Greenwood the Last Ritual Demo

The art of magic has evolved a lot over the centuries, but some things have remained the same, even if the practices have grown more complex in certain aspects. Symbols are still at the core of supernatural beliefs, especially when it comes to communicating with other realms or entities. Everyone is familiar with some of these symbols, such is the case with the pentagram, or the yin and yang.

Greenwood the Last Ritual is an interesting top-down adventure game with horror elements and point & click gameplay mechanics, so the mixture is exciting to say the least. However, the game can be a tad disappointing at first, depending on what you expect from a modern adventure title, but it should be able to redeem itself if you give it a chance and pay attention to the story.

As it happens, it all starts when a Vatican emissary is summoned to a town called Greenwood, where some kind of great evil lurks. The whole thing takes place in a medieval world, so the environments and the story reflect that. Your job is to inspect the town and use various magic practices to banish the demons. Speaking of which, these practices are very nicely integrated as gameplay mechanics.

Every now and again you come across certain ritual circles with various patterns and symbols, which are learned by your character and must be used later on in the game. These circles must be used in the right circumstances, such as when you need to banish a demon, or even summon a creature. There are other puzzles to tackle as well, even of some of them can be rather counterintuitive.

Lastly, the game is pretty simple from a technical point of view, given the top-down perspective and basic environments. It’s a bit of an issue sometimes, because it can be difficult to spot objects you can interact with. You can rotate the camera a bit, but the controls are not very polished in this regard. Thankfully, the sound effects are quite enjoyable, and the actual graphics quality is decent as well.

Even if Greenwood the Last Ritual has a few flaws when it comes to gameplay and controls, it can still keep you engaged until the story is finished. The rituals are nicely integrated into the game and it really makes the whole thing feel quite dark and haunting.