VORON: Raven’s Story is a game, shockingly, all about birds. That means I, once again, get to spew random bird related anecdotes before getting into the actual review. Just scroll until you see the first header. Anyway, my actual favourite bird is the Pied Wagtail. Little bobbing fellas, that I used to see out of the window at my first job. I worked as a document scanner, so was just feeding papers into a machine from nine to five. They kept me sane.

If I had to pick a family of birds as a favourite, though, it would be corvidae. And I’m not just saying that to desperately bring it back around to VORON. They look cool, for one. Especially if you’re into goth chic. They’re also pretty smart, and can remember faces, which is cool and slightly unnerving. They also filter though mythology a lot, particularly Norse, and have a lot of dark omens about them. Crows aren’t called ‘Carrion Crows’ for nothing. VORON embraces a lot of this stuff, though it gets a bit too lost in it at times.

Raven Mad

I promise I’ll talk about the game now. VORON: Raven’s Story follows a family of ravens. You start off as a little chick, just barely able to walk, before learning to fly and growing into a fine adult. Once you’re all grown up, your family decides to fly to the World of the Gods. We’re in Norse mythology here, and Odin has a love for ravens. Unfortunately, the world serpent Jormungandr has other ideas, and blasts the family apart. Our little raven picks himself up, and learns to fly again with the help of a special feather. He sets off to locate his family’s souls, and make his way to the World of the Gods.

When playing as a bird, the first question is going to be: how are the flying controls? VORON does well in this aspect. We fly where the camera is pointing, so going up and down feels smooth. We can accelerate and decelerate easily and, crucially, we can hover for a little while, so it’s possible to actually see things. Simply gliding forward over the landscape feels great. Landing is a bit of a faff though, as sometimes our little bird will refuse to stop. Half the time, it was quicker just to smack into things, causing the raven to ragdoll to the ground. Not as majestic, but quite funny to watch.

On The Wing

VORON‘s main gameplay loop is split between flying around the overworld, and completing puzzle sections. The puzzles do well at wringing out the flying mechanics. They start off with simple switch puzzles, but later on we need to fly through gates and hit targets in time limits. The nice flying mechanics make them fun, but they’re a bit limited. The only brain-scratchers come at the very start, whereas the gate puzzles feel strangely easy. Flying is limited by a stamina bar, but we can extend this with some easy-to-find secrets, so the bottom drops out of things a bit.

The overworld suffers from a similar problem: a nice central idea that’s left unexplored. Essentially, to find our family, we need to collect and save lost souls. These take the form of side-quests, scattered around a series of small overworlds. They have a lot of potential. One has you following the soul of a man slowly remembering how he lost his family. That was quite heartfelt stuff. But the first island is the only one with multiple actual quests. The last one just has a bunch of blue people that you fly into to collect. There was a lot of potential to breathe life into the world, but it was sadly underutilised.

VORON – Gorgeous Yet Limited

Lastly, if the screenshots didn’t convey it, VORON is beautiful. Right after booting it up, you’re assaulted by a wave of bright colours. It’s almost too much. If you go and stick your beak right into the textures, you might notice some limitations (like grass that magically disappears), but when you’re in the air? It’s like flying through a painting. I love it. Each region is visually distinct too. Given that we spend a lot time flapping from place-to-place, beautiful scenery was a necessity.

There’s also this underlying current of Norse mythology that weaves everything together. It’s mostly told through text dumps, but we get to fight Jorgumandr at the end, which is nice. Still, it’s worth mentioning that VORON is rather short, clocking in at three hours. I enjoyed my time with it, though. The nice flying controls, and pleasant graphics and atmosphere kept me engaged. While I don’t think it pushes its world as far as it could have done, VORON is an experience that feels pleasant and heartfelt.

(VORON: Raven’s Story‘s Steam Page)

DOG WITCH is a roguelike deckbuilding game of dice starring a dog witch and an evil wizard. Developed by Heckmouse and published by Mystic Forge, DOG WITCH was released on November 5th, 2025. Sporting over 150 unique items, testing out new strategies is exciting, even if those strategies don’t pan out the way you thought they would. With a deceivingly simplistic design and game mechanics, DOG WITCH offers a surprising but not frustrating challenge. As your progress through each stage and zone, you will encounter some wacky looking enemies, from milk people popping out of a milk vending machine, a swarm of angry bees, a trio of triangles and a TV displaying the nature channel.

DOG WITCH aims to give deckbuilding players a short but difficult challenge. As someone whose familiar with games such as Slay the Spire and Balatro, I found DOG WITCH to be a charming challenge. The game is easy to learn but difficult to master. It took me quite a few tries before I could even reach the final boss, and then a few more tries to actually be able to defeat the wizard. DOG WITCH also offers different levels of difficulties by the way of different witch hats to wear, which will make runs easier and harder depending on your preference. DOG WITCH might not be a game that will have you playing for months, but it’s an enjoyable experience nonetheless. So, get those friendly summons ready, it’s time to discuss DOG WITCH!

