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Game
Game2017
Black River
Developer Thorne Games
Black River is a Survival-Horror RPG worth 3-5 hours of intense gameplay where you ultimately have to turn the table on those who want to harm you. It is not about escaping the village of Black River, it's about putting an end to its misery! From the Steam store page
32 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 9, 2026 · last updated Oct 10, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
39
Rotten
9 positive · 14 negative
95% range 22–59%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 9 | 14 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 9 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
11 of 27 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
42% recommend · 10 yes, 14 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 24 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (32 of 60 positive).
Players praise the game's atmosphere and story, calling it a solid RPG Maker horror title. [1][2] Many reviewers report frequent crashes and game-breaking bugs that corrupt save files. [3][4][5] Some players criticize the game for unbalanced difficulty and excessive grinding. [6][7][8]
Liked
Representative posts
- [2]
Black River is a compact, narrative-driven horror RPG that leans more on atmosphere and unease than on mechanical complexity or innovation. Developed and published by Thorne Games, it places players in the role of Leah, a young woman who finds herself trapped in a strange, decaying village with no clear memory of how she arrived. From the outset, the game establishes a tone of isolation and dread, suggesting that …
- [1]
Spin-off of Thorne series, good stuff! Nice length and of course The Crow :) 8/10
- [3]
Here is my 3rd (and final) update. Previously the game crashed on me twice, after 1 and 5 hours of gameplay. Each time the game crashed, it also corruptted the gamefile and the only way to proceed with the game is to start from New Game. I have sent details and my gamefile to the developer to fix the problem. To be fair to the game, I decided to give the game one more try and start from New Game again, after the …
- [4]
While it wasn't the worst RPG Maker game I ever played, I still can't recommend it. The story was really nothing special and I didn't find any of the characters likeable or at least memorable, but it was good enough to keep me going for the five hours it lasted. Well, the ending was underwehlming, like 30 seconds without any closure, so meh. But what's even worse is the technicals issues. The game froze one time and …
- [6]
TL;DR:I will say this. Just don't buy this, it's not worth the money on sale. Even if you only spent a penny on it, you would want that penny back. Pros: -Graphics are alright since they mainly use the RTP or objects derived from it. -Some of the monsters concepts, while not new, are interesting to see in rpg maker. Cons: -The fights are punishingly hard for a majority of the game. There's fun hard and then there's …
Summarised from 31 of the 34 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
The crowd is split on Black River: 10 recommend it, 14 don't. Which camp are you in?
Reactions
32 of 32 · most liked firstHere is my 3rd (and final) update. Previously the game crashed on me twice, after 1 and 5 hours of gameplay. Each time the game crashed, it also corruptted the gamefile and the only way to proceed with the game is to start from New Game. I have sent details and my gamefile to the developer to fix the problem. To be fair to the game, I decided to give the game one more try and start from New Game again, after the first 2 crash. I played my 3rd game for another 5 more hours before it crash…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While it wasn't the worst RPG Maker game I ever played, I still can't recommend it. The story was really nothing special and I didn't find any of the characters likeable or at least memorable, but it was good enough to keep me going for the five hours it lasted. Well, the ending was underwehlming, like 30 seconds without any closure, so meh. But what's even worse is the technicals issues. The game froze one time and anothoer five or six times I got an error and it closed itself. I could at…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Near Black River Falls, Wisconsin in 2017, I participated in my favorite photo game of “capture every rock cut on this road trip back home.” #blueskyartshow #theroad #midwest #goinghome #MinnesotaBound
neutral · AI labelView post →The visuals are lovely and you can clearly see that it takes a lot of cues from the 16bit JRPG genre. I would just love to play this game and finish the main quest if it didn't crash-all-the-time. Accidentally pressing a button that doesn't have any assignment: crash. Press F12 for a screenshot in steam: restart the game. Look funny: crash. I would love to see this work, but it doesn't. Please fix these weird crashes and I will replay and recommend this game. :)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game promised to be scary, but the only thing scary is the character design, as some enemies look rather troubling. The rest, is a mess: 1. Can't interact with the environment, except chests or highlighted items. No secrets here, sir, no interesting or funny interactions. 2. Story makes little sense, mixing scary town with scary manor with scientific and/or magical experiments that create zombies or something (other monsters aren't explained) with necromancers that cast white magic spells,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →ARG! WHAT THE FREAK! Another game with too many bugs and technical issues! The same thing with Lycan, you Devs did not put the effort in! I played the Thorne series and throughly enjoyed them. The stroyline was well written and you are slowly begining to find out what the tradgedy at Black River. However, the game crashed twice and now I can not continue thew game becasue I can not go to the black temple becasue thegame will not let me enter. Save your money and your time. If these Devs…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Spin-off of Thorne series, good stuff! Nice length and of course The Crow :) 8/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The latest Scarlet Citadel write up is now on my #dnd game design blog: Session 48 - Messing About on the Black River richardgreengames.com/2023/10/16/s... @koboldpress.bsky.social
neutral · AI labelView post →RPG Maker strikes again! Black River is one of hundreds of low effort retro-pixel RPG Maker asset/construction kit flips spamming the Steam catalog, made with the RPG Maker video game construction kit... in their own words, "Our easy to use tools are simple enough for a child." Like all RPG Maker "games", this is essentially a bunch of low quality/canned assets from RPG Maker coupled with a cringeworthy high school anime club fan fiction. As with all RPG Maker games, the poor quality engine…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TL;DR:I will say this. Just don't buy this, it's not worth the money on sale. Even if you only spent a penny on it, you would want that penny back. Pros: -Graphics are alright since they mainly use the RTP or objects derived from it. -Some of the monsters concepts, while not new, are interesting to see in rpg maker. Cons: -The fights are punishingly hard for a majority of the game. There's fun hard and then there's bashing your head against the wall in a fight of attrition hard. This is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I hit many game-breaking bugs. I only managed to get around them by saving constantly in multiple files (after each map) and making use of the auto-save feature. When I wasn't dodging bugs, I was furiously grinding at whatever fountain I could find, but even that left me too low-leveled to take on most of the bosses. I did beat it though, finally. I enjoyed the story, but my victory was spoiled by characters teleporting and appearing where they shouldn't, cut-scenes replaying, and wandering…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stopped by a brewery in Black River Falls after a hike today to watch the Packers game. Made me slightly nostalgic for all the campaigning I did with the local Dems there last year. Town is gorgeous this time of year.
