Thank you Antediluvian for sending us this game to review!

We’ve reviewed many types of Christian themed games ranging from Bible trivia ones to first person shooters.   Chronicles of Gavri is the first Christian themed beat ‘em up game that I’ve played.  The game doesn’t hide its Christian theme and starts off by retelling Genesis’ creation. From there a little more creative license is used for setting the backstory of the game.

Gavri is a warrior of God who has been trained in the celestial combative arts in order to defeat the emperor’s army.  The emperor of Nod and his subjects are godless descendants of Cain while Gavri and his family are descendants of Seth.   The bloodlines are intermingling and debauchery is happening as a result.  It’s time to bring the fear of God back into people.   

Upon launching Chronicles of Gavri, Windows 10 tried to stop me by saying that this game could be potentially dangerous.  Be prepared to make an exception as this game is safe to play.   Another surprise was how small it appeared on my 2560x1440 resolution monitor.  I'm not sure what the exact resolution is, but the game is about 2" by 2".  So tiny!   Pressing the shift button or alt+enter will make the game run in full screen mode.  The art style is unique and I like it, however it’s low-res and pixilated when at full screen.     

The attack moves are accomplished by utilizing the arrow and space bar keys in various combinations.  Sadly, there are no menu options whatsoever and there is no way to re-map the controls or use a gamepad.  To ensure your survival, it’s in your best interest to master both the offensive and defensive moves.  Gavri and the enemies are nicely detailed and their attack moves look good, but the sprite flipping when changing directions is very noticeable and often doesn’t register right away resulting in some free attacks from the enemy.    Whenever an attack succeeds, some blood sprays out from the victim.

Numerous soldiers will head your way and they are often wielding weapons, shields or even riding what appears to be velociraptors.  Once all of the enemies are defeated you’ll be sent to the next level/chapter.  There have been times where I made it to the end of the level and had to go back to the beginning to find a straggling soldier that somehow evaded a finishing blow.  On a different level I cleared out all of the enemies and was scratching my head wondering why I didn’t advance.  As it turns out I had to free some prisoners by attacking their cages.  This was not explained or made clear at the beginning of the level.

Another mystery is Gavri’s health.  As Gavri and the enemies get hurt they start to turn red.  When they are a dark maroon color they are near death.  I prefer health bars to show how much life a unit has left in them.    

If Gavri dies, he gets to retry from the beginning of the level.  Once the game is exited (by pressing the esc key), all game progress is lost!  Having an option of resuming from the previously played chapter would be nice.  

In the end, Chronicles of Gavri has an interesting premise, but is too rough around the edges to enjoy at this time.  Hopefully the developer incorporates some of the feedback provided in this review.  There is a demo available to try out before parting with $9.99.  I highly recommend playing that first.