Into the Necrovale Early Access Impressions
Into the Necrovale is shaping up to be an awesome ARPG.
Into the Necrovale. Credit: Casey Clyde / Tribal-Storm.
I played Into the Necrovale in its Early Access release and I had a blast with it. The game is an action RPG dungeon crawler, in the vein of Diablo, with attractive pixel art graphics.
The game’s story, from the developer, Casey Clyde:
The world has grown old and tired. The fires that once burned brightly in the souls of men have dimmed. You, The Stranger, a worthless degenerate and criminal, have been chosen by the All-Father to renew the world by first destroying it. A thousand generations of men and women banished Into the Necrovale will have their say, if you let them.
Beginning with your banishment into the mysterious Necrovale, you’ll start devling into dungeons, where you’ll find money, loot, and most importantly, crystals. You use the crystals to rebuild the game’s central village and improve your relationships with the other banished people you meet both in town and in the deeps, opening up perks and services like a merchant, blacksmith, and alchemist.
Into the Necrovale. Credit: Casey Clyde / Tribal-Storm.
Combat can be close or ranged, depending on the weapon you use. Dodging is very important, though I wish it felt a little better and had a more predictable evasion window. You can block if you have a shield, something that I think needs to be balanced to feel more useful. It’s easy to get stunned sometimes, leading to a bunch of enemies hitting you, especially since things can get frantic in higher levels with lots of enemies. Despite these issues, combat still felt good, and your build is very customizable to enable varied approaches.
There are tons of unique items in the game, hundreds as of right now. Equipment can have all sorts of benefits, buffs, and debuffs to suit the kind of attacks you’re using or even to allow you to have a stronger defense. Want to be a barbarian that charges in with brute force? Or maybe a mage that focuses on abilities that damage while healing yourself? An archer with elementally charged arrows? You can do all that and more.
Into the Necrovale. Credit: Casey Clyde / Tribal-Storm.
I love that there’s a foundry that lets you upgrade items to make them scale long-term so you can keep your build consistent. What’s even better is that the blacksmith lets you combine two of a type of item into one, essentially a means to equip two pieces of gear in the same slot.
Each of the game’s levels is a multi-floor dungeon that you must complete to open up the next one. They’re split into biomes made up of around a dozen dungeons, each one more challenging than the last, culminating in a big boss fight. I think there are two biomes in the current version and that’s plenty of content already; I’m not done with the second one yet and I’ve already spent around nine hours with the game.
Into the Necrovale is shaping up to be great. I’m looking forward to the full release.
Into the Necrovale is available for PC in Steam Early Access.