neutral · AI labelView post →The final boss is an unbalanced mess. Grinding for levels is also painfully slow.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →it occurs to me that Black River Orchard would be a phenomenal setting for a Resident Evil game.
neutral · AI labelView post →Black River is a compact, narrative-driven horror RPG that leans more on atmosphere and unease than on mechanical complexity or innovation. Developed and published by Thorne Games, it places players in the role of Leah, a young woman who finds herself trapped in a strange, decaying village with no clear memory of how she arrived. From the outset, the game establishes a tone of isolation and dread, suggesting that the town itself is not merely a setting but a central force in the story—something…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →@chuckwendig.bsky.social thought you might enjoy knowing, I gave my TTRPG group nightmares by introducing two Black River Orchard inspired creatures into our game of Dread. The teeth, the movement, the sounds. Multiple people texted to let me know I'm a monster for the images I put in their heads 🍏
neutral · AI labelView post →Book: Black River Orchard Game: The Invincible (cause it'll be short) Mini series - True Detective: Night Watch you?
neutral · AI labelView post →A character's birthplace has a huge impact on how they start the game and can grow in the world. For instance, the forested nation of Meisnland is ruled by the order of Black River Warriors - mechanically augmented knights trained for combat and perhaps unprepared to confront a modernizing world...
neutral · AI labelView post →I do like RPGMaker games and this one is alright. There's some good and some bad so far. It's crashed a couple of times and I haven't found any secrets or hidden stuff. I like the story so far and hope it continues to hold my interest
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →good rpgmaker type game, seems to be some tech issues the developers refuse to address with lots of folks, never a good thing for your reputation. They did take the btime to make a card set though which is more than a lot of other devs do. It would be a top notcyuh rpgM title of they would address the tech issues which seem to be the only problem, the game itself seems great.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A necromancer put evil infesting the village. Avoid zombies a bit until you reach the mansion. I thought the fountain there couldn’t refill so I was spitting on the dev playing. Then as I cleared the fountain from 2 zombies, I clicked in front of it like all of them! Calisto will ask the Goddess of Death a favor for his plan but the events will not grant his will. There’s anguish when you are chased by a bear outside, later on stuck in a maze. You might be frustrated by sticky zombies. Have a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Black River has a decent gloomy setup, but then it turns into a pretty rough RPG Maker grind. The maps give you very little direction, the fights swing from dull to weirdly punishing, and the story keeps throwing ideas together without making much of them. The village is creepy; fighting through it mostly isn't.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tonight it’s Central Wisconsin Storm hockey vs. Black River Falls in a battle of the top two teams in the WVC. Hear the game live starting with the pregame at 6:35 pm on 98.9 WXCO, online at wxco.fm, mobile devices by searching WXCO and Civic Media app. #wiaahockey
neutral · AI labelView post →I am 32 years old. My ex-wife and I have a daughter together, and we adopted our son together. Both are now 4 years old. When we were going through our separation, I felt lost and unhappy. I was self-destructive. One day, I was so angry with everything spiraling out of control that I punched a concrete wall in a moment of overwhelming emotion. This resulted in breaking my fifth metacarpal in my right hand—the hand I worked with, played games with, and used to carry my children to bed—the hand…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Happy book birthday to Black River Orchard from Chuck Wendig! In my review I called it "a masterful work of horror from an author working at the top of his game." This is a must read. Here's my full review: davewritesanddraws.com/2023/06/24/a...
neutral · AI labelView post →I played this game for 9 minutes and Bobby has killed me 20+ times. Bobby, stop. Please. ---------------------------- Originally I couldn't progress as theres no prompt to tell you to run when Bobby the bear is ordered to attack you, so I ended up perpetually stuck fighting him on 1 hp, the game doesn't end when he kills you, its an endless loop and eventually I got curious and walked around with the bear following, I realised eventually I could leave the Inn to progress.. this needed…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a truly fun rpgmaker experience. It's rare for horror games to hit the mark quite like Black River does, and it has an excellent quest guide which gives you very clear instructions. There ARE some glitches though.At one point 'Bobby' chased me down on to the pier after i'd come out of the crypt and it reset my progress back to everyone being lvl 1. Fortunately this can be overcome by beating Bobby and phasing through his stunned body. Not an easy feat though but it would've taken…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →waste of time n money developer never respond to discussion from what i see
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Like other games by this developer, it's atmospheric and reasonably well made. No random encounters so far, which was nice. It's not easy - I got Game Over'd - but there is an auto save. The other reviews indicate that the game is severely bug-ridden. That's disappointing. Maybe they got fixed? I guess I'll find out. I did run into a bug early on and a typo, and it's pretty weird that you can find and equip an item which makes you immune to poison, and then you get poisoned as part of the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Black River 10/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this game is horribly unbalanced. It looks like the devs didn't even bother with playtesting this thing before release. It's heavy grind since the beginning, or you're pretty much toast after an hour.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I hit 'Page Up' and made the game crash to desktop. A broken mess, I'm surprised it's not been taken off of Steam yet. Not been tested at all extensively should probably be taken off the store with how broken it is.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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