Necropolis Reviews

Reaching the ending isn't the true goal of Necropolis, although it is something you aim for. Instead the goal is more about finding everything there is to collect, from filling out the codex and dye collection, to learning for yourself which weapon and shield's are the best. There is satisfaction from slowly building your character up from almost nothing into a nigh-unstoppable warrior. That is, until you die. Certain choices made regarding what you carry over after a demise, as well as no clear and reliable way to skip introductory levels once you have completed them multiple times, kept me from jumping back in after a particularly long and successful run ruined by a dumb mistake.

Necropolis is a solid foundation with a really weird, questionably designed house built on top. If you're willing to take the time and try to spruce the place up, you may find it was worthwhile, but beware that it may require more work than you're willing to put in.

Necropolis has solid combat and tight controls, but the lack of proper pacing and the disappointing progression system mean you should probably wait until the game gets the promised tweaks before picking it up.

I have a lot of games. Mentally, I’ve organised them into ones I know I’m not going to play after the post-buy enthusiasm has wore off, ones that I might if I’m desperate/in certain moods and ones that I will play now and in the future. Necropolis is firmly in the last category and that surprises me as much as anyone else when I started. I’ve yet to start multiplayer campaign but any game that has me harassing casual acquaintances to buy it and play with me speaks to the quality. It’s a really solid game which will only benefit from improvements in AI, aesthetic polish and more ambiguous loot. Necropolis rewards those who put the effort into decoding the weirdness, and while some may not appreciate that, for those who do, it’s a game worth investing in.

Review code provided by the publisher.

Dungeon diving.

At its heart, Necropolis is a dungeon crawler with plenty of potential. The premise of a procedurally generated rogue-like experience sounds fun, and it certainly starts off that way - but once things start to get repetitive and the game slows down to a familiar grind, the brittle bones of Necropolis are exposed. Despite a delightfully sarcastic narrator and a promising idea, Necropolis needed more unique content to prevent its dungeons from growing too similar, which ultimately makes the end game fizzle out. That's not to say it wasn't an enjoyable experience, but it could have been much more.

Necropolis pulls many ideas together to ultimately deliver a satisfactory, short dungeon-diving experience that’s best enjoyed with friends. Some of its ideas conflict with each other (such as permadeath and teammate revival), its procedural generation doesn’t offer much in the way of replayability, and its intentional vagueness can be frustrating, but it’s good for at least a few monster-smashing runs before it gets old thanks to enjoyable combat mechanics, cheeky humor, and the promise of mystery.

Ghoulish creature design and fun combat are weakened by long boring stretches, clueless AI, and snickering obscurity.