The Story & Gameplay Mechanics: Simple but Effective

As mentioned, you play the game as a dog who is also a witch. When starting a new run, an angry wizard scolds you for being a bad dog. He then disappears through a portal. Obviously, our precious pooch is anything but a ‘bad dog’ so we must make our way through a forest, desert and mountains to confront the wizard. When it comes to lore, that’s about as far as it goes. I personally didn’t mind though, as this game doesn’t seem like the type that would need a whole lot of lore to keep players interested. There’s enough here to give me a sense of ‘purpose’ to pursue the evil wizard.

Gameplay is simple and straightforward. Each turn, you roll five (can be increased) die that have six different faces each. The book charges your wand’s power and will decrease upon taking damage. The wand is your ‘main’ attack source, depending on your strategy. Bones provide a shield to your dog. Mana crystals charge your mana, which allows you to cast special spells once the mana is full. You are able to summon friends to battle alongside you and can grow most of them by stacking. Finally, you can try to stun enemies, which will become easier with each stun attempt. You also have two re-rolls, in case you did not get what you need. It feels important to mention that you are not able to lock a die roll, so use what you need when you can.

Enemy actions are displayed above them. After you use all five die or run out of usable die actions, the enemy takes their turn and perform the actions displayed. This can include status effects such as poison, direct damage, summoning, or shielding. You can hover over most if not all elements in the game to learn what they do. Overall, learning the gameplay mechanics is a breeze.

The dog witch only has 13 health, which isn’t a lot considering the amount of damage enemies can dish out. An all-out-offense might not be the best strategy and it will be vital that you plan accordingly. Since you can charge your wand and mana, I found that playing defensively while powering up in the first round or two to be a safe strategy. I also enjoyed summoning friends to assist in my battles, as they can deal some strong damage or at least be meat shields.

After winning each stage, you are then able to choose an upgrade. The upgrade can be upgrading one of your six die face items, such as bones with special effects or better summons. Upgrades can also include gear that offer unique passive effects. After completing a boss battle at the end of a zone, your health will be fully restored. You will also be offered a corrupted upgrade. These provide one of your pre-existing upgrades with a strong effect at the cost of some of your health. Overall, the gameplay in DOG WITCH allows for interesting strategies that require a level of planning that might not be apparent at first glance. Though it is fun and entertaining to try out different strategies, there isn’t a way to brute force them into working necessarily as facing the ‘You Are Dead’ screen will probably pop up more often than not.

The RNG: Perhaps a bit Ruff

My go-to strategy was to focus on defense as I stacked summons and select upgrades that helped power them up. This is of course just one of many possible strategies to go for. Even a summon strategy alone can vary due to the many possible upgrade selections. Remember, there’s over 150 unique items to come across! Though there was a fair amount of repeat upgrades in the beginning, new items would pop up allowing for new strategies to take place. I never felt like I was running into the same thing over and over, as if the game was forcing me into one direction or another.

However, I did notice that occasionally, the RNG in this game seemed to work against the player. For example, I would roll a die that I didn’t want to use, such as a mana crystal. I would of course attempt to re-roll this, but would end up with the same mana crystal after both attempts. I know rolling the same face on a die three times in a row is certainly possible. However, after a few times of this happening, it was feeling a bit off statistically. There would also be turns where I wouldn’t get a die face I wanted at all on any of the five die, no matter the times I would try to re-roll. Again, certainly possible but it feels a bit against the player rather than a true ‘RNG’ experience.

Unfortunately, poor RNG was the reason why many of my runs failed rather than poor strategic planning. This could just be part of the game’s challenge of course. However, without any way to try and improve the RNG in my favor, it did become a tad bit defeating at times. A perfectly sound strategy could fail completely if the RNG does not work in your favor, which feels more so a way for the game to have longevity. If RNG was easier, people would beat the game after only a few tries. This may lead to players becoming bored despite the various achievements to collect and new witch hats to try out.

They did recently release an upgrade that includes a Demon Puppy hat to ‘soften’ the RNG. To me, this says something positive about the developers at Heckmouse. RNG seems to be the main concern according to steam reviews. By releasing something in response to this, it shows that the developers are listening to players. I personally have not tried the new hat yet, but I can certainly appreciate and applaud the developers for listening to their player-base and providing updates in response.

The Graphics & Audio: Smooth Jazz and Dog Customization

I’m a big fan of character customization and am super happy that DOG WITCH includes this. Being able to customize your dog, selecting different furs (dog breeds), size, chonk level and bark sound is a simple but super enjoyable aspect before each run. You are able to create some cute mini-pooches, some oh-lawd-he-coming chonksters or even one similar to your own precious pup at home. It’s sweet and simple and I really enjoyed this.

