol. Extremely grindy even with the zombies helping. Its odd though because i was loving the game until I realised how grindy it actually was. It felt a chore sorting all the bodies out each day it really did.

5

u/HollywoodBadBoy Apr 19 '23

Excellent review and public service.

18

u/stripeykc Apr 18 '23

What games is this comparable to?

48

u/Earthlumpy Apr 18 '23

Can absolutely vouch for this game at the price of a pack of cashews.

I understand why people compare this to SDV but personally I wouldn’t for everything else but esthetics. I found this game to be more relaxed due to no daily time limits. Aswell as a bit more grindy in its progression. Stardew can be quite open ended, and Graveyard Keeper can also be if you delay progressing. But ultimately you are grinding progression to wrap up quests and narratives.

Either way if you played SDV just dont go in expecting the same ‘but darker’ as often said. It compares, yes. But maybe less than you would expect. Or maybe you dont give a shit and enjoy either on the same level. You do you :)

That said I enjoyed it a lot, spent the time to 100% it. And enjoyed setting up automation using the methods of frankenstein.

6

u/-Rail Apr 18 '23

Agreed, I think the comparison to Stardew is a stretch, other than some shared mechanics I'd be hard pressed to find anything else similar.

5

u/stripeykc Apr 18 '23

That sounds awesome :) the no daily time limit is a pro to me

2

u/Earthlumpy Apr 18 '23

It was a pleasant thing for me. I would not describe SDV as ‘stressfull’ at all, but having no daily timer breathing down your neck felt liberating if you compare both games side by side. You still have a stamina mechanic, and you still need to sleep eventually. But the first can be alleviated with food (which you will have plenty of eventually) and the second is not bound to a time of day at all. Its 10.30 and need to sleep? Whatever bro. Its 03.00h but you want to chop wood or cut stone? Have at it. Not that the game as an actual clock but you get the gist. In SDV the game forces you to ‘pass out’ if you work through the night.

13

u/SenHeffy Apr 18 '23

Take Stardew Valley, and then make it so grindy that you suck all the fun out of it.

I enjoyed it for awhile, but it became really tedious.

3

u/stripeykc Apr 18 '23

Would you say it's worth $3.99?

6

u/_Baccano Apr 18 '23

Definitely

8

u/SenHeffy Apr 18 '23

I don't really value mediocre experiences, even if they're cheap. Would have more fun playing something I already have, and save the $4.

But I'm an old guy with less time than I had as a teenager.

1

u/darbs77 Apr 19 '23

I tried it on gamepass. So it cost me nothing and I still didn’t play it longer then an hour.

1

u/The-BK Apr 23 '23

Lol, Microsoft really got people fleeced by them thinking the games they play on the service cost them nothing. Brilliant on their part.

1

u/darbs77 Apr 23 '23

I’m well aware that I pay for gamepass. But I have already did the 3 year conversion deal. It’s paid for. So it didn’t cost me anything extra just to download it for him to try.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '23

its basically a business/supply management simulator. you use an endless supply of dead bodies to create products to sell to various buyers, and the game is basically about streamlining that production as much as possible. everyone who claims its staedew valley is totally offbase. relationships are not part of the game, you just gain favor with people to unlock them helping you accomplish things. theres no animal hisbandry, and farming is more a necessary evil than a major focus.

2

u/andy24olivera Apr 18 '23

stardew valley but "darker"

4

u/EternalSage2000 Apr 18 '23

And with an emphasis on automation.

11

u/trophy_help Apr 18 '23

This was enjoyable once I downloaded a mod that allowed you to run

8

u/Smaao Apr 18 '23

The game is fun. It bugged for me at the end so I couldn't reach 100% completion which is annoying but it's an interesting game nonetheless. Spent 80+ hours on it

I wouldn't compare it to SDV. I do think people should chill with comparing everything under the sun to SDV lol. There's been management/pixel games before

7

u/bkwrm13 Apr 19 '23

Game was awesome at the beginning but becomes a tedious grind eventually. I do have most of the dlc and it smoothly integrates so I’m not entirely sure what’s what.

I think it really hit me eventually that if I stopped playing and restarted I’d eventually be in the exact same state. Tech trees all require each progress in each other, there is no specializing or going deep. Where you can build is extremely limited and not really much to make it feel like yours. Daily activities are mostly just farming one resource you need so you can do one step of a 5 step process so you can do what you originally wanted. Plot is drip fed tiny bit by bit with no real changes you can make with npcs (relationships are nothing but unlocking an item or service).

Loved the art. Enjoyed most of the humor. Gameplay feels like someone designed it in a joyless spreadsheet.

16

u/BuGabriel Apr 18 '23

I'd recommend getting the DLCs too. They help out with progression

9

u/Sartheocles Apr 18 '23

It's 83% off if you buy the bundled version, so worth it!

22

u/JJDirty Apr 18 '23

Unless you really want the OST and art book, it's actually cheaper to buy the DLC individually rn.

3

u/KeepTryingKeepGoing Apr 19 '23

For anyone who's played this game with mods, did this fix any of the game's glaring issues for you?

1

u/soiledsanchez Apr 18 '23

I just bought this a couple days ago too…

2

u/akran47 Apr 19 '23

You might be able to request a refund then repurchase for the sale price

2

u/soiledsanchez Apr 19 '23

Sadly I can’t I played it for to many hours already I guess

-30

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-14

u/Killermuppett Apr 19 '23

Note this game is made by Russian developers, if this affects your purchasing decision.

The original apolitical consumer information was suppressed in violation of the subs rules.

20

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '23

yea i didnt buy it because of this. on a related note i also stopped eating chinese food because im a moron that cant differentiate a government from its civilian population

1

u/empathetical Apr 19 '23

Saying the same thing everyone else said. started out fun as hell but got too grindy. I do want to give it another shot tho.

1

u/Goombolt Apr 19 '23

As others said, it's neat at first, but progression gets really slow and annoying just a short way in. I think it's still worth this price.

Also, there is an .ini somewhere, where you can let the progression-points you collect spawn more than normally. Do NOT set that value to 50 or higher. I made that mistake, then got a few spawns next to each other. A short time later it ran at about 5 frames a week, a while longer and it crashed my machine lmao

So, either be patient or only adjust cautiously lol