Tomi on 23/7/2017 at 21:41

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I finally decided to give Crypt of the Necrodancer a go last week, and until now I've been quite addicted to this little game. I loved it from the first moment, even if I had no idea how the game works for the first half an hour or so - why couldn't the slimeball monsters attack sideways whereas most other monsters could, how do all the different weapons work, how am I ever going to stay in rhythm while trying to figure out the spell combos, etc. I quickly learned all that, and I absolutely loved discovering and unlocking new stuff in the game and figuring out how to beat certain enemies.

Beating Zone 4 with Cadence felt like a real achievement, but at that point I had already unlocked every single thing in the shops. Now, I've reached that point in the game where I'm supposed to destroy the golden lute without getting hit or going off rhythm even once, and I feel like it's just a stupid challenge. I've also beat the game with most other characters, apart from Monk (dies if he picks up gold - another silly challenge) and two others that are still locked, so there's not much for me to do anymore.

It's a shame because I really felt that Necrodancer had so much potential at first, but it somehow still falls a bit flat. I haven't had this much fun with a rogue-like since good old Nethack... not that I've played that many. :) Are there other similar games that I should check out? Has anyone played the Necrodancer AMPLIFIED DLC?

Tomi on 24/7/2017 at 13:34

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Good question! :D

The Metronomicon, despite of its awesome name, doesn't look like something that I'm looking for. I only watched a very short gameplay video (so my first impressions could be totally misleading), but it looks like a Guitar Hero game with some RPG-like stuff thrown in it. In NecroDancer, I didn't constantly think that my character and the enemies were dancing around the dungeon. Admittedly the idea of a huge underground disco was quite funny, but the rhythm element was just a cool way to keep the action hectic all the time. I liked it how you only have one beat to think about your next move, and if you miss it, it could be your last mistake. :D

Desktop Dungeons seems a bit more interesting, even if it looks dated in a bad way. There seems to be tons of stats and stuff, whereas I liked NecroDancer for how easy it is to play when you figure out the basic gameplay mechanics. But on the other hand it looks like there's tons of different kind of things to explore, so I suppose I could give it a try when it's on sale again. :)

Downwell seems like a pure action game and perhaps a bit too retro for my liking, but it does seem quite fun. I can't see how it's similar to NecroDancer though.