It’s early days for Into The Necrovale, with the game having only recently hit Early Access, but it’s already got the bones and undying flesh necessary for a pretty satisfying time. One of the most fascinating parts of it is that, despite what it may look like, it’s not actually a roguelike…
If you die, then you start the level over again, sure, but you keep all of your loot and anything else you’ve picked up, so there’s always a chance to grow stronger, even in failure. You also don’t have to complete every level without dying, which makes it a fair bit more approachable than a lot of games out there with similar vibes.
Storywise, you take control of a prisoner thrown into the Necrovale by the All-Father, who certainly sounds important. The long and short of it is that you don’t really want to be in the Necrovale and you’re going to get into a lot of fights to get out.
Each dungeon is broken into different levels, and you’ll unlock more levels as you beat previous ones. You will also collect crystallized hope to use on either making NPCs more friendly towards you, upgrading things around your little hub town, or unlocking new paths. It’s a really intriguing system that lets you save for things if you want to, or just immediately gift an NPC with some hope, to make them a little happier.
Combat is simple but gratifying. Whatever weapon you’re using, whether it’s a sword that summons meteors or a wand that fires out shards of ice, has a basic attack and a powered-up one. The latter charges up as you land basic attacks, and so your options are to dodge or block your way through enemy attacks before unleashing a wave-ending blast or just cut everything down to size with faster weapons.
The graphics are good, the soundtrack is well-suited, and the whole thing just has a good, and very approachable, vibe. Definitely check out Into The Necrovale if you like the idea of a roguelike but not the reality, and also if you just like a game that’s replete with loot.
