- Publisher: Harebrained Schemes LLC
- Release Date: Jul 12, 2016
- Also On: PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Jul 12, 2016While roguelike and roguelike-inspired games such as these feel like a dime a dozen in recent times, Necropolis stands out simply by being the best that it can be, with a striking visual style, great sense of humor and an enjoyable co-op mode working together with immense, randomized, yet terrifically-designed levels and some great combat. Developers Harebrained Schemes have crafted a stellar entry into the genre, one that’s still tough as nails and yet has you coming back to it again and again. It’s a superb hack-and-slash game that’s fun all around and comes highly recommended.
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Jul 28, 2016It’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.
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Aug 2, 2016Necropolis is worth playing mostly because of its commitment to a fun tone, but falls short when you actually have to play.
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CD-ActionOct 14, 2016Necropolis’ highlight is its Souls-like combat based on locking on targets, managing the stamina bar, blocking and dodging. The game’s general minimalism serves it well and permadeath encourages to try harder. [10/2016, p.56]
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Aug 2, 2016Necropolis is a pretty standard dungeon crawler, but it does give things an interesting twist. The fighting system is steady, while the surprising potions and curses allow the game to be a unique roguelike. Could have used more variety though.
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Jul 24, 2016The game does do a good job of making you want to try just one more run and tip-toe just a little bit further than before.
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Jul 21, 2016Necropolis is more than just another game trying to take advantage of the Dark Souls phenomenon but the hack 'n' slash/roguelite formula has some noticeable flaws. In co-op it's an intriguing experience but, especially in solo, you'll have to struggle with a rough IA, some repetitive locations and the total lack of narration.
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Jul 21, 2016Necropolis is made of a bunch of good ideas but not quite well mixed.
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Jul 20, 2016The 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.
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Jul 19, 2016Necropolis puts its bases on very solid foundations, losing too quickly because of design choices are not always the best, entrusted to increased difficulties and never too stimulating.
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Jul 12, 2016Without company, the initial dungeons begin to blend together a bit, and restarting isn't so much a pain from a pure skill-based roguelike standpoint, but a crisis of variety.
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Jul 21, 2016Necropolis is a mix of action-oriented dungeon crawler and souls-like's combat. The game is intriguing as we thought, but the variety and depth of settings and enemies paradoxically remain confined to a small range of creativity.
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Jul 12, 2016Ghoulish creature design and fun combat are weakened by long boring stretches, clueless AI, and snickering obscurity.
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Aug 5, 2016With its permadeath concept Necropolis is able to generate tension, while each fight could be your last. But progress is limited, regardless if you’re playing alone or cooperatively, so after a few hours it slowly becomes hard work.
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Jul 22, 2016Necropolis is saved by a strong sense of challenge, and by the resource management system, the only mechanism that meets happily with procedural design of the production.
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Jul 14, 2016Some 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.
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Jul 26, 2016Necropolis feels like a missed opportunity. Even though the game offers intense combat and an appealingly bizarre setting, there are just too many problems and limitations for it to hold your interest for very long.
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Jul 21, 2016Some decisions, like the randomly generated levels or the permadeath, made the game feels worse than it should. It's enjoyable, and the multiplayer mode and its artistic design are quite strong, but it still feels like a missed opportunity to do something really unique.
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Jul 20, 2016A game that tries too hard to be what it's not. A roguelike game trying to be a soulslike. Losing its identity, the result is simply a missed shot, nor good or bad enough to be worth remembering.
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Jul 19, 2016It's tough to go back to solo play after a couple of successful adventures with friends. Even then, modest choice of weapons, lack of addition classes and boss fights makes Necropolis interesting only for few hours, before the repetitiveness kicks in.
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Jul 15, 2016Necropolis is made by a 50% of roguelike and by a 50% of Soulslike, but the mix doesn't work very well and fails in some core crucial areas, like the combat system and the AI.
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Jul 12, 2016The stylish visuals and streamlined combat that define Necropolis slowly succumb to repetition, laying waste to this roguelike’s longevity. If you have three friends, multiplayer is the way to go.
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Sep 11, 2016A roguelike with skin-deep gameplay mechanics that tries to mimic Dark Souls and ultimately fails.
