Developer: Blinkmoon Games
Publisher: Blinkmoon Games
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Necromantic – Preview
It’s hard to keep track of all Survivors-like titles that have been coming out lately, but seeing how popular the genre currently is, we are not that surprised. We recently took a closer look at some impressive entries in the genre, such as Nordic Ashes and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor but also extremely lousy ones such as Hero Survival. Most of these titles try to add an original shtick, diversifying them from the competition. This seems to be the case as well with Necromantic, which was recently released on Steam in Early Access. While the game did already have a few enjoyable aspects in place, it did feel like it could have used a bit more content before even getting released as an Early Access title.
In Necromantic you’re thrown in a Harry Potter-esque school where you can roam around the very tiny courtyard. The developer is clearly aiming for a certain aesthetic, and while everything looks okay, there simply isn’t much to do here. You’ll be able to interact with a few NPCs to see your assignments, to upgrade your selected character, and there’s also one that allows you to unlock general upgrades. The other NPCs just have a few generic lines of text pop up when you pass by, and that’s basically it. There are a few tiny story blurbs that you can read when selecting a level, but the narrative is currently underdeveloped and feels more like an afterthought.
The actual gameplay on the different maps follows the same format as other Survivors-like titles. You’ll run around performing your attacks and spells automatically, trying to kill as many enemies as possible. Upon doing so, they will drop crystals (experience), which will allow you to level up when picked up. At the start of a run, this goes fairly rapidly, and you can still easily reach the dropped experience, but as time progresses, this will become increasingly more difficult. When leveling up, the game will offer you a few passive upgrades or active skills and abilities to choose from. As you continue to level up, you may get the same options offered to you, thus making them stronger when picked. As a whole, there’s nothing wrong with this format, and it works well. Sadly, not all skills are clear, a lot of passive bonuses also come with a debuff, and the damage scaling isn’t balanced. Too many enemies will start spawning, often leaving you no real escape path, forcing you to take damage while you are not able to clear them at a rapid pace.
While there’s nothing wrong with the base formula, the game does suffer from odd design choices and a hefty amount of game-breaking bugs. We have encountered issues where the final boss (and other minions) would not spawn at all, forcing us to abandon our run. Sometimes we didn’t get the rewards for completed tasks, the second player in a co-op session was unable to complete tasks and assignments, we got stuck in terrain, and so on. We did notice spelling errors in skill descriptions, as well as faulty descriptions in general. Some menus were also not responsive when playing with a controller.
We admit that bugs are part of the process of an Early Access release, and we already noticed that the developers are working on patches. So, we do have to commend the team for actually working on their new release. Even so, we cannot wrap our heads around a certain design choice for the co-op mode. As you slowly progress in the game, you can unlock additional ability point slots and weapon slots. This is something you truly strive for, and it simply makes the overall experience a lot more fun. In co-op, however, your additional ability points and weapon slots are simply removed. This is actually quite absurd, as you grind for hours to have a few additional upgrades, only to be punished when playing with a friend. We hope this gets revamped in the future.
Conclusion
Even though Necromantic is still in an early development phase, we feel like a lot of work still needs to be done to make this a truly enjoyable experience. The game does have an interesting aesthetic, and the building blocks are there to make something entertaining. Sadly, the current amount of bugs, the odd design choices, and the tedious tasks to unlock new maps and characters dull down the overall experience. At this point in time, we suggest picking up more polished titles in the genre for a lower price.
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