Ve stínu havrana

Ve stínu havrana (English: In the Raven Shadow) is a 1999 adventure game developed by the Slovak company Rainbow Rhino and published by the Czech company CINEMAX.^[2]

Ve stínu havrana
Developers	Rainbow Rhino Cinemax[1]
Publisher	Cinemax
Platforms	MS-DOS Windows
Release	1999
Genre	Adventure
Mode	Single-player

Production

The game was created by Rainbow Rhino.^[3]

All characters in the game are voiced by the Czech actor Jiří Lábus.^[4]

The first edition of the game became sold out in less than a year.^[5] The title saw three editions, and became a magazine attachment 8 times; it was played by 250,000 players.^[6]

In 2008, work was being done on a second game, however it was never released.^[7] The game is currently available on Steam,^[8] and was uploaded on July 12, 2017.^[9]

Plot and gameplay

The player takes control of the good-natured monk Severin, who one day "escapes" from the monastery and decides to seek his way of life.

Critical reception

Absolute Games offered a mixed assessment of the game.^[10] Just Adventure decided that players willing to overlook the game's technical limitations would find enjoyment from its witty sense of humour.^[11] Bonusweb.cz felt that if the idea of the game bored players, they could wait another week for Czech adventure game Hot Summer 2 to be released.^[12] Bonusweb asserted that the game is likely known by every Czech computer player.^[3]

Sequel

Cinemax announced works on Ve stínu havrana 2 in 2007. It was scheduled for a release in the second quarter of 2008.^[13][14] It was a collaboration between House of Dragonflies and Cinemax, and contained the work of graphic designers Erik Sille and Boris Sirka.^[15] The game's plot would have seen the monk Severin be trapped between medieval Europe, and futuristic world guided by Plato's philosophy of perfect States.^[16] The game was inspired by the works of PKDick, W. Gibson, and T. Giliam's film productions.^[17] It was a 3D point-and-click adventure with a non-linear story, while featuring limited RPG elements.^[18] The game was reported as being make completely in Czech, including its dubbing.^[19] It promised to touch on historical themes and insights into philosophy, religion, mathematics, and cybernetics.^[20] Development was eventually cancelled.^[21] Bonusweb felt it was a shame the project never took off, as it seemed like an "interesting psychedelic affair".^[3]