[PAX East 2016] Necropolis Preview

When we first saw Necropolis at PAX East 2015, we were won over by it’s style and brutal but rewarding gameplay and slick, low-poly art style, even in it’s early alpha state. Now, a year later, the game has progressed quite a bit from what was essentially a technical demo and proof of concept.

While the core concept remains the same, the game has been greatly improved and fleshed out since last year’s show. Instead of a canned experience with a prebuilt level structure, every run through the Necropolis is now a procedurally generated experience, built out of a series of blocks containing random enemies, loot, and materials.

Also new in this updated build is the introduction of a crafting system. While I wasn’t able to explore that area thoroughly in my short time with the game, I was assured that it’ll be an essential element in progressing, as it will help you craft things like gear and health items, which are few and far between out in the existing world.

Combat in Necropolis will be familiar for anyone into roguelikes or games in the Souls series: it’s methodical, rigid, but when done right, incredibly rewarding, and rewards players for stepping out of their comfort zone to experiment with new tactics and new ways of using their abilities.

All enemies I encountered dropped weapons upon defeat, which varied from long swords, daggers, short swords, and so on. Each different weapon type brought with it it’s own attack speed and play style, and could even contain special abilities, like a lightning-infused dagger set encountered in my playthrough.

Discovering the strengths and weakness of your own play style and choosing weapons that cater to your specific manner of attack and defense is key, as your character isn’t particularly durable, and can only take so many hits before falling to the hordes of the Necropolis.

Not present in the PAX East build was the inclusion of the recently announced 4-player cooperative play. While I wasn’t sure adding three extra combatants would work in that setting, seeing the sheer difficulty and amount of enemies the game can throw at a single player changed that, and I look forward to checking out that final build with a dungeon-raiding party.

The game was originally only being developed for a PC and Mac release, but due to a new partnership with publisher Bandai Namco, it’ll also be seeing a console release on PS4 and Xbox One this summer.