I think I can count the amount of games where we play as a raven in true flight on one hand. Bird flight is a niche that is tricky to get right. Movement ideally needs to feel fluid and graceful, whilst being responsive. VORON: Raven’s Story attempts a slightly different way to control a raven’s flight, and on the whole, it works. There is a learning curve to get comfortable with it, and thankfully, once you click with the flight controls, you’ll be enjoying the narrative adventure, battling against Norse mythology and sending souls onto the next plane of existence.
Before I get onto controls, it’s important to talk about VORON’s level design. This game is split firmly into two distinct level designs. The first is open environments, like islands, forest glades, or mountain areas. These allow VORON to fly as freely as his stamina bar allows him, and are a joy to zip around. There are usually characters dotted around who may want certain items collected so their souls can move on, and a caw can echo-locate them. There are also ring challenges that ask you to fly through various rings in a certain order within a time limit to clear the challenge. The second type of level takes place in trial chambers. These are either pressure plate or ring challenges to press down all the plates together or fly through rings in enclosed spaces quickly. Where the open glades are freeing, these chambers are skill tests. You can’t die in VORON. Instead, you’ll ragdoll roll across the floor or respawn at a safe place. That will become a rinse and repeat in the trial chambers as your skills are tested in well-designed but at times cumbersome dexterity tests and puzzles.
When controlling VORON, you’ll press a button to lift off, but a double press is required to flap your wings into forward motion. Your stamina reduces when flapping, so switching into glide stance can recover some stamina, but it usually isn’t nearly enough. To combat that, there will be lots of stamina orbs dotted around the game to fly into and replenish your energy. In the trials, they often paint your flight path, and whilst using the analogue sticks changes your flight path quickly, it doesn’t change the camera angle. The camera is fixed towards where you are flying, and you cannot look to the side. This makes doing sharp turns tricky as VORON’s turning circle requires planning and slowing down to turn tightly, but get it slightly wrong, and you’ll run out of stamina and crash into the ground. This became a source of frustration when rings started to move in and out of walled areas, or you were required to open doors with pressure plates in a trial. Picking up weights for pressure pads mid-flight is a bit hit and miss, and one wrong move and it’s restart time. Load times can be lengthy depending on the area, which adds to the frustration. At times, I had to walk away and come back later, and that’s quite rare for me.
I’m glad that I kept returning back to VORON: Raven’s Story, as if you have the skills, there is a rewarding story to be enjoyed. There are emotional moments, beautiful landscapes shining in twilight and sunset skies, and areas where you truly feel free to enjoy the acrobatic nature of flight. Whilst that may be tempered with some precision-based flight challenges that you can’t always cleanly navigate, the overall impression is far more positive than negative. The story is packed into about 5-6 hours of gameplay, being slightly shorter or longer depending on your skill level and desire to just blast around the world as a speedy raven. VORON is an ambitious solo developed game, and its flight mechanics work a treat. Pro tip – before leaving the home island, enjoy flying around with no stamina restrictions. It is a joy to behold.
Review copy provided by the publisher. VORON: Raven’s Story is out on PC.
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