iPhone developer Ryan Mitchell has just released Necromancer Rising [App Store], a large-scale, first-person RPG with an air of the macabre that should appeal to fans of dark and dank dungeon crawlers.
Necromancer Rising places you in the unenviable position of the last surviving Battle Priest of the king’s army with a wife and child that were recently slaughtered and buried, and — as if that wasn’t enough — robbed from their graves by the minions of the evil Necromancer, tunneling in caverns below. Your goal is to regain your former strength and visit grave vengeance upon the aforementioned Necromancer in the name of your beloved family.
The game features a highly detailed stats and equip system; your person features 16 equipment locations for weapons and armor allowing for a great many battle configurations. The author indicates that the game includes tens of thousands of items as well as 50,000 different weapons, in all. (All items are freely available to those who spend the time to find them, but for those who don’t mind paying for a bit of a short-cut, certain particularly useful items are also available as in-app purchases.) There are 50 different levels to explore (with 49 end-bosses) and each is dynamically generated upon entrance, so no level is ever the twice the same.
See the developer’s trailer video for a look at the game in play.
As yet, I’ve spent but a brief while with the title and find that what it lacks in polish in some areas (menu system, look controls, etc.), it makes up for with a pleasantly ghoulish atmosphere thanks to the creepy level and creature design, as well as the superb, moaning sound effects and evocative background score. The whole thing has a nice sort of campy Evil Dead feel to it that lends it a particular sort of charm that I find myself enjoying.
Our forum members have had a lot to say about this one. Hitch enjoyed it, while noting the lack of polish in some areas.
This is a hardcore RPG. If you’re a casual gamer, I’d probably pass as of now. It has good graphics, sounds, and gameplay elements/length, but a crappy menu system and messy controls keep the game from living up to it’s potential. Great game, but hard to work with.
8/10- Must have for PATIENT RPG fans, but needs quite a few updates to make it a must have for everyone.
SharpCarlos is enjoying it as well.
Overall, it’s scratching my dungeon crawl itch. There’s random loot in varying levels of quality with random affixes (just found a helmet that increases my intelligence). It runs smoothly on my 3GS. And it SEEMS like there’s a lot of game here. The dungeon is 50 levels deep, and if there continues to be several quests per level, it’ll take quite a while to burn through them.
Have a look at the game trailer (this early version of the bundled tutorial video might be helpful as well) to aid in your decision.
App Store Link: Necromancer Rising, $6.99
