VORON: Raven's Story Review - A Norse Mythology Adventure Where You Play as a Raven

I've always had a soft spot for games with animals or those that let you play as one. So when I spotted VORON: Raven's Story, a solo-developer indie title, on Reddit, I knew I had to give it a shot. 

From Hatchling to Raven of Odin

VORON: Raven's Story is a charming adventure that sends you soaring as a raven from Norse mythology itself. You start small - hatching on a peaceful island, learning to fly under your parents' guidance, and discovering from your mother the ravens' sacred task of saving souls.

A single tragedy shatters that peace, and suddenly you're on a desperate mission to find your family in an adventure you don't fully understand, and that's what keeps you flying forward. The game is compact at around three hours, but it packs heart into that runtime. In the most positive sense, I found the journey to be quite lonely and emotional.

As you explore the island and its world, you piece together Norse mythology through scattered stone tablets - each one a kind of manuscript teaching you not just lore but also how to read and speak the language of the gods. Echolocation functions as an organic quest marker, helping you locate your next destination.

The movement is not complex but feels solid, with real weight to your flight and gliding. It’s managed through a stamina system that, when passing through stamina points on screen, gives you a satisfying speed boost. The stamina bar does increase over time, but especially early on it shifts the focus from adventure to resource management in ways that feel at odds with exploration. A free-look camera during flight would have significantly enhanced exploration, too, especially in the more open areas.

Beyond flying, you'll undergo the so-called Tower of Thunder trials to solve environmental puzzles that unlock new maps and progress the narrative. Whether navigating through hoops, timing precise movements, or triggering pressure plates to open gates, these challenges are undemanding but require solid coordination, though by the final stretch, I wished for a greater challenge.

VORON presents two distinct endings: either return to the World of Humans or go through the final Tower of Thunder trial and guide your family to the World of Gods. The latter lets you use all the aerobatic skills you've picked up along the way, culminating in you becoming a raven of Odin himself. The ending did feel incomplete, however. After the final battle, the credits roll - but there's no moment with your family, no conversation with the gods, and sort of no real payoff to the emotional journey you've been on.

The art style is nice, and the maps are impressively large for a solo project. The sound design and music are genuinely excellent, particularly the music in the later stages. The wind rushing beneath your wings as you soar, the unintelligible voices of gods echoing through the world, the sound of heavy gates opening - it adds texture to the journey.

The UI has choices that to me personally, feel a bit odd. The left-aligned dialogue text reads awkwardly compared to centre-aligned alternatives I’m used to, and the journal menu opens via ESC like a main setting option, but these are both minor things.

Altchar's take

VORON: Raven's Story is a charming and melancholic journey, with solid flight, great atmosphere and sound design, and a really lovely story - even if the ending doesn't quite deliver the payoff you're hoping for. At €8.74 for 2-3 hours, it's a worthwhile experience if you're looking for something quiet and contemplative.