I also really enjoyed the character designs as well, whether it be friend or foe. The first time I went against the triangle trio, I had to show my partner their cute angry little faces. Fighting alongside two little skeletons was super cute as they teetered in anticipation. Even the bald angry wizard calling us a bad dog had a cute little charm. Graphically, the game is super pleasing and probably does not require much demand on your computer. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if a mobile port came at a later date so that you could play on the go, beyond the usage of the Steam Deck which this is compatible with.

The audio is very pleasing as well. The smooth jazz background music mixed with the various sound effects blended nicely to my ears. Most importantly, clicking on your dog causes them to bark. When it comes to the audio and the graphics, I have no complaints. The developers hit the mark when it comes to these areas! DOG WITCH is a sweet and charming game that certainly drew me in!

The Conclusion: Short, Sweet, Simple with a whole lot of Barks

Having had a full release earlier this month and already receiving its first update, I’m excited to see where DOG WITCH might go! A post-launch roadmap promises major updates in December, January and in March. I am eagerly anticipating a ton more content, customization, and strategies to try out! I could also see some modding potential and a mobile port, if the developers decide to open those doors for their player base. If not, I still think DOG WITCH has a lot going for it. It will certainly be a game I come back to from time to time to see how things are going. Overall, despite the challenges presented by RNG, I had a ton of fun playing this one!

Heckmouse deserves an A+ for their game and I hope they continue to listen to their player-base for feedback. Though this game may not have the longevity, I think it is super fun for what it does offer. I hope that future updates only enhance the experience. If you have a dog at home, remember to give them an extra squeeze today. You never know what evil wizards might be taunting them!

Thank you for reading and protect those pooches!

The adventure game genre is an odd one to examine. Imagine a product where traditional gameplay is deemphasized. You won’t be engaging in any tense shootouts, thrilling car chases, or other forms of high-flying spectacle. Instead, you’ll be presented with modest environments, in which you’ll need to examine documents, gather items, and solve puzzles.

Sounds fun? Well, not to most people. Point-and-click experiences were a staple of the PC ecosystem in gaming’s earlier years, but have since faded into obscurity. Adventure games have salvaged some success on consoles, mostly due to their willingness to become (somewhat) more interactive, with Telltale’s catalogue of choice-based titles briefly taking over the industry before their quality fell off.

Remastering Syberia for consoles is certainly a surprising move then. The lack of demand for titles in the genre coupled with aged 2002 game design philosophy doesn’t inspire confidence in today’s ultra-competitive market. Indeed, I’d guess Virtuallyz Gaming’s efforts will likely only be appreciated by those already fans of Benoît Sokal’s clockpunk odyssey.

Let’s start with the good; the visual facelift Valadilène and other areas have received looks nice. Textures are well-detailed, resolution is sharp, and the redone lighting breathes life into the environments. Performance is also rock solid, though any serious dips would have been a major cause for alarm given the game’s lack of dynamism.

Character models leave a bit more to be desired. Automatons fare well, but humans resemble plastic dolls. They aren’t awful, but stick out like a sore thumb given that the locations they’re placed in appear so lifelike. It feels like they’re from an older hardware generation, while other assets are in line with modern standards.

Exploration and solving puzzles makes up the majority of your playtime with Syberia. You’ll navigate protagonist Kate Walker around various spaces, reading text, searching for clues, and collecting items. Things get a little tricky however when it comes to actually interacting with the environment. The game makes use of fixed camera angles, which lends a bit of filmic charm, but also obscures the player’s vision to an extent. At multiple points, I had to look up a walkthrough to determine how to progress, only to find out there was a door or item I could engage with hidden just out of view.

Once you wrap your head around your surroundings, you’ll actually need to solve the puzzles the game is presenting you with. This is certainly one of those earlier titles that oldheads love to talk about, “back when games didn’t hold your hand as much”, etc. Yes, Syberia expects a lot more of the player than modern titles, but we’re so far removed from where the industry was in 2002 that members of the contemporary audience may not possess the acumen to divine the answers.

It’s frustrating, because I struggle to put my finger on specific elements of Syberia and definitively say “this is bad”. There are some good puzzles, but they’re laid out in such a way that is completely foreign to today’s gamers. It feels akin to struggling with a different language, or having to learn basic elements of video game literacy all over again. Syberia is caked with the design fingerprints of a bygone era, but it’s one that I struggle to see people connect with 2025.

The story and concepts of Benoît Sokal’s world are interesting and I’d love to explore them more, but the game structure actively grinds story progress to a halt. You’re constantly being stopped by new puzzles, which some may love, but it certainly destroys the pacing for those looking to find out what happens next. When you are treated to a cutscene, they’re the original videos from 2002. It’s quite disappointing these couldn’t be recreated in the new engine, considering the wide gap in visuals between the two eras.

Syberia isn’t going to be for everyone, and it likely won’t be for you. Point-and-click games aren’t very relevant these days for a reason, and it’s largely because the industry has moved towards more player-friendly experiences. This remaster is a great opportunity to experience a bit of the past, but I doubt it will have many people reminiscing about the way things used to be.