Review - Graveyard Keeper 2

L. Sahara McGirt

9 minutes ago

4 min read

https://youtu.be/LezY_rsYJGs?si=YdUYQM-hcGXe7RjW

Developer: Lazy Bear Games

Publisher: tinyBuild

Available on: PC (Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch

Reviewed on: PC

Graveyard Keeper is one of those surprising games that I've ended up enjoying immensely. Taking on the role of a graveyard keeper in a medieval setting was not exactly something I would have normally played. But I had seen other people playing it, and as someone who enjoys crafting and building, I got into the game.

With the release of Graveyard Keeper 2, the story goes on. This time, you must raise an army of zombies to protect those left living.

Get to Work, Keeper

The keeper is back, and it's his job to manage the dead. How you choose to manage them is completely up to you, however. Bury the bodies, cremate them, or raise them from the dead and put them to work! Whatever suits your needs, Keeper.

The gameplay revolves around this work as the Keeper, and to get that work done, you need resources. One of the main complaints about Graveyard Keeper is that it can be grindy at times, as you need to gather things like wood, sand, clay, ores, and more to get work done. Graveyard Keeper 2 continues this trend, but the reality is, crafting takes a hoard of resources to get done, and the grind is just part of the game. If you're not the type who enjoys spending time gathering what you need to make the next thing, this game may be a struggle for you.

While the game can be grindy at times, there is a way to remedy that: gather up the resources needed to unlock zombie resurrection and put those zombies to work gathering resources for you! Let them do all the legwork. It takes some time to get zombie resurrection and management unlocked, but once you do, it's well worth it. They make great squads of fighters when battling the horde to clear the town, and automating them to gather resources and transport them is as simple as placing them at work stations.

Now, the zombie workers do glitch out once in a bit, and you may have to go around and ensure they're working properly, but that's a problem for devs to fix as they update the game.

Oh, and an additional mechanic GK2 has added that I appreciate quite a lot: Fast travel points. Thank you!

Undeniably Better Story

Graveyard Keeper 2 isn't all resource gathering, crafting, zombie management, and grinding. A fun aspect of the game is the story. The Keeper awakens in a world overrun by zombies. Freed from the chains of imprisonment, it's now up to you to battle the horde, rebuild the town, and solve the problems of the surviving townsfolk. Many of the NPCs in the game have a story of their own that often interconnects with others. These overlaps often mean you have to solve another NPC's problems in order to complete another's quest.

Keeping track of all these quests and their crossovers would be daunting, but thankfully, Graveyard Keeper 2 has a great tracking system and menu tab that does it for you. It's labelled "Quests" and it not only tells you which quests you're still working on, but maps out where they connect with other NPCs' stories. It's probably one of my favorite improvements GK2 has made.

Another aspect I've been enjoying: the NPCs are now fully voiced during story scenes. At first, I wasn't too sure about this because I was used to the old game's way of doing conversations. NPCs would make some mumbling noises when talking with them, and it was an overall unintrusive way of doing dialogue. Now, we have voiced characters, giving them additional personality, and I have grown to really enjoy story progression and the conversations characters have. If you'd like to stick to the old way of characters vocalizing, however, you can change the voiceover options.

I will note that I did experience a weird incident during a conversation in the game when two quests overlapped, and the game glitched out in the wildest way I've ever experienced. I watched as my Keeper started walking mid-conversation and continued walking until, down, down, down, and away, he went into the void. As it happened, the fully voiced conversation continued until eventually I realized the only way out was to restart the game.

Yeah, There Are Bugs

As is common with most games these days, not enough time is spent doing bug tests. Graveyard Keeper 2 has been no exception, with bugs ranging from weird glitches during cutscenes to odd on-screen visual glitches. By no means do most of these bugs take away from the gameplay, in my opinion, and I didn't experience anything so bad that it completely crashed the game. There have been some updates since I started playing that have fixed some bugs already.

There are also some problems with the use of the controller when playing. There were a handful of times when I would be trying to access an item in my bags, and no matter how I moved the joystick, the selection cursor would jump right over the bag. This meant having to use the mouse to access those items. The other problem with controller use that I regularly ran into is when I would be selling large amounts of items, having to hold down the button to scroll slowly to the maximum amount was excruciating. At that point, I would sit up and click and mouse over to the end of the counter.

While the above aren't really bugs, but rather a problem with the design of the game's technical aspects, it would be nice to see some fixes that solve those issues.

Back to the Grind

While Graveyard Keeper 2 has some bugginess to it, overall, the game I experienced has been fun and already quite addictive. The story, the game mechanics, and gameplay were quite enjoyable for me. While some may hate the grind, I find satisfaction in it, especially when I craft the next big thing. I can't quite give Graveyard Keeper 2 our highest rating, but I do believe it deserves at least 4 stars. With that said: