Developed by Chillin Wolf and published by GRAVITY GAME ARISE Co. Ltd., NecroBoy: Path to Evilship follows the deviously dark NecroBoy as he delves into the terrifyingly trapped and treacherously tricked crypt in search of glory and power. Call upon your minions of Undead and command them to do your ultimate bidding. In a child friendly version of Pikmin puzzles, this ghoulish game will grab your attention.
Spooky Scary Skelingtons
Once upon a time there was a Boy Who Could raise the dead and people didn’t like him. That’s all you really need to know about our main character as well as clue you in on how he got to where he is now. NecroBoy is a fan of the infamous NecroMan, whose Crypt we are currently delving into. NecroBoy is, at least on paper, very dumb. He gives me Invader Zim vibes. His lackey is named Lackey and feels like a very old soul who just wants to pass on.
NecroBoy: Path to Evilship is a puzzle adventure game. Your goal at the start is to obtain the Necronos, a powerful artifact held by NecroMan. And every floor you travel to continuous collage of confounding puzzles. NecroBoy does not hold your hand nor give you any real hints on how to achieve victory over some of these puzzles.
A Real Headscratcher
Mechanics of the game are somewhat simple. If you find a blue ghost you can raise it to be a necrominion. You can then command the minion to go anywhere by shooting a blast of green energy. However, the minions will only go when there is a lever to be flipped or button to be pressed. So, NecroBoy has to land a shot with energy before they will go anywhere to flip the switch. Sometimes you need more than one necrominion to do a job because it is bigger, which means looking for more blue ghosts. You can recall your necrominions at any point, assuming there is no boundaries blocking them.
A more complicated feature that is introduced is freezing and unfreezing your minions. By focusing your energy, you can freeze a minion in one spot, move to another spot, and then focus on that minion again to activate it. This means that you can have some minions in areas that would be otherwise locked by activating a switch when another room is unlocked if you need it there. In later stages, there are hazards you need to avoid, or extra pads to take to move on.
Concluding Thoughts
While puzzle games aren’t exactly my cup of tea, I do enjoy working my way through one every now and again. A big draw for puzzles are being able to understand the rules coherently, something that NecroBoy: Path to Evilship doesn’t exactly pull off. In the early levels, there are points that it references an ability that it hasn’t taught you yet, and therefore cannot use. Also it’s extremely easy to brick your run, meaning that you have to start completely from scratch no matter how far in the puzzle you’re at. I think this only feels rough to me because the animations are a tad slow for how often you need to use them. If activating your abilities was a little snappier, probably would have felt better overall.
Key provided by Chillin Wolf. Available for Windows PC through Steam.
VERDICT
AVERAGE
AVERAGE
A challenging puzzle game, but not super coherent with mechanics. Easy to brick your run if you're not careful, and animations make restarting feel slow. Has some fun ideas, might be for the puzzle enthusiast.