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Jul 16, 2016A blend between Dark Souls and Wind Waker, Necropolis is a game with excellent intentions but glaring faults: lack of variety, slow combat and too little content. A nice attempt to capitalize on gaming latest trends, but ultimately a disappointment.
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Game World Navigator MagazineSep 21, 2016Necropolis tries to incorporate roguelike-elements, but it suffers from lack of content: there’s not enough variety in monsters, weapons, artifacts and other procedural generation elements to make new dungeons feel like fresh experiences. Plus, there’s a considerable problem with setting: some environments end up looking quite spooky, but that tone is smeared by humorous narration and item descriptions. [Issue#212, p.54]
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Jul 12, 2016Necropolis goes through all the motions, but it's missing the heart, and the smarts, of the hyper-difficult games it's trying to imitate.
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Jul 27, 2016Necropolis is an interesting dungeon crawler that sadly fails to live up to its full potential due to a severe lack of content and sense of progression. The game isn't exactly bad, as there are some interesting ideas, but it features so little incentive to play again that most will end up abandoning it after a few runs.
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Aug 9, 2016The more you play Necropolis, the more evident will its flaws become. With too similar rooms, corridors and monsters, it doesn't create a feeling of mystery, but a feeling of running in circles.
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Jul 15, 2016An interesting attempt to cross Dark Souls with a roguelike, but it’s not a very well mixed cocktail and the ingredients really needed to be chosen with more care.
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PC PowerPlayAug 27, 2016Takes two great ideas and merges them into a half-baked mess of poor controls and monotony. [Issue#254, p.59]
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Sep 1, 2016After a few runs I’d heard all the jokes, fought all the enemies, and seen all of the mild shifts in aesthetics. I wanted to rush through the content I’d already seen and finally, hopefully, get a glimpse of something new, but this Souls-inspired combat prides itself on punishing the impatient, and hasty Necropolis players get a full reset. This was my internal struggle—I wanted to get the game over with, but I didn’t want to be even more bored with it by repeatedly dying and restarting in the process.
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Aug 8, 2016In the annals of dungeoneering, Necropolis stands out for its lack of imagination.
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Aug 4, 2016Perhaps Necropolis’s worst sin is that it doesn’t motivate you to keep going. Sloppy mechanics can often be forgiven if the game has something compelling going for it; just ask Deadly Premonition. Here, however, players have no incentive to continue. The unfunny humor exists solely to mock the player. Every twist and turn, you’re greeted with another joke that undermines your quest and the importance of it. Your quest never feels purposeful or epic. Instead, it just feels like an insignificant afterthought.
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Jul 17, 2016It refuses to treat your protagonist's quest seriously, which in turn undermines the serious gameplay.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
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Jul 13, 2016Necropolis at launch has just enough going for it for those who want a Dark Souls-styled experience that can be easily dropped into and out of. Instead of having to memorize incredibly tough passages like in the Souls games, players can boot Necropolis, tear through some randomly difficult sequences with satisfying weapons, and log off, having gotten a solid action fix. But the game would benefit from serious tuning and more variety in its random level generation. While some of the generated levels feel expansive, huge, and impressive, many of them feel a little sleepy and same-samey. (Also, Harebrained needs to turn on public matchmaking for co-op post-haste.)
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Jul 19, 2016It’s a clumsy, dull, shallow, lacklustre trudge through cold soup. And fails at the most important aspect of any game in the genre: making me want to have another go.
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Jul 21, 2016For all of the lack of variety in Necropolis, or the woes of its combat system, perhaps that is the most severe of all its flaws. Despite our collective hopes for reconciling two admired approaches to game design, it’s a title that embodies an intrinsic conflict between the sustained long-term engagement and clockwork precision of Dark Souls and the rapid-fire bursts of calculated chaos in contemporary roguelikes. Harebrained Schemes’ ambitious, but ultimately miscalculated, attempt inevitably collapses under the weight of its own insurmountable tensions.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 16 out of 51
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Mixed: 13 out of 51
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Negative: 22 out of 51
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Jul 13, 2016
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Jul 12, 2016
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Jul 13, 2016