Necropolis, a procedurally generated "diabolical dungeon delve" from Harebrained Schemes

[orcinator]

Did he say no bosses?

Shit, this really is a whitu piggu action game

 

[Infinitron]

So, because of Namco Bandai, Harebrained are going to be at E3: http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/06/10/e3-2016-necropolis-is-a-dark-souls-game-with-a-sense-of-humor

E3 2016: NECROPOLIS IS DARK SOULS WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR
Prepare to live, die, laugh, and repeat in this Dark Souls-inspired action adventure game.

If you enjoy the Dark Souls series, Necropolis might grab your attention right from the start. The people behind this 3D action adventure take the Souls' tough-as-nails combat, add a pinch of humor, and some slightly harsher consequences: Death doesn’t drop some of your current progress, you lose everything (levels, equipment, and items) and start over form the beginning. Creative Director and co-founder of developer Harebrained Schemes Mitch Gitelman describes it with a succinct pitch that a member of his team came up with: “What would happen if Dark Souls and Spelunky had a baby? And that baby tried to kill you over and over again?” he said.

“You’re going to die fairly often,” Gitelman jokes, “Embrace that.” Necropoilis is a difficult Roguelike, a genre where permadeath is a hard reset that robs you of progress.

Harebrained schemes is the studio behind the successful Shadowrun series on Kickstarter, but this project is a very different beast. On one hand it’s an old-school Dungeons and Dragons experience where the lower you get in the labyrinth dungeon, the tougher the enemies become. But the game has a twist: after the initial tutorial area, all of the terrain, enemies, and treasure is procedurally generated, so you never know what's going to come next.

Regardless of the constant threat of the unexpected, Necropolis has plenty of tools to help you survive. Success in combat is dependent on strict timing, as you dodge and counter attack enemies with a variety of swords, daggers, and axes. The avatars you play is fairly nimble, and you can customize yourself using special cloaks and helmets you find along the way. Our demo had a few framerate hiccups because it was an early build of the final game, but we still held our own against the skeletons, mages, and other armor-clad foes.

Early on, you’ll meet the Brazen Head, an enormous pyramid-shaped caretaker of the dungeon. He will give you a set of task to complete as you explore a single floor of the dungeon. Complete them before you descend to the next floor and the Brazen Head will reward you with Tokens of Favor. These tokens can then be traded in for Codexes, magical books that will give you special abilities that don’t go away. Unlocked Codexes are stored in a library, and you can swap them in and out on each play through.

Oddly enough, while trying to stay alive in Necropolis’ colorful dungeons, the game will unexpectedly make you laugh. Funny poems can be found scrawled on some of the walls and items have clever descriptions. Gitelman describes the humor as similar to Cabin in the Woods. One message scrawled on the wall of the dungeon read:

“Tiaxiatl tore the skin from the flayed got to make this world. With his his face he fashioned the high plains. With his arms and hands, the reaching lands of the south. Then he was like, Sorry, dude,” and split.”

Much like Diablo, some items need to be identified in order to safely use scrolls and potions. The Scrolls of Identification have a funny description that reads: “With six words, every unknown scroll and potion becomes apparent, and you remember your 3rd grade teacher’s name.” You can still consume an unidentified potion, but you might get stuck with a negative buff that could have been avoided. We got hit with a de-buff that obscured our vision and made enemies difficult to see.

Gitleman mentioned some details about Necropolis’ whimsical co-op, but we didn’t get to play it in our pre-E3 demo. Friends can drop in and out of the action at any time. In line with the humor-filled tone, you can also kill them off (or hopefully revive them so you can make progress).

Necropolis is already coming to PC this Summer, but Namco has stepped in to help publish it on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. And Dark Souls-inspired roguelike is onto something, as we hacked and slashed our way to the deadly fifth floor. We had to navigate tough mobs in our trip through the dungeon, but the subtle laughs and powerful weapons kept us entertained along the way.

 

[orcinator]

Oddly enough, while trying to stay alive in Necropolis’ colorful dungeons, the game will unexpectedly make you laugh. Funny poems can be found scrawled on some of the walls and items have clever descriptions. Gitelman describes the humor as similar to Cabin in the Woods. One message scrawled on the wall of the dungeon read:

“Tiaxiatl tore the skin from the flayed got to make this world. With his his face he fashioned the high plains. With his arms and hands, the reaching lands of the south. Then he was like, Sorry, dude,” and split.”

Much like Diablo, some items need to be identified in order to safely use scrolls and potions. The Scrolls of Identification have a funny description that reads: “With six words, every unknown scroll and potion becomes apparent, and you remember your 3rd grade teacher’s name.” You can still consume an unidentified potion, but you might get stuck with a negative buff that could have been avoided. We got hit with a de-buff that obscured our vision and made enemies difficult to see.

