Necrosmith Review friv game - Beginner's Guide to Necromancers
Necrosmith is a fun 2D necromancer simulator where you build an army of monsters literally piece by piece and then watch how these mindless creatures behave in the friv game world. I tell in the review what came out of this idea from our guys from Friv2Online Games Studio.
Do you remember strong and terrifying only by their appearance necromancers, for example, from Diablo 3, The Elder Scrolls and other RPG / MMORPG, who, with a wave of their hand, awaken the strongest warriors that will do all the dirty work for their creator? Forget about them - the Necrosmith hero can only dream of such heights.
By the way, here he is - a frail and short man in a raincoat, who is accompanied by a plump white cat. What kind of atrocities can we talk about?
The plot in Necrosmith is superficial and speaks only of points "A" and "B" - a certain necromancer with a cat has fallen into a world other than his own, and is forced to look for a way home, settling in an abandoned tower. True, this place turns out to be too hostile, and everyone, from monstrous slugs to knights in armor, is trying to drive away the "villain", so he will have to acquire his own army, collecting the remains of monsters in the surroundings.
Smoothly moving on to the core mechanics of the gameplay - the monster constructor. Instead of raising zombies from graves, summoning skeletons and vampires, our hero collects them from scratch on his table from everything that comes to hand.
Can you guess where this leads? To the appearance of Frankenstein's monsters, which can have dead skeletal legs, a massive ogre body, a harpy head, and zombie arms. You can combine body parts as you like, and this will lead to the birth of absurd and ridiculous monsters with unique characteristics.
This is certainly fun, but you still have to think in the game - not all combinations make sense, and precious mana is spent on their creation, which is obtained in battles or generated on a new game day. If you think carefully, or rather, if you do not create like a mad scientist, then you can discover the secret recipes for strong fighters, such as those that throw two lightning bolts from their hands. However, your recipes can also be saved and reproduced at the click of a mouse, if there are suitable “ingredients”.
After the unit is created, it can be released for a walk - there is no other way to call this process. Brains do not have brains, but there is plenty of independence - they themselves travel around the map, fight enemies, collect resources, capture buildings and open new borders of the map. One of them can be taken under control, but it will only be possible to control the movement, while he will continue to attack himself.
The map turned out to be huge - it is full of biomes, resource buildings, treasure chests and other points of interest. The dummy explore it on their own, but it's also interesting to dispel the fog of war and open up new horizons. Research will bring not only resources, but also drawings to improve the tower, as well as scrolls to activate the portal home. The latter are very rare and hidden in the most secluded places, but they lead to the final game.
Units turned out too stupid. The essence of Necrosmith comes down to the fact that you need to protect the central tower, to which every game day the enemies go in crowds purposefully from different sides.
If any unit goes directly into the forehead of such a crowd, then this is certain death, and he will do it regardless of whether he is a ranged or melee fighter. If you go to the rear, then this is an almost guaranteed victory, because the enemies do not react in any way to our minions. You have to intercept the fighters to avoid a "direct" collision, which will devalue the cost of limbs and mana.
It is clear that this flaw is covered by the idea - they say, all created beings are stupid, and they do not understand what is in their hands. It's just a shame to see how the strongest unit, created for a hundred mana and from rare remains, dies in a split second.
Therefore, I will not say that Necrosmith is simple - units die quickly, a huge army cannot be created, and a crowd of enemies will sweep away the tower in a matter of seconds. And here roguelight mechanics come to the rescue - the gold coins mined in the "session" will be used for various improvements: new spells, recipe level increases, cat upgrades and other enhancements. Each next attempt will feel easier than the previous one.
And there is something to pump for - the map, as I mentioned, turned out to be really huge, and the longer we survive, the more interesting the remains come across and the enemies become stronger. So, you always have to start with skeletons, but then there are parts of the bodies of harpies, vampires, ogres, elementals, demons and other monsters. The bestiary is impressive, and this is a huge plus.
Enemies are also interesting - first we are attacked by slugs and bats, and then armies of peasants with pitchforks, armored knights and even bosses will go. At such moments, the friv game forces you to think, and not to rivet just anyone.
In terms of visual and technical aspects, Necrosmith is an enjoyable 2D game with undemanding pixel art. At first, the cumbersome interface, which occupies almost a third of the screen, confuses, but you quickly get used to it. The only thing missing is a mini-map, which you can use to navigate, because. In the vast game world, you can easily get lost.
No bugs, crashes or other troubles were noted - the flight was normal.
Necrosmith can be compared to Loop Hero - it is a bold and honestly made indie game with interesting mechanics and a lot of content that can keep you in a bizarre and funny world for a long time. Definitely worth a play if you are looking for something interesting and different from the world of indie games and games in general.