HIGH The meta-progress is a welcome addition

LOW The gameplay loop seems lessened

WTF An army of undead chickens is very playable

The Finnish team 10tons Ltd. entered the game scene with Crimsonland. It was a simple title, but the twin-stick controls were so tight it was clear that they had something special. Since the mid-2000s they’ve built a roster of works built on those solid foundations. Later, in 2018, 10tons delved into real-time strategy with Undead Horde. This was top-down strategy using twin-stick controls to steer a horde of undead to fight their enemies.

Undead Horde was addictive, and had wonderful forward momentum created by the fact that anything killed could then be resurrected to join the player’s army — anything from simple footman all the way up to end-level bosses. Now in 2023, Undead Horde 2: Necropolis is here, and brings with it changes that seem to have come at a cost.

The Necromancer from the first game is is back and the gameplay, at its core, is the same. The art style is also in line with its predecessor and the controls are similar — point the cursor to direct the horde and watch them engage in combat. The Necromancer itself can also cast spells and perform melee attacks. There’s a large map with multiple biomes, each with their own challenges and tricks, but new to Undead Horde 2 is a large hub world.

As levels are completed and items found, the hub grows in population. This also allows the player to invest any money they pick up during combat into upgrading their units and crafting new trinkets. This economy is a compelling reason to go back and revisit old levels — clearing them out helps power up the player, which then in turn expands the hub world even more. To tie into this, instead of resurrecting enemies, the Necromancer uses the dead bodies of fallen enemies as a pool of resources to bring back prescribed units.

All of the pieces are in place for a more rounded and polished experience, but the problem is that no longer being able to pick up fallen units and resurrect them on the fly robs it of both momentum and magic.

For example, in the original game, when a tough fight against a fierce enemy was over and my army was demolished, the upside was that I would bring that now-defeated enemy into my team to make up for the losses. In Undead Horde 2, that one boss enemy is now reduced to becoming a resource that I spend to get one or two of my regular troops back . This means sitting through a loading screen, going back to the hub, rebuilding the team and then heading back into battle as there are seldom enough dead on the battlefield to bring back a full cohort. The joy of toppling a tough foe and rolling ahead is now replaced by fewer surprises, pauses in the action and a return to base.

This shift ends up hamstringing Undead Horde 2’s flow — as much as I enjoyed it in the beginning, it soon began to feel like a chore and I’m sad to say that Undead Horde 2 is one of 10tons Ltd.’s few stumbles — it’s still addictive and sports their trademarked solid controls, but it’s sorely missing the infectious charm of their previous installment.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by 10tons Ltd. and published by 10tons Ltd. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS4/PS5, Switch, PC and Mac.This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 12 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Violence and Blood. The rating seems a little high to me as the violence is cartoonish and everything feels very silly. Very young children might find the animal murder upsetting.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present.   

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. In my view, the title appears to be fully playable and accessible without sound.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Undead Horde 2: Necropolis Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH It’s an easy-to-learn roguelike with a great soundtrack and aesthetics.

LOW Easily-exploitable mechanics means it’s quick to complete.

WTF Spike immunity due to… management decrees.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.

Waking up in an alley with no memory? That’s usually the start of something exciting, if only the previous night can be recalled. While we’re trying to clear the fog, a golden elevator appears and beckons us inside. After a short trip, the door opens to loud dance music, flashing lights, and a bartender who says we’re here before opening. He is in need of a bouncer, though, as the last one can no longer work… or walk.

Necrobouncer is an isometric action-roguelike where players control a necromancer descending from floor to floor with the goal of getting rid of unwanted guests in the establishment. The spectral protagonist feels like this place is familiar for some reason, more than just the place where he spent the last night partying. They take the bouncer job, and descend into the bar to see what all of this is about.

Players will use a club for melee attacks, a ranged spectral energy blast, and a unique ability — based on the necktie the player chooses to wear — in order to eliminate rowdy patrons from the premises. As enemies are defeated, the player will gain experience to level up their abilities. These abilities range from higher max health or energy, having attacks deal more damage, or adding status effects like burning for damage over time, or fear, which forces enemies to run from the player. Enemies might drop health or mana to restore to the character, or gold to buy things before taking on the boss that guards the entrance to the next section of the club.

The bosses themselves are no pushovers. Each of them has periods of invulnerability before they’re able to be attacked, so to get around this, players must solve a small puzzle in order to make them vulnerable. One fight has minions that must be taken out before the boss goes into an attack that will leave them open, while another requires players to hit that boss’ attacks back at them before they can be injured.

As players progress through run after run, they’ll unlock new items to find on future sessions — things like relics to collect, new rooms to discover, and new neckties that grant various starting powers like summoning a zombie horde or using a dash that leaves a dangerous electric trail.

These ties are pretty key as they give players incentives to try out the different options. While I personally fell in love with the purple tie’s horde of zombie allies to summon, I was abysmal with the red tie — it changes how the health system works in exchange for a powerful explosion attack.

While I eventually found my groove, the balance of the game still feels a bit off as far as the randomly-dropped relics are concerned. Some are only useful in the most dire of circumstances, while others can nearly turn the run into an automatic win.

One in particular was the “Trap Permit”, which means that spikes in rooms can’t hurt the player. In most of the rooms, this seems fairly innocuous, but there are certain rooms where players can pass through traps to get even more relics, making the player almost invincible. On the other hand, there’s a relic that will heal the player to full health — it’s probably great in the right circumstance, but enemies tend to drop so much health that it never felt worth picking up. I’d like to see the developers make more relics useful in a wider array of instances and pull back on the ones that make the player wildly overpowered.

One area that feels on target, though, is the humor. There are many small jokes throughout the experience like the immunity to spikes I just mentioned — the player becomes immune because the bar’s management issues a permit? Other relics offer similar winks like giving summoned zombies a “dead man” switch so they explode on contact, or the literal heart in a jar that would give me an extra life if I went to zero health. The boss who attacks from a rocket-powered throne controlled by a joystick gave me a good laugh each time I encountered it, too.

Overall, Necrobouncer is a solid roguelike to start the year off. The soundtrack is a groovy synth and dance mix, the pixel art is beautiful, and I appreciated the script’s humor. It’s also a good starting point for newcomers to the genre, as the mechanics are easy to understand and the tutorials are solid. Each run unlocks new things, so the game constantly feels fresh and inviting. There may not be much to the overall plot besides eventually finding out what happened to our bouncer the night before, but the mechanics are so smooth that I didn’t need a story to keep me coming back.

For me, Necrobouncer gets 8.5 rowdy bar patrons out of 10.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Alchemy Sheep, and published by Ravenage Games and Indie Ark.  It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 8 hours of play were spent playing the game, and multiple runs were completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: The game doesn’t currently have an ESRB rating. Players will control a necromancer that will shoot energy bursts and swing a large club at enemies. They will also poison, burn or send zombies to eat enemies. These enemies can fall into piles of pixelated blood and remain on the floor, though this setting can be turned off in game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes in this game.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in game, but text is not resizable. Audio mostly serves aesthetic purposes and is not needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable controls: Controls are fully remappable.

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