Ravenswatch Folk tale heroes, nightmare hunts

You play nine heroes pulled from tales and legends, and none of them are the version from the bedtime story. Little Red Riding Hood carries lycanthropy. Sun Wukong is a fallen monkey king. The Snow Queen wields evil powers. Each has a unique twist and plays differently, with their own abilities and rhythm in a fight.

The story comes in pieces: each character's past and the world of Reverie reveal themselves run after run, so a new playthrough is also a new page of the tale. The look matches the mood, dark fantasy drawn in a comic book style, familiar faces made stranger and more violent than you remember.

Every run runs on a clock: three days and three nights to raise your power before you face the chapter boss. When you fight it is your call. Go early because you feel ready, or push it to the last hour because you need one more upgrade. Wait too long and the choice makes itself.

Each level earned lets you pick a new talent, and the pool is deep: over 200 talents, 50 magical items and dreams to combine. The decisions stack fast. One run might build around talents that pull enemies together, another around items that reward a riskier style. When a build comes together, the last stretch of the timer stops feeling like pressure and starts feeling like payday.

The three open maps are drawn from enchanted forests and marshes, One Thousand and One Nights, and Arthurian legend, and they are randomly generated each run. They are packed with activities, so the timer becomes a routing problem: which objectives can you reach, which do you skip, which reward is worth the detour.

Along the way you help the inhabitants of Reverie, the Three Little Pigs, Sinbad the Sailor, Morgan the fairy, and earn valuable rewards for future battles. The Nightmare has corrupted the world of dreams, and the fight against it is nerve-racking: over 50 uniquely designed enemies and epic boss battles stand between you and the final chapter.

Up to four players can take on the Nightmare together, online or through matchmaking. The fun is in the synergies: heroes relate to each other, and a group that combines their strengths fights very differently from four people playing side by side. Since every hero plays differently, a new party composition is almost a new game.

Co-op here is easy to share. Resources are pooled, so the group can split up across the map or stick together without anyone losing out on loot. That makes sessions relaxed to organise: join a lobby, pick heroes that fit each other, and spend the three days working the map as a team. The game is difficult, and a good team is one honest answer to it.