 

[felipepepe]

So it follows Penny Arcade's school of verbose "lol, I'm so random!" webcomic humor...

What a shame, I hope it at least doesn't get in the way.

 

[Excidium II]

So the humor is going to be shit but have they at least fixed the animations/hit feedback? Because all the gameplay videos so far looked atrocious.

 

[Infinitron]

So the humor is going to be shit but have they at least fixed the animations/hit feedback? Because all the gameplay videos so far looked atrocious.

Let's see what I can scrounge up on YouTube...this footage is from PAX East, so a bit newer.

 

[Excidium II]

Still looks p. bad in that regard. Not cool for a game you're supposed to invest hundreds of hours.

 

[toro]

You'll start from the beginning of the game on each death !? This is idiotic.

Also the combat looks bad. They even have clipping issues in the second video.

 

[Metro]

Ex praises Overwatch. I'd say this looks p.better than that.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I don't really care about the visuals, but the gameplay looks quite bad. Seems to have only a couple ways to attack, no weapon variety, and nothing to pick up as you explore except some shitty potions AFAICT. So it's less like Dark Souls and Spelunky, and more like Diablo without any of the atmosphere or items or quests or even stats. Spelunky had more to it than permadeath and random levels, and Dark Souls had more to it than low gamma and slow combat.

 

[Excidium II]

it's like Dark Souls with floaty combat.

 

[Mozg]

You'll start from the beginning of the game on each death !? This is idiotic.

that's roguelikes

4-6 hours for an action roguelike seems too long for each one, though. Hour long games of Enter the Gungeon are too long.

Not very good video for me to analyze combat unless I hunt for every bit and piece and I don't care enough.

However I'll note the dude has a slower greatsword type weapon in one of those vs. the kukhrish ones from all the older videos I saw so that's at least a little variety.

 

[Excidium II]

that's roguelikes

Real roguelikes move at the speed your brain can process information though. Not sure how much fun starting over can be in a game with slow methodical combat akshun combat.

 

[Mozg]

toro didn't qualify his shit and I know he's a Dark Souls guy, I figured he just doesn't know the term/concept

 

[Tom Selleck]

The Scrolls of Identification have a funny description that reads: “With six words, every unknown scroll and potion becomes apparent, and you remember your 3rd grade teacher’s name.”

>funny

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

The animations are on par with their Shadowrun games (as in horrible, slow and without any impact).
The writing seems pretty bad too.
Dunno about the music, the trailers had crap music so far.
The graphics are a mixed bag. I've been looking into the texture-less art styles myself, but focused more on geometry and lighting. Here it's a monotonous mess with little to no eye candy. Meh.

 

[toro]

toro didn't qualify his shit and I know he's a Dark Souls guy, I figured he just doesn't know the term/concept

I know the concept but it doesn't appeal to me in a souls like game.



Indeed there are a couple of weapons: short sword, kukri sword, greatsword and probably more.

I don't know. It could work but I think the combat mechanics could use some improvement: at least add impact to the weapons.

 

[Viata]

Boring game, sadly. And what the fuck, now simple combat mechanics is "Dark Souls combat"?

 

[Alienman]

Just looking at that video makes me depressive.

 

[Infinitron]

That video is from last year.

 

[Mozg]

Erm, it's the exact same demo as the Shacknews one you posted (down to the guy doing the same "pull the gem eater enemy so it infights with the standard sword guys"). I think it might be the same footage (the character is wearing a hat with the same pattern, I don't care to examine shit any closer). Maybe Shacknews just nicked it off Youtube as video filler?

 

[Infinitron]

Uh. Here's something more verifiably new, though at the expense of quality:



Also lol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osr4zpZEbUc

Pretty soon there'll be E3 vids of this though.

 

[Excidium II]

Awful.

 

[Infinitron]

Necropolis talk at the PC Gaming Show: https://www.twitch.tv/pcgamer/v/72261820?t=30m10s

 

[Invictus]

Seems some concepts are a bit wrong; a roguelike is supposed to be q shorter game that relies on replay ability not a 40+ hours monstrosity
If it tried to emulate the upgrade options of something like Rogue Legacy where the upgrades and unlocks carry over then it would be fine but it sounds like they have very interesting but conflicting ideas poorly excecuted
I actually like the graphic style but the combat feels too floaty and the necropolis itself seems too simplistic
As the chalice dungeons in Bloodborne show, the careful placement of enemies in perilous terrain (which can be more deadly that the enemies themselves) the core Souls experience isnt something that can be randomly generated and all the Souls reference only will harm this on the end
Hell, even Salt and Sanctuary with its less than stellar art style is much more 2D Souls than this