Developer: Brace Yourself Games
Publisher: Brace Yourself Games, Klei Entertainment
Platform: PC, Mac
Tested on: PC
Crypt of the NecroDancer – Review
Crypt of the NecroDancer has been in development for quite some time and we followed it from the beginning. Now, release time has finally come and it’s time to give the game a final verdict. Crypt of the NecroDancer is a Roguelike Rhythm game that is sure to test your skills as well as your patience. Let’s see what it’s all about!
Story
The main character of the game is Cadence. Cadence is the daughter of Melody and Dorian. Dorian has been missing for quite some time inside the Crypt of the NecroDancer, so against the advice of your uncle, you decide to head in and search your father. Things didn’t go as planned however, you were trying to get into the Crypt but suddenly fell through the floor and landed inside the Crypt. Cadence was very wounded and it didn’t look like she would make it. However, the NecroDancer suddenly appeared and stole her heart, now her heart beats on the beats of music. When you wake up, you decide to go after the NecroDancer and find out what happened to your dad.
Although the story is really cool, you get very little information from the game. It’s worth taking a look at the wiki to see what it’s all about if you’re truly interested. Every level shows a little cutscene at the end, but it doesn’t give you loads of information.
Graphics
Crypt of the NecroDancer’s graphics and artwork are simply amazing. While it doesn’t look modern, it feels very nice and it’s awesome to look at. The enemy models feature quite a bit of wacky elements but some are pretty scary and dark looking. All the levels have their own design to them and have their own unique enemies.
Settings wise, the game isn’t demanding at all and almost any PC should have no problems running it. There aren’t any graphic options either except for toggling the disco dance floor off and on, which can be a good thing for people with epilepsy.
Sound
Without a doubt, the music in this game is one of the best there is. It’s catchy and it’ll be stuck in your head for days. Every level has its own music and some levels even have 2 styles of music, depending on which part of the level you’re moving on. All tracks also have a heavy metal and EDM version, made by fans.
The sound in Crypt of the NecroDancer is also really great. It all sounds like it really belongs together and it’s very satisfying to hear some sound effects.
If you really love the game and love the music, you can also play the game with a Dance Pad! The game has full support for Dance Pad and it even has a custom gamemode which makes everything a bit easier.
Gameplay
So far so good, and while we’re at it, the gameplay doesn’t disappoint at all either. It’s extremely easy to play, hard to master and very addicting.
The game starts you out with a pretty basic tutorial. It’s played with the arrow keys and that’s it! What makes the game special is that you have to move on the beat of the music. If you don’t, enemies will move their turn but you’ll skip yours and lose your gold pickup multiplier (the gold multiplier is increased by not missing beats). The tutorial also teaches you that every enemy has it’s own movement path or tactic. In the first level you’ll encounter a lot of simple blobs which just move around between 2 squares or jump in place, nothing too crazy. You can attack enemies by simply walking in their direction when you’re in range of attacking.
This is where the easy stuff ends though because the game doesn’t give you any time to get used to it, you’re thrown straight into the action. Each level has a couple of stages, you have to complete each stage by killing the miniboss and then you can exit with the stairs the boss protects. You can also jump through trapdoors but this isn’t the best tactic because you usually want to kill as much as possible for money and sometimes you can get into a sticky situation if you jump down there. At the end of the stages, you’ll have to fight a boss in order to beat the level. There’s a couple of bosses and each of them are very unique and have their own awesome music.
The stages themselves are scattered with enemies, secrets, traps and treasures. Secrets can include chests, diamonds or a room packed with enemies… Chests and treasures can contain all sorts of items ranging from weapons to trinkets and gold. There are loads of different items which all have their own good and bad sides, think of it like the item pool in “The Binding of Isaac”, a lot of combinations are possible
Gold you find by killing enemies or from chests can be used in shops. Every level has a shop with a shopkeeper (who sings!), the shopkeeper sells 3 items and it’s up to you to decide which ones you want. Diamonds can be used in the lobby to purchase permanent upgrades, like upgrading your health, adding items to the item pool or upgrading your coin multiplier.
When things aren’t really going your way, you can try out one of the many other game modes or characters. There’s a daily challenge, an “all zones” mode, a level editor (once you beat all levels) and even a local co-op. All characters in the game have their own unique playstyle and will completely change the way you play. For example, you have a character where you can not miss a beat or you die, or there’s also one where you can’t attack but exit stairs are open, so you’ll have to avoid getting hit at all. You can also test your skill in the “advanced techniques” room or you can test how to kill bosses in the training mode.
Of course you don’t unlock all these game modes from the start. A lot of doors in the lobby have to be opened by NPC’s you find in the levels. You’ll usually find them in cages and once you free them you’ll find them in the lobby.
And if all of this isn’t enough, you can battle it out on the leaderboards, install mods or even use your own custom music to play with.
Conclusion
Crypt of the NecroDancer is another one of those games that you get completely addicted to once you get the hang of it. It has a lot of gameplay, awesome music and great pixel art. If you like roguelikes, dungeon crawlers, rhythm games or a combination of all 3, this game is one of the best out there.
Crypt of the NecroDancer - Review,
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