The smell of spiced meat will make your stomach growl and soon you will find your restaurant full of hungry customers. They dig their teeth into succulent appetizers and wonder why they’ve never tried anything like this before. Word of your place’s exotic flavor has spread quickly, and soon you’ll need to expand your business with more tables for guests and better meat-cutting capabilities. This thriving restaurant is oddly linked to a delightful little tailor who doubles as your meat supplier. Anyone who goes to a fitting tries a sharp blade, and their corpse is dumped in the basement, chopped up, and turned into a delicious steak or meat pie.
Ravenous Devils tells the story of a serial killer tailor and his loving cook who both want to get rich at any cost. This game is as disturbing and gory as it sounds – you’ll see the brutal murders, the dismembering of the corpses and witness story moments that are downright terrifying. Part Sweeney Todd And part cooking simulator, Ravenous Devils won me over with a story that begs the question, “Will they get caught?” and intense timed gameplay that continually rewards you with new interactions and opportunities. Developer Bad Vices Games has crafted a dark and breezy experience that nails progression so repeated gameplay interactions don’t feel like overstepping their welcome.
The macabre cooking flows well and unfolds like an old-school point-and-click adventure game where you just tell the characters where to go and what to grab. The simplicity works and allows Hildred the cook to take a piece of human flesh, mix it with other ingredients and then place it in an oven. Percival the Tailor can sew clothes, murder people with his scissors and take care of a garden. With just a click of a button, you can freely switch controls between these twisted souls.
The goal is to fill the shelves of the clothing store and the restaurant with items. When people enter either location, a timer will appear above their heads and tick down as they wait for the item they want. The quicker you provision them, the more money they’ll give you in return – an exchange that will ignite a fire in all of your moves and have you quickly jumping back and forth between the two jobs to ensure both Percival and Hildred are working hard . If you don’t reach them in time and they leave angry, you will suffer a reputation loss.
The flow of the game is divided into days, each lasting no more than 10 minutes. This brief burst of hustle and bustle feels just right given the upbeat pace. None of the murderous duo’s tasks require much hand-holding and are all about timing. You don’t want seconds to be wasted in a day. The goal is to maximize time and figure out how to hop between tasks to take care of each guest. It’s a fun and messy dance of cooking and sewing.
At the end of the day, you lock the shop doors and it’s time to spend your hard-earned cash on handy upgrades. You can upgrade your meat grinder to deliver more meat, add more mannequins to sell clothes, and grow new vegetables in the greenhouse. You can also splurge on things like booze to calm the nerves of waiting shoppers, hire an assistant to wait tables, and even adopt a cat to catch mice (which you can turn into a treat for guests).
Most upgrades result in more money per sale and higher overall difficulty – a nice design touch that adds excitement along with the rewards. For example, adding more ingredients creates a more expensive dish that takes more time to prepare. Adding tables for people to sit at creates a backlog of orders that you have to tediously fill — a fun process that makes time fly by.
As easy as moving a cursor is, some frustration comes from its accuracy and timing to link to the next task. I had regular moments where I would click on the meat I wanted to serve and then on the workstation to put it on. Instead of reaching for the meat, Hildred went to work and grabbed the plate instead. It’s only a 15-second error, but it’s enough to wreak havoc.
As the whole cooking and sewing craze unfolds, you’ll start receiving regular letters from a mysterious person named “J”. He knows what you’re up to and is a big fan of yours. His interest in you grows more disturbing with every document you read. The game’s ending leaves a lot to be desired, but the narrative journey that builds upon it was enjoyable and helped me endure the twisted content, which impresses at how carefully planned and crafted.
The gore might be too extreme and nauseating at times, but the decent animations, nice-looking restaurants, and compelling narrative kept me going to the final cuts. Ravenous Devils is unlike anything out there and it won’t be for everyone, but there’s no denying that it’s a well-crafted and oddly entertaining experience.
