Image via Lazy Bear Games and tinyBuild
I’ll be honest: I never played the first Graveyard Keeper. After all, zombies are far from my favorite supernatural creature that goes bump in the night. But as a management sim enthusiast, I couldn’t help but be curious when Graveyard Keeper 2 burst onto the scene. I decided to finally give the series a try, and I was surprised to find that I soon found myself sinking hours into Graveyard Keeper 2. The game has so much going for it, from a strong sense of grim humor to the right amount of multi-faceted grind. And yet, with 40+ hours in the game on Switch 2, I’ll be the first to admit it has some flaws that hold it back in a pretty big way.
Graveyard Keeper 2 might be a sequel, but you don’t necessarily need to play the first game to keep up. We have a similar premise to the first installment, expanded and refined. As for the plot? Well, our main character is just as confused as we are, which helps build in some helpful lore and tutorial guidance right from the get-go. Yet the talking skull who serves as our guide could stand to be a bit more talkative. I’m not sure I’ve spent more time struggling to figure out how a game works since playing The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons on Game Boy.
Key Details
- Developer: Lazy Bear Games
- Publisher: tinyBuild
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch/Switch 2
- Price: $24.99
- Review Code Received: Yes, for PC via Steam (Review completed on Switch 2)
Graveyard Keeper 2 Delivers The Right Kind of Grind
If there’s one thing I love, it’s a game with plenty of ways to grind. In that arena, Graveyard Keeper 2 delivers. While it earned a great deal of my affection from the start thanks to its grim-dark sense of humor, the grind is what kept me coming back for more. There are several different menus full of level-ups to unlock. You’ve got Inspirations, which help you increase your skills, and the Tech Tree, where you unlock new crafting machines and materials. And in case that isn’t enough to scratch your itch for progression, there’s also the interconnected web of quests.
At its core, Graveyard Keeper 2 is a satisfying series of interlocking quests and goals. Achieving the tasks in the quest menu requires unlocking new Tech, leveling up your skills so you can use them, and gathering the resources you’ll need to craft all manner of useful items. This is where the game really shines, because there’s always something you can work towards. If you love a game with a solid sense of multi-faceted progression, this one is going to deliver for you. There’s always something to work towards, something to gather, and something to craft. And those little gems that pop up whenever you gather or build something add a nice extra layer of satisfaction as you work towards your next goal.
I will say that there are times in later-game quests where things feel almost too interconnected. It’s easy to feel stuck as you’re trying to meet certain requirements for unlocking essential tech. But there is always a solution, often involving not ignoring combat because you hate zombies (ahem, not that I did that). I did sometimes find myself wishing I could progress more easily in certain areas without relying on others, but at the end of the day, it’s satisfying to see how all the parts fit together into a full picture.
Some Key Systems Are More Oblique Than They Need to Be, Causing the Wrong Kind of Friction
Friction is part of the fun when it comes to gaming, in my opinion. Without a little challenge, your goals don’t feel nearly so satisfying. But I do feel like Graveyard Keeper 2 misses the mark on good friction here and there, leading to unnecessary frustration for the player. Even as someone who writes game guides for a living, I struggled to figure out how several core mechanics in the game were meant to work. While there is plenty of tutorial in the form of pop-up screens and helpful hints from our talking skull friend, not everything is explained as clearly as it could be. The amount of time I spent trying to figure out how to get my zombies to do anything besides lie there in a field was time I would’ve preferred spending actually enjoying the game.
Because there are so many pieces of Tech and so many facets to the game, some of them become a bit too obscure. A bit more of a built-in tutorial for how to set up your zombies or engage with combat would be helpful, compared to the quick pop-ups that don’t really dig into the details. Even several hours into Graveyard Keeper 2, I don’t fully feel like I know my way around the game. New systems and tech keep getting introduced, and it’s not always entirely clear how they work or what needs to happen next to advance any given quest. And to me, that’s the wrong kind of friction.
As the World Expands, So Do the Glitches
As I mentioned before, I quickly fell in love with Graveyard Keeper 2‘s humor and worldbuilding. A zombie apocalypse is a bleak affair, and I’m all for having a little fun to lighten the mood. I love the quirky characters and irreverent little jokes peppered throughout the world. And farming sims so rarely have voice acting, so hearing the characters come to life is a real extra treat that brings the world to life. As you battle your way to reclaiming the Town from the zombie hordes, that world expands even more. And therein lies one of the biggest issues with Graveyard Keeper 2 so far.
For most of my early-game experience, Graveyard Keeper 2 ran pretty smoothly for me on Switch 2. The load times aren’t half bad, and I didn’t notice any serious lag. But once I began unlocking the town, some frame rate stutters started to sneak their way in. It felt like each time the explorable world got bigger, the game struggled a bit more to load my character’s progress through it. And then, the glitches came in.
I haven’t experienced any major issues yet, thankfully. But as I progressed in Graveyard Keeper 2, lag wasn’t the only issue that popped in. Some of the skill gems started getting stuck just out of reach in my house. Now, I have floating green blobs in my kitchen and no way to get rid of them. Annoying, but hardly game-breaking. I’m also pretty sure my zombie farmer never worked as intended, as he only seemed interested in gardening if I picked him up and put him back down. That one could well be user error, as I still find the zombie mechanics hopelessly confusing. But it’s pretty clear that the game isn’t quite optimized for the full size of its explorable world just yet, and that the problem seems to get worse as you unlock more of the game’s content.
Final Score: 8 out of 10
Do I think Graveyard Keeper 2 is a perfect game? No, far from it. But I do think it’s just plain, good fun. The core gameplay loop is satisfying and clearly well thought out, with plenty of interconnected progression areas to dig into. The world has a unique, engaging sense of humor that makes you want to learn more about its characters and see whether you might be able to save it, after all. If Lazy Bear Games can iron out the glitches and maybe help clarify key mechanics a smidge, this could easily be one of my favorite games. As it stands, it’s just not quite all the way there yet.
**Bonus Action received a PC copy of Graveyard Keeper 2. This review was completed on the Nintendo Switch 2**
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