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Ravenfield is an indie team-based First-Person Shooter by independent Swedish programmer Johan Hassel, who also goes by Steel Raven 7 online. It is currently in Early Access. The game itself replicates the Battlefield series' style of gameplay with massive first-person combat on a large regional map, vehicular combat, squad commands, and control point + queue based scoring.

However, unlike Battlefield, the game is entirely in single-player, and instead of the linear campaign introduced from Bad Company onwards, Ravenfield focuses on a fully customizable faux-multiplayer experience and high support for Game Mods supported by Steam Workshop. The warring armies are (by default) bright red and blue armies reminiscent of the Army Men series.


Ravenfield demonstrates the following tropes:

  • A.K.A.-47: The vanilla weapons are based of real weapons but renamed, such as the "Automatico" (a Beretta 93R), "Patriot" (M4A1), "RK-44" (AK).
  • Animal Theme Naming: The two factions are Eagle and Raven (both birds), and all the vehicles (with the exception of the Prowler ATV and attack boat) are named after animals as well. The type of animal they are named after tends to correspond to their function as well, with land vehicles being named after land animals, the sea vehicles after fish (bonus points for the Mudskipper being an amphibious fish and the name of the amphibious APC), and the air vehicles named after birds.
  • Antagonist Title: The Raven faction is the one you'll fight by default, yet the game is called Ravenfield.
  • April Fools' Day: Introduces an invincible wandering UFO that vaporized both sides equally at certain points on the map. It must be unlocked through an Easter Egg first, otherwise... see Copy Protection below.
  • Artificial Brilliance: The soldier AI actually has its head on pretty straight, forming small teams to try and attack positions, making use of vehicles and cover, and trying to use its equipped weapon effectively.
  • Artificial Stupidity:
    • Due to processing limitations, in larger, modded maps and/or if the AI player count gets too high, then the soldiers think less individually, will all huddle in little groups following more linear pathfinding routes, will stand in the open and sometimes ignore other enemy units standing mere feet away from them. Sometimes the AI won't even attack if there's too many of them on a map, especially in Spectator mode.
    • There's also a frequent tendency for AI troops to just run past each other and resulting in chaotic firefights in close quarters where entire squads get gunned down by one opponent with a pistol who managed to flank them.
    • The AI won't hesitate to use high explosives on enemies in close quarters, and frequently won't hold fire just because friendlies are in the way. One of the most common causes of death for a player is getting blown up by friendly missiles or grenades.
  • BFG: The Railgun, a powerful anti-vehicle weapon which fires a single magnetically accelerated bullet. It can only be acquired by activating the UFO at which point you will be given the railgun with which to kill it.
  • BFS: A secret weapon you can get by doing the Halloween Quest, the Resistance Sword is a massive claymore that deals 200 damage on impact. While sprinting it can also stab straight through an enemy who will remain stuck onto the sword until you finish sprinting.
  • Bloodless Carnage: Somewhat averted. Blue characters bleed blue and Red characters bleed bright red. However, the "blood" also erupts as big blobs, making it look more like paint splatters.
  • Blown Across the Room: Getting shot or hit with explosives can result in both AI and human soldiers getting knocked down and even launched across a room or over ledges and cliffs. This can even happen if they aren't killed, which can result in opponents who look like they've been killed suddenly getting back up.
  • Blue Is Heroic: Well...as heroic as it gets in a game with no story. By default you are assigned to Eagle (the blue team) when booting up instant action. The Commander and Eyes, the only two "named" characters we have so far are both aligned with Eagle so we are meant to sympathize with them, and you need to play as Eagle to unlock the Railgun so they are the protagonist faction as far as the game is concerned.
  • Border Patrol: During the "Haunted" game mode you and your team will take 5 damage every second they are outside the anomaly zone.
  • Break Out the Museum Piece: This is the explanation in Conquest mode for why you see Greasers (M3 Grease Guns) and M1 Garretts (M1 Garands) alongside modern weapons.
    Some good old classic weapons that we found collecting dust in a warehouse. Let's put them to use!
  • Bullet Time: To give the player an edge over the insanely accurate AI, Ravenfield features a bullet-time mechanic that can be activated at any time.
  • Cannon Fodder : Everyone, yourself included.
  • Concealment Equals Cover: As of now there's no mechanic for bullet penetration through different surfaces, save for the windshields of certain vehicles.
  • Copy Protection: Cracked versions of the game will have the invincible wandering UFO enabled by default in any combat session but the first with no way to turn it off short of changing the internal script with DNSPY.
