Gravelord is a new boomer shooter that just entered Early Access. Despite its unfinished state, the game already shows an incredible amount of promise and offers a generous amount of exciting gameplay for its price. Worth picking up even before the game is finished, Gravelord is sure to reel in veterans of the genre and new players alike with its commitment to the tenets that make boomer shooters great and its clever twists on the formula.
Hey, Reader. Want to guess where my next tabletop roleplaying game is going to be set? It’s the world of Gravelord.
Gravelord’s story shows us a world where ferrying souls to the afterlife is not just a great responsibility but a commitment carried out by a dedicated labor union called the Spade Lodge. They work hand in hand with Death itself to ensure rowdy souls reach the afterlife. Even Death has better labor laws than most companies.
We follow one such Gravedigger, Queedo, who sets out on a mission to avenge his father’s death. Killing his father’s killer, Keron Husk will also bring an end to the conman tricking the dead out of their well-earned afterlife. Shovel in hand, and with a gritty, dumb-as-dirt-but-tough-as-nails personality, Queedo bashes, blasts, and quips his way through fast-paced, cleverly designed levels rich with lore and visual storytelling.
Gravelord’s setting is not only well fleshed out but manages to be both incredibly interesting with its fantasy concepts and unironically funny, even with incredibly lame puns like Crypt-o-Currency and Ripcoin. Sheesh. The humor is nonstop, and the world hooks you after only the introductory cutscene. Thankfully, Gravelord satisfies this curiosity by letting you collect beautifully illustrated comics depicting the game’s lore and world throughout its levels.
If you’ve been living under a rock your whole life or are just significantly younger than me, a boomer shooter is a playful term for FPS games inspired by classics like DOOM, Quake, and other similar titles. It’s a term Gravelord wears proudly, and the developer’s interest in these FPS roots shows in the game’s design.
Everything about Gravelord screams its genre at the top of its lungs. It happily embraces the common tropes of boomer shooter protagonists and stories, delivering a main character who is dumb as a brick but undeniably badass—thick-skulled and thicker-knuckled. The game takes you through thoughtfully designed levels that challenge your platforming skills and reflexes, flexing a very familiar DOOM-level difficulty. There’s nothing like eating a shotgun blast to the face at the same corner six times in a row to get you rethinking your approach.
Similar to older games—and weirdly not implemented in many modern boomer shooters—Gravelord lets you manually save your position at any time with the push of a button. (Can you guess which one? It’s F5, and if you knew that, you’re officially old.) It’s also fairly generous with autosaves just after crucial moments in a level, making it less punishing if you get in the zone and forget to save for a while.
The game’s weapons—except for the starter pistol, which is intentionally designed to feel like a last resort—feel really satisfying to use. Gravelord captures that familiar, always-satisfying Quake-style shotgun feel. It hits hard, has good spread, and remains viable at longer ranges, but it decimates enemies up close.
The levels in Gravelord, as I mentioned earlier, are thoughtfully designed mazes with enemies carefully placed to provide a solid challenge that ramps up as you progress. Despite the lack of procedural generation, the game incorporates roguelite elements with perk cards scattered throughout levels. Picking one up gives you a choice of three powerups, seemingly pulled at random. These perks range from a simple bonus to armor effectiveness to the undeniably awesome ability to summon pet rats in combat.
If there was anything I would complain about with Gravelord, it would be the game’s platforming. Though thoughtfully designed, as I’ve noted twice now, the incredibly speedy movement can feel overwhelming at times. Some platforms felt just short of my jump length, some landings had a bit too much sliding, and some jumps felt slightly delayed, leading to slips, trips, and falls—which, of course, are the leading cause of death in the workplace. You’d think the Spade Lodge would do more to prevent them. I also found the game incredibly ballsy for making the very first level a freaking water level.
When all is said and done, it’s a great sign when I have so few criticisms—if you can even call them that—of an Early Access game. I didn’t experience any bugs, or if I did, I didn’t notice them. In its current state, the game only contains the first chapter, but that’s already more than enough to keep players engaged while the developers polish the game for its full release which I’m looking forward to.
Oh, and keep an eye out for that level editor. It’s not out yet, but developer screenshots suggest we’re in for a real treat.
Pros:
- Great boomer shooter that understands what makes the genre fun
- An incredible setting with great characters
- An interesting story told through fantastic comic pages without distracting from gameplay
Cons:
- Some slippery platforming in its current Early Access build
- The unfinished campaign may leave players wanting more while waiting for the full release
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