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0 Chillin’ Wolf bring us the slightly odd adventure of a certain NecroBoy on his Path to Evilship in the cunningly titled NecroBoy: Path to Evilship. Whilst newly arrived on my desk, it has indeed been out since October 2022, in fact it was released rather aptly for Halloween. Kudos to Gravity Game Arise Co for a little creative marketing. Not entirely sure how to prepare for my upcoming journey, but I do have my pentagram and Mary Shelley reference book. Time to raise the dead and a little bit of hell as well.
NecroBoy: Path to Evilship – Hellishly Good, or just plain Hellish?
Gameplay
NecroBoy: Path to Evilship is a brain game, thinking is the way forward. You get to control NecroBoy throughout the many crypts as he delves deeper into the journey to take the title of NecroMan. Movement is via the keyboard and the view is via the mouse. Actions are split between keyboard and mouse and there are only a few that you can make. As NecroBoy you have a talent for raising the dead that is as big as your grudge against your parents who abandoned you when you were little. Revenge is the aim of the game, become NecroMan and destroy the world. Sounds fairly simple, but things will stand in your way. Puzzles of increasing magnitude stand in your way. Minions will need to be raised to help you out with these puzzles. Push levers, turn turney things, push blocks etc…, the standard for a puzzle game. The minions will help you out because you are too lazy to do anything yourself. I call them my kids, but Chillin’ Wolf have gone for minions.
The options available are fairly basic. You can raise your minions, put them to sleep, wake them up again. Ok, that’s not all, you send them to activate devices and once done you can recall them. With that being all they can do, the responsibility is on your brain to decide how best to manipulate them to solve each level. Each new obstacle is introduced gently, and common sense should be your ally. There isn’t really anything new being bought to the gameplay, but the narrative is quite absorbing. Every conversation that NecroBoy has with his Lackey reveals a little more about the past as well as the future. The conversations are well constructed and amusing, a little reward for finishing the level you might say. The Levels do get challenging and sometimes it’s easier to start again than correct a mistake. It is possible to get yourself trapped in a situation that you can not get out of, mainly due to stupidity, but occasionally it qualifies as accidental.
Graphics & Audio
NecroBoy: Path to Evilship is a puzzler, and every level is clear and defined. The levels have a crypt feel to them, I certainly wouldn’t want to be locked in at night. The cartoon feel to the game has been produced well, much like a Scooby-Doo adventure might look, but more dead people. I had one issue when rotating the camera to the angle I wanted; it was behind something tall and blocked about 90% of the screen. This was not helpful, but as it’s a puzzle game it wasn’t a big issue.
The soundtrack to NecroBoy: Path to Evilship manages to firmly fuse the cartoon feel with downright creepy. It was like the Addams family have gone into writing scores. The sound effects are on point as well. Fire your commands with a whoosh, and raise the dead with an audio impersonation of Stonehenge at night. I would have liked to have had more grunting when pushing the blocks, but then I remembered that they are dead and wouldn’t be using physical force.
Longevity
NecroBoy: Path to Evilship is over fairly quickly and there are so many games out there of a similar nature that the replayability is practically none. The witty dialogue and characters that unravel throughout the journey will lack the mysticism the second time round, and without that the charm simply fades. Without the option of difficulty settings there would be no reason to ever play the game twice unless amnesia strikes.
Final Thoughts
NecroBoy: Path to Evilship is a cute little game, it’s well thought up and well executed. I will definitely keep you entertained for a couple of evenings. Chillin’ Wolf have done a great job bringing NecroBoy to life and I hope that their next project is bigger and bolder. My experience of NecroBoy: Path to Evilship was like finding a good series on Netflix and it only lasting one season. I have decided to award NecroBoy: Path to Evilship a Thumb Culture Gold Award because what I saw, I liked, I just needed to see more.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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