Graveyard Keeper

Introduction
In Graveyard Keeper you will need to maintain and restore the graveyard. The game is a simulator mainly inspired by My Time At Portia and Animal Crossing along with many other simulation games. You will become a Graveyard Keeper after you pass away when you are returning home to your love. How you exactly died is not made clear but I think it was a car crash. You are instructed by a mysterious figure to become the new Graveyard Keeper. The game has an ending but it is very far away and you will need to grind a lot to find out the ending. I watched the ending on YouTube and it made me dislike the game more, I will give no spoilers. I think the game was very lugubrious and I did not like the game one bit. I played the game for the review but I was glad when I had achieved enough gameplay hours to write an honest review. Approximately for ten hours.

The story
You will need to take care of a medieval cemetery that is very out of date. Everything is broken down and is barely working. You will need to dig graves and bury bodies. You will need to mine metal and craft goods to restore the graveyard to its former glory. You will need to earn money to expand the graveyard while also engaging with the people in the nearby town. You will need to maintain all your relationships in the town to reach the ending. The game has an ending but I am not going to spoil it for you.  

Gameplay
As the cemetery is overrun with boulders and bushes you will need to clear everything out first before you can bury bodies. You will need to get everything working so the church can open up again. When the church opens up people can donate to the church again. You will need to complete quests for people to try and get information on your situation. The ultimate goal is to return home to your love. There are many different elements in the game you can use to enjoy your time in Graveyard Keeper. You will have to upgrade your skill tree which is called a technology tree to progress in the game. When you progress in the game you slowly unlock more areas that you can visit. Over time more things will become available for example: farming and fishing.  I really disliked that you needed to mutilate bodies for resources this stirred a feeling of unease. I wanted to close my laptop and walk away to never come back to this game again.

For many of the things, you want to do you will need to learn skills in the technology tree which is a huge part in the gameplay. You will need to upgrade the skill tree for anything you want to do!  Do you want to make better graves? You will need to learn it first. Do you want to get more items from mutilating corpses? You will need to upgrade the mutilating corpses tree.
You will need to begin earning skill points by cutting down trees or gathering twigs and mining stones.

There is also combat in Graveyard keeper but it is very simplistic. You will need to have a sharp sword before you can battle the enemies. Slashing enemies will cost energy just like all other activities in graveyard keeper. To restore your energy you will need to sleep and manage your energy wisely.  You can also eat meat or dishes to restore your energy. Dishes can be bought in town or made by yourself.

Graphics and sound
The graphics are pixel styled with lots of polish and detail. Everything runs smooth and I experienced no lag spikes or weird graphical glitches. In simulation games, I would much more prefer 3D graphics as it makes the game more realistic for me. The Graveyard Keeper graphics did not entice me at all but I enjoyed the level of detail and craftsmanship that went into making the game.

The sound in Graveyard Keeper is a bit monotone. I have heard the same soundtrack come by many times. It might have been better if there where more soundtracks switching from graveyard to the morgue.

What did I think of Graveyard Keeper?
I was looking forward to playing Graveyard keeper. After seeing the results from the poll I quickly installed Graveyard Keeper to play the game. It was not long after having started the game my mood swung from wanting to play Graveyard keeper to I want to delete this game. I don’t like the concept of dead being used in this way in a game and it made me really dislike Graveyard Keeper.
It was lugubrious and it made me feel uneasy at all times when playing the game. If I want to play a simulator game I would much rather play something cheery and fun. In my opinion simulation games should be about a little escape from the real world, In a simulation game, you get to do whatever you like. Questing or goofing around collecting items or entering a dungeon. Graveyard Keeper did none of these things for me but it does not make it a bad game. The game is very well designed and polished. You will need a different taste in games to enjoy this game. I did not spend too much time with Graveyard Keeper as I had to force myself to play it to be able to write an honest review. There was no possible way to reach the ending for me, I disliked the game too much. I looked up the ending on YouTube expecting to see a happy end. This would have made me feel much better! Instead, the ending was very bad and made no sense to me. If I had to play so many hours to reach the end of Graveyard Keeper it would be a big letdown.

My personal rating of how much I enjoyed this game is 5.5.

Pros and Cons

Pros

– Extensive crafting system.
– There are many things that you can do in Graveyard keeper.
– There is combat in Graveyard Keeper that earns you resources.
– The main character is made with exceptional detail

Cons
– Graveyard Keeper is a lugubrious game
– There is a long tutorial.
– There are too many questions left unanswered about the story for me.
– There will be people (like me) who don’t like the vibe this game gives when you are playing.

I expected something completely different when I put this game in the poll of the week. I see how this can be a fun game if you don’t mind the lugubrious aspects of the game and like simulation games. Graveyard keeper was not a fun experience for me but I do recommend it to people who can handle it and also like simulation games.

I give this game a…Drumroll

7.7

The game itself is really good but it is just not for me. Thank you for reading this review leave your own thoughts in the comments and don’t forget to rate the game yourself.
The giveaway will run from Juli 12 2020 8. PM CET to 19 Juli 2020 8 PM CET.
Or: You could use this link to buy the game yourself for a cheaper price!
https://tinyurl.com/Graveyard-Keeper
I hope to see you in the next review.