DAMN I LOVE THIS GAME
During the ongoing Pax East 2016 event, I was finally able to get some hands-on time with the upcoming Necropolis title, which is being brought over to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. Surprisingly, where I thought the title was going to be more of the same – like Dark Souls, after playing it I found that it is so much more. To be honest I’m happy to find out that the game isn’t something that is completely familiar, for lack of a better word.
The main difference is that Necropolis is actually more akin to if someone had taken the elements of Dark Souls and Roque Legacy and tossed them in a blender. Yes, you have magic attacks, melee as well as survival elements. However, what I found that makes the game stand out is the ability to not only pick up weapons that are dropped by enemies after being slain but a crafting system that allows you to make potions and other items but also the procedural level generation and perma-death. Yes, perma-death, that same feature that makes even the most hardcore gamer toss their controller or keyboard across the room in a fit of anger when they die. After playing Necropolis for a while – just like in Dark Souls, I’ve come to accept this. Thankfully perma-death doesn’t mean that once you die that it’s all over. Don’t worry guys, Harebrained Schemes has a plan here.
Death seems to be almost welcomed and the game has been crafted around the fault that everyone who plays this game will basically end up dead at some time in the game. Sure you may lose the items you crafted or weapons, yet most of the game is centered around things that benefit all of the characters you play video just the character that you’re playing now. Power-ups or other enhancements that I can’t talk about yet are rather saved and available for everyone, similar to how Rogue Legacy approaches death and it’s power up system. Speaking of game saves, there aren’t any.
I also liked that fact that Harebrained Schemes isn’t set on making Necropolis a serious title, at least not in the vein on Dark Souls. What I mean by that is that there are things like cute characters that pop up when you do something or the reward system, right down to drinking an ill-mixed potion or digesting some rotten food that you found on the ground the causes your character to puke and letting you know that you screwed up. I’m sure there are more things that I missed or just wasn’t able to get to due to the version I played only being a 15-minute demo. I also wasn’t able to check out the co-op feature due to each station only having one controller.
After spending some time with Necropolis, which is lovely and can’t wait for it be released, I turned to chat with the one of the developers of the title and was given some insight regarding the title. Thankfully I was able to record some gameplay footage but I haven’t been able to upload the footage due to the spotty Internet at both the event and where I am staying.
That all said I think fans of Dark Souls, Rogue Legacy and a few other games in the genre are either really enjoy this or fall completely in love. For me, I’ve been smitten from what I played so far.
Necropolis will let be launching for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One via Bandai Namco, while a PC version is being published directly by Harebrained Schemes and will be available on Steam sometime in Summer 2016. But for now, that still seems a bit too far away for this jaded gamer.
