Developer Chillin’ Wolf has brought this 3D puzzle game to life – quite literally. NecroBoy: Path to Evilship follows the story of a boy with supernatural powers: powers that can revive the dead (for only a short amount of time as we find out). It’s a pretty straightforward game with a straightforward story that’s super easy to follow. Now, some of the puzzles are not so easy to follow, but that’s to be expected. Before I officially start this review, I want to say I definitely do not think I am the target audience for this game. I do not enjoy playing puzzle games by any means. For the games that I do play that have puzzles, I almost always look up how to solve them. Obviously, I can’t do that for this title, but at some points, I really wish I could’ve. With that being said, take everything I say with a grain of salt – unless you’re like me and don’t enjoy puzzle games.
When I first opened the game, I was surprised to find a storyline. If I’m being completely honest, looking at the preview images and videos on Steam reminded me more of the quick games I’d play as a child. No story, just a little game to pass the time or to serve as a break between homework assignments. After seeing that there was a storyline, I can’t say that I am very impressed with it. With the understanding that the game is supposed to be straightforward, I did find it very cliche and predictable. But I mean we’re talking about a kid with supernatural powers; I expected a little more, and I’m sad that it fell flat for me. I did see some people call the dialogue “witty” and “funny” which I could see, but again, it wasn’t really my type of humor. There’s basically dialogue before every important level, which is Necroboy talking to his Lackey or his minions. The developers basically give everything to you, so like I said, pretty straightforward. After the dialogue, you begin playing the level.
As for actual gameplay, it’s definitely better than the story. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the gameplay either, but that’s just because it also fell flat for me. You do basically three things: click, revive, and freeze. If you really want to plan everything out, you can press shift to see what does what and where your minions are located. I mean after 20 levels (there are more levels than this, fret not) of doing the same thing over and over without barely any change of scenery, it gets monotonous. I get the reason for the lack of scenery is because of the storyline, but it would’ve been nice to have some more controls. I will say the “boss” fight after level 10 was nice. Getting to change your minions into wolves and have them fight for you was slightly surprising, especially after 9 levels of clicking, freezing, and reviving. But after that, it’s like going back to square one. There was also a point of frustration. This is not coming from my inability to finish puzzles because most of the puzzles were easy to solve and just repetitive. I believe around level 19 or 20 I fell off the map trying to angle Necroboy to move a block. In previous levels, it wasn’t possible to fall off the map, so I thought I was fine, but no. He fell into the abyss of the crypts. I was half-hoping to respawn at a “checkpoint,” but I had to restart the whole level. After that, I finished the level and called it a day. Looking back at it now, it’s kinda funny, but while I was playing, I almost quit before finishing the level.
As I said, NecroBoy : Path to Evilship is pretty straightforward. You read some dialogue, solve some puzzles, fight a boss or two, and that’s it. It’s not super impressive, but it’s a nice game for those who like puzzles and some fun graphics. Even though I’m not a puzzle gamer, I definitely think that if the story was more involved/engaging or there were more interesting mechanics, I could’ve pushed through. Unfortunately, the game had neither for me.
NecroBoy: Path to Evilship is available for PC via Steam.
Related: Reviews by Maryanne Fadonougbo
"I've enjoyed gaming since I was little, playing games like Pokémon, Rayman, and Naruto every day. Besides that though, I've always had a love for writing. Now I am combining the two for the best of both worlds! My ultimate goal is to do narrative design for video games."
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