Have you ever wanted to manage a graveyard? Revel in the joys of fixing tombstones, dissecting corpses, writing sermons? Well, now you can live out your fantasy in Graveyard Keeper! After being hit by a car, enlist the help of a talking skull and a Communist donkey to get that graveyard up to snuff. Then ultimately find a way back to your real life.

Graveyard Keeper is a management sim. If you don’t like those types of games, this one certainly won’t win you over. However, if you enjoy the Tycoon games or Harvest Moon-likes, then this would be a perfect addition to your gaming library. It is basically Stardew Valley: Goth Edition, complete with crafting, farming, trading, and maintaining to be done. Only here, you are doing it in the unique setting of being a groundskeeper and Cleric for the churchyard of a sleepy Medieval village.

Despite the morbid themes, the game is not dark or morose. It is actually pretty funny, with a host of interesting and amusing characters. The aforementioned Communist talking donkey is among my favorites, along with the chilling and droll Inquisitor. All of the nastiness is done with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. Even when it goes over the top, like when you’re able to sell human meat to the local pub, it is done with a wink and brings brevity to the otherwise horrid subject matter.

Fresh delivery from my donkey bro

The gameplay mechanics are also handled well. There is a ton of content, problems to solve, and mysteries to uncover. You can work on the graveyard, the church, go fishing, write sermons, farm your land, fight slimes, complete tasks for the villagers… the options are nearly endless. For the most part, everything works as it is supposed to and there is always something else to do on the ever-growing checklist. Once Graveyard Keeper gets its hooks in you, it is hard to put it down. I found myself saying “just one more turn” over and over until I realized that hours had passed by and I was getting dangerously close to sunrise.

That is not to say that Graveyard Keeper is a perfect game; in fact, there are some design choices that come close to ruining the whole experience. The first noticeable issue for me was with the overly short energy bar. There were times when I literally woke up, spent two real-world minutes on tasks and had to go rest again, which takes about 30 seconds of waiting because the character’s energy was depleted right away. When trying for specific, energy-heavy tasks like making a bunch of stone grave markers, I would do this loop over and over. There are points at which grinding is necessary. Grinding is never a good design, in my own opinion.

Need to make some more room

However, the main issue for me with Graveyard Keeper comes from the lack of direction the player is given. The goals are given plainly enough, but how to complete those goals was often a complete mystery. For example, there is a point in the game where the donkey wants carrots. He even leaves you a pile of carrot seeds. So, it makes sense that I’m supposed to grow and then harvest these carrots, right? Well, the game provides no insight on how to do this. I don’t know where the plot of land for farming is, how to unlock it (once I finally did find the correct area), how to plant the seeds, if I needed to unlock a certain ability on the skill tree first, etc. After a while, I eventually gave up and just went and bought some from the village.

This happened constantly. I know I need to fix up the graveyard with repair kits, but I have no idea how to make them. There is a stamp of approval I need for my meat to be sold, but I don’t even know where to start looking for that. I need blue experience points to unlock the necessary skills, but I don’t know how to generate them. It becomes frustrating quickly. There is always a goal I know I need to get to, but having no direction on how to obtain that goal could feel overwhelming.

I guess they didn’t care much for my sermon

However, after spending a significant amount of time figuring all this stuff out (and looking some of it up online), the games does click. It’s unfortunate that it takes so long and relies so heavily on the player to figure things out because I almost dropped it a few times. If you’re willing to put in the effort, Graveyard Keeper gets great. It does take a while to get there, though.

When I knew what was needed, I would easily fall into the management groove of “just one more thing.” I would complete one task, which would generate something else to do. I would get fully hooked, and time would melt away while I continued to check things off the list, which is my favorite thing about games in this genre. However, one of those “I have no idea how to do this” situations would pop up and completely take me out of the zone.

Building out your work area is just as important as keeping up with the graveyard

When Graveyard Keeper is good, it is great. It has all the familiar trappings of a solid management game, wrapped up in a unique and humorous setting. However, the lack of direction can get frustrating quickly, especially coupled with the necessary grind at certain points. If you can get past some of the more annoying aspects, there is a fun experience that can totally consume you.

As always, thanks for reading and let me know what you think in the comments! If you’re looking for more out-right action, check out the review of My Friend Pedro. If you want to keep seeing ad-free content like this, please consider donating via Ko-Fi and Patreon. As volunteers, we appreciate all the support! Also, find us on Discord, Twitter, and our subreddit!