  • Cosmetically Different Sides: Raven (red) and Eagle (blue) use the same model, equipment, a vehicles. The only difference is color. This can be changed in the settings to force certain sides to only use certain weapons or vehicles, and with mods this can make things wildly different. For example, with the right mods you can make one faction be a swarm of lightly-armed insurgents with only technicals and small arms against a fully-equipped modern military.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Due to the simplistic AI, they're aimbots by default, though updates have tuned them to prioritize less on the player and reduced their effective range.
  • Crew of One: Every vehicle does have a slot for at least one more crew member but only so they can operate a secondary weapon such as the ball turret on a Cassowary or the cannon on an attack boat. Whoever is piloting the vehicle can operate it and its main weapon systems all on their own.
  • Critical Existence Failure: Even at 1 HP you can still move, sprint, and aim without ill effect.
  • Crouch and Prone: Like any good war sim, you can crouch for a bonus in accuracy and to reduce your profile. Double tapping the crouch button puts you into prone, which gives you the best accuracy but lowest mobility.
  • Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Much like another multiplayer game.
  • Dem Bones: The gamemode "Haunted" has you exploring a map at night moving between "anomaly" zones. Once you've located an anomaly zone, hordes of skeletons spawn and must be killed to progress.
  • Elite Mook: When in "Spec Ops" your player model changes to reflect your status as an operator, complete with night-vision goggles and extra armor. As a spec ops soldier you do also receive some added toughness.
    • Depending on how well you're doing in game, you might already be this to the enemy AI.
  • Emergency Weapon: If you manage to deplete all your ammunition or find yourself in a tough spot you always have a kick attack. It's slow, weak, and short-ranged but of course never runs out. It serves a hidden double function as well. If you kick a dead body it will produce a box of ammo.
  • Eye-Obscuring Hat: The helmets worn by Eagle and Raven soldiers cover their eyes.
  • Flying Saucer: On the Temple map there is a UFO far outside of the usual battle zone. If you find it you can kick it and it will activate, flying around the map killing both sides indiscriminately. However it will continue to follow you across every game you play until you either restart the game or win a match on Coastline. If you win you'll receive the Railgun to finally down the obnoxious alien craft. A passive one may spawn on Archipelago if played at night.
  • Forever War: Cranking up the AI player count to a couple hundred units per team can turn a gamemode with endless respawning tickets into one of these.
  • Game Mod: Part of the game's mission statement is being mod-friendly, and even in Early Access it has a blooming community adding maps, weapons, vehicles, and even entirely new game modes and gameplay tweaks.
  • Grenade Launcher: The game features two at the moment. One is a variant of the Patriot with an underbarrel launcher, and the other is the Thumper, a dedicated grenade launcher which can fire frag or smoke grenades.
  • Guide Dang It!: Since the game is quite early in development, the menus are lacking a bit of information. Figuring out what the game types are or how each weapon works comes from either experimentation or online reference.
  • Gun Accessories: The Patriot (essentially an M4) has 3 different versions in the vanilla weapon set. One is a standard rifle with a red dot sight, one has an underbarrel Grenade Launcher, and one has a suppressor and a Laser Sight.
    • Many mods made for the game feature variations of a single weapon with different attachments, with the idea each has a different playstyle. Some more ambitious mods have actually coded in the ability to add and remove accessories at will.
  • Guns Akimbo: The vanilla weapon set offers you the Automatico Akimbo and the Bundle o' Buss.
  • Guns Firing Underwater: Averted. As soon as you're in the water all your weapons and equipment are put away until you're back on the shore.
  • Hammerspace Parachute: The player and the AI can deploy a parachute in midair to slow their fall. It was added to allow for aerial assaults from helicopters.
  • Heroic Mime: Everyone except for the Spec Ops mode. Though it may change as the game is still in Early Access.
  • Hollywood Silencer: Stealth weapons barely produce any sound. Additionally, while most guns in the game shoot highly visible white bullets, stealth weapons shoot small black ones which are much harder to see.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Initially, enemies would riddle you with lead from across the map, even with automatic weapons. Downplayed as of recent updates, as while the AI is still mercilessly accurate, they have a harder time landing shots past 100 or so meters without marksman weapons.
  • Instant Death Bullet: Averted. Soldiers, including you, are often knocked down after getting shot... although in many case, for the player, it's borderline Controllable Helplessness as several other bullet will kill as you or other soldier tried to get up.
  • Lethal Joke Weapon:
    • Despite looking absolutely comical, the Heavy Machine Gun is surprisingly useful in combat. Due to its bottomless magazine, it can be a fantastic suppression / support tool around heavy-traffic areas, remaining operational for as long as the user remains alive.
    • The Air Horn, which was intentionally added as a joke weapon, does still deal 5 damage and can (with a lot of luck and an already severely wounded enemy) kill.
