By The original Graveyard Keeper was a massive game with hundreds of hours’ worth of content. Graveyard Keeper 2 is somehow even bigger!
Graveyard Keeper 2 is a massive improvement over the original game in many ways. It has more mechanics, more content, and an even bigger skill tree than the first game. It’s basically a single-player MMO.
I’ve had the opportunity to play many hours of Graveyard Keeper 2. Even though I’m nowhere near finishing the game, I’ve experienced enough to answer the question: Is Graveyard Keeper 2 worth playing?
The short answer is YES! Graveyard Keeper 2 is a refreshing take on the whole pixel-style farming game genre and combines several other game mechanics on top of it to offer a complete package.
Of course, when you try to do everything in one game, it can become a problem. So there are some shortcomings as well.
What Is Graveyard Keeper 2?
Graveyard Keeper 2 is the sequel to the popular graveyard and farming simulator from 2018. The sequel is much more advanced than its predecessor, both in terms of visuals and gameplay mechanics.
Graveyard Keeper 2 comes loaded with several different gameplay systems. It combines the graveyard management aspect with farming as well as simple factory automation mechanics to offer a lot more content than the first game.
Graveyard Keeper 2 works as both a tie-in and a standalone title. If you’ve played the first game, you will understand and relate to a lot of the things in the game. But if you’re new, you can still have a great time without having played the first game, thanks to a much improved tutorial section.
Graveyard Keeper 2 expands upon everything great about the first game. But it’s not an exact copy of Graveyard Keeper. While Graveyard Keeper 2 carries over the core mechanics of the original, it does its best to find a new identity by introducing new mechanics.
Slow But Engaging Gameplay
Graveyard Keeper 2 starts similarly to the first game. You are sent to a strange medieval world, and in order to survive, you take on a fake identity of an inquisitor/graveyard keeper. You start burying bodies, farming crops, and helping the townfolk in exchange for information on how to escape from this strange world.
The graveyard management aspect of the game is the same as the original title. Doing quests for townfolk and building reputation, however, feels refreshed and improved. They are now much more streamlined and feel less like fetch quests.
One of the biggest reasons I kept putting off playing more of Graveyard Keeper was its extremely slow pace. Not only was the progression slow, but the game itself was slow. Even thinking about walking from the graveyard to the town gives me PTSD.
Thankfully, that’s been fixed to some extent in Graveyard Keeper 2. The town is now located closer to the farm/graveyard, and walking feels slightly faster than before.
However, the progression in Graveyard Keeper 2 is still fairly slow. You have to grind and spend a lot of time to complete quests, which requires unlocking new skills in the tech tree, which also requires more grinding.
But that gameplay loop feels engaging. It makes you feel like you’re constantly working toward something, and it respects your time. Then again, this slow-paced progression may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
In addition to all the core gameplay mechanics, you can now also rebuild the town in Graveyard Keeper 2. As you progress through the game, you are able to rebuild the abandoned town and reopen shops to make a profit from them.
Another side content part of the game is the Inquisitor roleplay where you get to put on medieval armor and fight zombies to defend the town. You can even train zombies to fight alongside you.
Farming/Factory/Graveyard Management Sim
The same fun and grim graveyard management system takes center stage in Graveyard Keeper 2. You get to collect corpses, do autopsies, and bury them in the graveyard. And now you can even customize the graveyard with new decorations and expansions.
The farming and crafting system is also present in the sequel with some additional extended features and components.
What makes Graveyard Keeper 2 much more special is the new factory automation module that allows you to get zombies to manage your machines and fully automate your production process.
The original Graveyard Keeper introduced zombie workers through a DLC. But the functions of those zombie workers were limited. In Graveyard Keeper 2, zombie workers are a core component and are even able to manage the machines for you. This allows you to save a ton of time spent going back and forth between machines to craft and produce things.
Technology Tree and Talents
The technology tree in Graveyard Keeper 2 is even bigger than the first game. It extends much further and in more categories.
On top of that, you now have a new talent system that is designed to give more meaning to the grind. Whenever you cut down a tree or mine stone, you earn points to unlock talents.
So that when you’re grinding away doing the same stuff, you get to earn some points towards unlocking talents that will make those tasks more efficient.
And there’s a separate talent and perks system for zombies too.
Better Visuals & Fully Voiced Characters
Graveyard Keeper 2 is more colorful and vibrant than the first game’s dark and gloomy vibe. I actually prefer the gloomy vibe over the colorfulness, but the enhanced visuals make the game look so smooth and crisp that it didn’t really bother me much.
The new 3D-style visuals make the game much more immersive and fun to play. But what I loved the most about the game is the fully voiced character dialogs.
Graveyard Keeper 2 replaces the gibberish voices of the original game with fully voiced character dialogs. This makes the game much more fun to play than ever before.
Energy Management Is Still A Problem
Graveyard Keeper 2 has so many things to do, and you only get little energy per day to do them. This makes you think carefully about which tasks need to be tackled and which to avoid in a day, even if that means leaving some corpses behind on the floor for the next day.
This energy management system is the one thing I hate about Graveyard Keeper 2. It was a problem in the first game, and it’s still a problem in the sequel. And I know it’s a core part of these farming games, as it forces you not to do everything in one day.
But it feels like an unnecessary barrier that gets in the way of progression. And personally, I’m not a fan of it.
Slow Grind Is Not For Everyone
Many of the quests require you to build machines and craft things. And that requires unlocking tech in the technology tree. And that requires doing various tasks. And to do those tasks, you need energy. But you only get a limited amount of energy per day.
As you can imagine, it takes a while to progress through the game and complete quests. Much longer than most other games in this genre. And while I didn’t mind that slow grind, it may not be for everyone.
When compared to other games, like Stardew Valley, Graveyard Keeper 2 takes much longer to pick things up, and you have to plan your energy consumption much more carefully to get ahead in the game.
Is Graveyard Keeper 2 Worth Playing?
If you find all those regular farming games a bit too merry and joyful, and you’re looking for a farming game with a bit darker vibe, then Graveyard Keeper 2 is perfect for you.
The slow pace of the game makes it much better for gamers who prefer to set smaller goals and work towards them bit by bit. Especially gamer dads will love this game.
However, that could also be a problem for some players who prefer to grind towards higher skills and level up faster. For those folks, Graveyard Keeper 2 will feel much slower and possibly boring. And that’s a problem carried over from the original game.
Overall, it’s a fun farming sim that does a little bit of everything from farming to graveyard management and automation in between. The good news is you don’t have to play the first game to play the sequel. In fact, if you’re new, I recommend starting with the sequel rather than the original.
For its price, Graveyard Keeper 2 offers much more value than most other games at that price range. So it’s definitely worth checking out.
