Hey all. I’m back with another Roguelike game for review! It’s Necropolis!
GiN originally reviewed Necropolis on the PC, where it received a respectable 3 ½ GiN Gems. The PC game was plagued with launch problems, but got better with the brutal edition, which was basically a giant patch to fix those issues. Now making the jump to consoles, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game start as brutal editions, meaning they are all patched up. But the transition from a PC to a console game is not always a smooth one, so let’s see how Necropolis did.
Plot Synopsis: The game’s plot involves an archmage named Abraxis as he travels to a secret underground tomb to practice magic far from civilization.
Plot: The plot is pretty non existent, but what is there doesn’t make much sense. Of course it’s also fairly humorous if you like randomness, but it still nonsensical.
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Gameplay: This plays a lot like a poorly made version of Dark Souls, where Dark Souls had polish and refinement, Necropolis has poor copies of similar mechanics. That isn’t to say it’s a straight up clone of Dark Souls, far from it. However, frankly I had a lot more fun play Dark Souls III and dying repeatedly over the frustration I experienced in Necropolis.
There aren’t bonfires in Necropolis that would allow a player to retry portions over and over again to learn from their mistakes. Instead a death here leads to you having to restart from the beginning completely, and that frankly can be too frustrating. Now, I understand that’s the draw of Roguelike games, but I still find that the ability to have checkpoints is preferable over just having the game tell you “okay you lost, now start all over again!”
Art: The art isn’t amazing, but it’s not the worst I’ve seen of this generation. However, it’s definitely got a lower rank for art compared to other console RPGs.
Music: The music is okay, but nothing really stood out for me.
Overall: This is an easily skippable game for anyone other than a hardcore Roguelike fan. If rouges are your thing, then Necropolis can give you those thrills on your console of choice.
For those who like: Roguelikes, Difficult Games, Frustration.
Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.
Developers: Harebrained Schemes
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One