Dmitry King
Dmitry KingBeing bad at a video game has never felt so good. I’m not kidding here. I’ve played Crypt Of The NecroDancer, the 2015 rogue-like rhythm game from Brace Yourself Games, for 8 hours according to my Steam library. In that time, I have only just gotten past the first zone. I’ve seen a boss room a grand total of three times. The first two times, I died within seconds. The third time, I have no idea how I managed to win. It’s so much fun.
Now, my being bad at things isn’t a condemnation, or even really a comment on the difficulty of the game. It isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. If you don’t make an attempt to learn the game, you’re not going to get anywhere at all. There are four zones; five if you count the DLC, titled AMPLIFIED. Each zone has three levels with a mini-boss, and then a final level with a full boss. The layout, loot and enemies are randomized too. Even if you learn the mini-bosses for your zone, the bosses are randomized as well, meaning that you may encounter something that you have little to no experience with.
The only consistent thing through each zone is the appearance of said zone, and the incredible music that goes with them. As the player, you have to move to the beat of this music, however, so do your enemies. They have set behaviors, and with those come set patterns. If you learn the patterns that go with each enemy, you vastly minimize the odds of getting hit. This is good, because if you get hit in NecroDancer, you get hit hard.
Loot and items are easy to come across, but health items are rare. It’s even rarer for health items to really do that much to help you out. At most, they can stave off death a little longer. In NecroDancer, it’s better to not get hit at all. What is important to mention though, is that apart from the mini-bosses and bosses, you don’t have to kill any of the enemies. Unless you really want gold, it’s often wise to skirt right round them and fight defensively rather than aggressively.
Speaking of gold, it’s also best never to get too attached to any of your loot, since you’re going to lose it when you die. Weapons, spells, items, charms, rings, hats and more are all temporary. The game gives them to you, but they’re only ever really bonuses or helpful tools. They won’t make you better at the game.
The game is far from harsh in its learning curve, though. There are ways to mitigate the difficulty, and ways to get better at the game other than repeatedly dying in the zones. Your lobby is populated over time with shopkeepers and NPCs that can help out in a number of ways. You can spend diamonds, which are found by playing through the levels to get permanent upgrades, or to add new items to the chests on each playthrough. Alternatively, if you want less items in your chests, you can go see the Janitor, who will remove them from your playthrough.
You can also use diamonds to unlock bosses and mini-bosses to practice against at leisure. The game even offers a Dance Pad Mode (Easier). It’s essentially a practice mode, with a message at the start that encourages only playing it until you feel comfortable enough to play in normal mode. Sending you through Zone 1 only, it offers better equipment and reduced enemy numbers.
Where the game really shines is in its versatile re-playability. You can play zones one at a time or all at once. You can access challenge modes such as the Daily Challenge, which is a set dungeon that all players get that changes every day.
Then there are the characters. There are two default unlocks on PC, Cadence, the main character and Bard, a non-story character. If you have the DLC, Nocturna, Mary and Tempo become immediately available. All other characters are unlocked through game and story progression, and interestingly enough, rather than simply being skins, each of them effectively act as their own difficulty or challenge modes. Aria, the third story mode character that can be unlocked, cannot change weapons, dies when missing a beat, and has only half a heart worth of health. Another, Monk, will die instantly upon picking up any gold.
It’s even customizable, with the game supporting mods and the ability to import a custom soundtrack, although personally I have very little interest in accessing this. The game soundtrack is absolutely incredible, so a custom one isn’t necessary. The beat in every track is clear even without keeping too close of an eye on the beat monitor. It’s a focus point of the game that ties together the rhythm mechanics. Yet it never feels too frantic, too in-your-face, and it’s never same-y, always fresh. It’s wonderfully metered.
Although all the tracks are more or less electronic, even the genre dances around between tracks in accordance with the zone and boss. My favorite track right now is “Knight to C-Sharp“, a gorgeous blues-inspired track that plays whilst fighting Deep Blues, one of the bosses who strums an upright bass as he bops towards you across the level. If you think that sounds delightful, it’s because it is.
All of the above makes for excellent, heart-pumping, deliciously fun gameplay. It’s rarely frustrating, and is wrapped up in incredibly polished pixel graphics. Crypt Of The NecroDancer in no way tries to reinvent the wheel with its graphics, but instead relies on an art style that sets it apart, with endearing character design and enemies that are always fun to look at.
If you’re wondering how I can understand the game this well when I have have only beat the first boss… well, I’m just impatient. I also have a pretty poor sense of timing, which as you can imagine makes keeping to the beat hard. I also panic when I get overwhelmed or pinned down by a lot of enemies. Sometimes, I’m just being greedy, trying to kill off more enemies for gold, and the game punishes me for it. It’s fair, overall, completely fair. When I make a mistake and die, I know the blame is mine and mine alone. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to spend the next 8 hours of my time working on Zone 2.
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🔥440Crypt Of The NecroDancer
$14.99
Pros
- Incredible soundtrack
- Complex gameplay options
- Deeply customisable
Cons
- Steep learning curve
