Ravenous Devils – PS4 Review

by Lord Badger

Ravenous Devils is the brand new horror cooking simulator (yes you read that right a horror cooking simulator) from developer Bad Vice Games. A dark and twisted take on the shop simulator genre. The horror comes not just from how you source the meat for your cooking but from the main characters Hilda and Percival themselves.

Story

Ravenous Devils begin with Hilda and Percival fleeing their home and the city in the dead of night. Suspicions have fallen upon them and they have had to leave. This isn’t the first time they have moved towns in the dead of night.

When they arrive at their new home they instantly set up a shop each. Hilda turns the ground floor of the building into a tavern with the basement serving as the kitchen. Whilst Percival converts the upper floor into a tailor’s shop.

Upon opening their respective stores they receive a letter from a mysterious sender. Identifying himself only as Mr J. He knows all about Hilda and Percival’s history and has requests for them to meet in order for him to keep their secrets.

Gameplay

Now before you think that Revenous devils is a run of the mill shop simulator it is extremely different. Apart from the dark, twisted story unfolding around Hilda and Percival. There are also a few unique game mechanics.

For a start, you are running two shops at the same time. Percival is in charge of the tailor shop and Hilda is in charge of the kitchen and tavern. Both businesses link together seamlessly as Hilda and Percival work together wonderfully as a team.

Customers come into Percival’s shop to be measured for a new suit. Instead, Percival stabs them in the throat and stomach with his trusty scissors murdering them instantly. He then proceeds to strip the clothing from their body before dumping it down the trapdoor. With the clothing removed, Percival then crafts the clothing into new clothes and sells them in his store. Meanwhile, down in the basement, Hilda collects the freshly delivered body, puts it through a mincer and bakes hamburgers or pies to sell in the tavern above.

As you progress through Ravenous Devils you will unlock various upgrades. Better tavern facilities to serve more customers, More ovens to meet customer demands. The ability to turn corpses into sausages or steaks. A greenhouse to grow vegetables for the kitchen. (using dead bodies as the fertilizer of course).

Hilda and Percival run the ultimate zero waste, carbon-neutral, eco-friendly sustainable businesses. If you think about out in a certain, messed up way.

With most shop simulators the main emphasis is on never having enough time or ingredients to serve every customer. Ravenous Devils does away with that manufactured frantic pace and replaces it with a more measured and manageable approach. Whilst it can feel overwhelming at times running both shops together. If you get yourself into a decent rhythm you can manage both shops together exceedingly well.

A nice touch that I appreciated was being able to take as much time as you want to set up the shops each day. Prepare well and your day can run like clockwork. Fail to prepare and you will quickly become overwhelmed.

Once you have prepared both shops it is time to open the doors to your paying public. Customers will come in at a steady pace throughout the day. Meet customers’ needs successfully and you’ll earn money to upgrade your equipment. One simple mistake or forgetting to do a certain action at a certain time and you can throw all your planning out the window. Ravenous Devils employs a timed system for the shop opening hours and sometimes closing can come as a sweet relief. Once the shops are closed for the day you can begin to spend your hard-earned cash on upgrades and prepare for the following day.

Final Thoughts

Ravenous Devils is a fantastic, dark, twisted game that I thoroughly enjoyed. The characters of Hilda and Percival are wonderful and sadistic psychos. The story progresses at a decent pace and is intriguing in its development. I do feel however that the ending is somewhat disappointing. Whilst playing Ravenous Devils for review I had a short chat with my good friend S.L Perrin over at Littlebitsofgaming.com. We were discussing who we thought the mysterious Mr J. could be. He was pretty sure he had figured it out but being the amazing writer he is (buy his books here) he ultimately wrote a better ending than Ravenous Devils actually has.

I genuinely enjoyed my time with Ravenous Devils. It feels a little too short and could have been expanded on much more. Hopefully, there will be a sequel that expands on Hilda and Percival’s story. There is plenty of scope to expand the gameplay and I can honestly see Ravenous Devils grow into a brilliant and well-loved franchise. It doesn’t seem quite there yet but it is a brilliant start!

Overall Score – 8/10

Badger

Life long gamer and Geek, Considered by most to be of doubtable sanity. never seen without my trusty Stetson

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