  • Level Editor: Ravenfield has its own built-in editor which allows you to make your own maps.
  • Midair Collision: Given that the fighter plane has fixed forward weapons, this can often happen if you're not careful when attacking other aircraft. It's especially amusing when you watch the AI do it.
  • Misbegotten Multiplayer Mode: Inverted. The developer decided not to put in multiplayer mode to set this apart from the Battlefield series and other mainstream FPS games. However, co-op or multiplayer with a small number of players is often requested to be played alongside with bots.(Refused by the developer as the developer wants to complete the single player experience first and foremost.)
  • Non-Health Damage: Every weapon will deal a certain amount of "knockdown" damage along with whatever damage it would normally deal. When enough knockdown damage is dealt the player or AI will topple over and be forced to slowly stand back up. Unless you fell behind cover, this is almost always a death sentence.
  • No Plot? No Problem!: Even the finished game isn't intended to have any story whatsoever. Just two large armies fighting it out for the sheer hell of it. Will be averted that the developer planned to have a short story for the Campaign mode that's based on the Spec Ops mode.
    • Somewhat averted for Conquest, which involves the Eagles (Blue) trying to capture all of the Ravens' (Red) territory.
    • Further averted for Spec Ops, which has dialogue from commanding officers; the Advisor and EYES for the Eagles, while the Ravens have a mysterious entity.
  • Not Quite Dead: Knockdown is a gameplay mechanic here, where you and other characters can be knocked down with sufficiently powerful attack but will rise up as long as the HP isn't depleted yet.
  • One Bullet Clips
  • Our Weapons Will Be Boxy in the Future: The Railgun
  • Percussive Maintenance: The Wrench item heals vehicles and turrets by repeatedly smacking them.
  • Perpetual Smiler: The soldiers on both sides always have a small smile on their face, even when getting thrown back by a grenade explosion or being downed by a sniper's bullet.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: The .357 Condor is the strongest and most accurate handgun in the game.
  • Rule of Fun: What the game's purpose boils down to: a way for people to enjoy Battlefield-style warfare without having to deal with expensive price points, difficult internet connections, or other people.
  • Secondary Fire: As of the EA 13 update, weapons can be swapped between different firing modes.
  • Shrines and Temples: The map Temple has a Buddhist style temple set atop a mountain.
  • Silliness Switch: As you can download skins for Eagle and Raven forces to use and all kinds of absurd or overpowered weapons, the game can be as silly as you want. Do you want neko-girls in tactical bikinis to fight an army of katana-wielding, fedora-tipping neckbeards? Just find the right things on Steam's workshop and you're good to go.
  • Shout-Out: The dialogue in Spec Ops mode (currently the only dialogue in the game) contains a couple.
  • Sniping the Cockpit: It's possible, but you really need good aim. You can use Bullet Time (pressing Caps Lock) to give yourself an advantage of actually performing this trope.
  • Some Dexterity Required: Helicopters have a startlingly realistic handling model that takes a bit of getting used to. And that isn't even getting into the thoroughly nonstandard air vehicle controls in general. Fortunately, those can be rebound into something more sensible.
  • Stealth-Based Mission: The "Spec Ops" game mode places you in charge of a 4-man team with various randomly generated mission objectives. Enemies are not immediately aware of you but will be alerted if you get too close or they notice you killing one of them. Of course, you can just go in guns blazing if you prefer, but this will raise an alarm and if the squad you're attacking deploys a flare it can draw in more enemies to your location.
  • Storming the Beaches: Any map with a significant body of water gives you plenty of Marlins to load up and a beach somewhere to assault. Map makers of course take this to the next level with maps based around D-Day or similar scenarios.
  • Strategic Asset Capture Mechanic: The capture points used in the game modes Battle, Point Match, Skirmish, and Domination. They're still present in Spec Ops but serve no real function other than being a place where enemies and objectives will tend to be. This gets expanded on with the Conquest game mode, where capturing nodes on the map will increase the gold and tech points you have to buy armies and research new weapons or vehicles.
  • Surprisingly Creepy Moment: This shooter is undeniably goofy, with the flailing ragdolls and big blobs of paint-like blood, which makes several voice mods, especially ones having soundbites from Red Orchestra all the more disturbing.
  • Universal Driver's License: The player or any random AI controlled Mook can enter any vehicle they please. Flying the helicopters may take you a bit of getting used to, however, due to their oddly realistic controls.
  • You Bastard!: The Insight Mutator gives you a personal tidbit about every enemy soldier you kill, such as how they donated to charity or how they never even wanted to fight in the first place.

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