Nekro (Hands-On) (PC) Preview

By Ian Soltes 21.04.2015

Review for Nekro (Hands-On) on PC

The fascination people seem to have for playing the bad guy is truly astounding at times. Sure, it's nice to step outside the norm of being the hero every once in a while, but it feels odd that many games are willing to let people become outright villains. Regardless, Nekro, developed and published by darkForge Games LLC, is a difficult and challenging squad-strategy game. Cubed3 goes hands-on with an early build to see how things are shaping up.

Seriously, this game is difficult. Basically, things are not going well for the antagonist. He's had a constant pain in the neck, his god has been ignoring him, and he's been killed. In a final act of desperation/spite, he sells his soul to the local dark god and art critic to become a Necromancer, intent on taking over the world. Of course, he will need minions to do so and everything from the recently dead of the local villagers to haunted Jack-o-lanterns will suffice. The people of the realm are not helpless either, though, so the Necromancer has his work cut out for him.

Boy, is it a difficult job, as well! The enemies are merciless and boast plenty of hit points and are relentless, plus even the cows can land a meaty blow. Thankfully, for the Necromancer (and unfortunate for others), he has soldiers to call upon to fight for him á la Pikmin. Well, rather, with the heavy focus on combat, large focus on letting the main character fight as well, and evil over-tone, it would be á la Overlord, but that doesn't matter too much on the whole.

Screenshot for Nekro (Hands-On) on PC

Gameplay is surprisingly straightforward - go around, consume corpses for both blood (basically mana/resources) and health, while raising others for minions. Raising a chicken corpse to become a viable terror of destruction quite certainly has a degree of humour to it, to be certain, and then go on a careful rampage destroying all that get in the Necromancer's path.

Focusing on smaller squads of soldiers as opposed to the massive armies of other RTS titles, Nekro ends up feeling like Pikmin, if Pikmin was evil and more than willing to whip the player for their mistakes. However, it is also never really 'unfair.' It's always clear how to win and it's doesn't ever really play a 'I don't like you, so I win' type of move or strategy, just being possibly a bit too difficult for those not already skilled at the genre.

Screenshot for Nekro (Hands-On) on PC

Final Thoughts

Honestly, even in its Early Access form, it's clear that the developer of Nekro knows what it is doing and, upon its final release, this game is likely to be a solid, if unforgiving, title. If reading this, darkForge, please add an easy mode or invincibility cheat for rookies!

Developer

darkForge

Publisher

darkForge Games

Genre

Strategy

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  n/a

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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