Forgive the massive title, I am just in love with the art for this game! How often do you get a protagonist who looks like Onimusha's Guildenstern is an actual badass? To be honest, this poster was the first thing that attracted me to this game (shush, I can be shallow, too!) I should also add that creature design (according to the creators, Burtonesque) is awesome, playful, and quite creepy. Then again, that's just what makes it great, the use of cell shading as only an outline also adds to the cartoony allure of Nekro.
Well, now that I've gotten the graphics fangirling out of the way, let's start from the REAL beginning, Nekro started as the brainchild of Scott Thunelius and was able to see the light of day thanks to a kickstarter that began in 2012. Dare I say, it appears that it was a huge success.
I'm going to get lazy, quoting their website www.darkforgegames.com "Nekro was born in a conversation that went a little something like this: "Wouldn't it be awesome if there was a game where you could just walk into an innocent town, raise a bunch of zombies, skeletons, and things that go bump in the night, and watch while they rip townspeople to shreds?" The cumulative result of that fateful conversation is what you see before you now."
Well, from what I have seen, it is just that, only with fun blood explosions, and some strategy in what you're creating. I promise I'm done being lazy after this, but, straight from the horse's mouth, here's their very accurate description of Nekro, "Nekro challenges you, a once powerful Alchemist, to destroy the King who betrayed you. As you seek vengeance, you turn to the dark powers of the world, transforming yourself into a Necromancer, raiser of the dead. Summoning an undead army, you march towards the King’s castle, letting nothing stand in your way. Playing with the speed and fluidity of an old-school action game, Nekro promises an intense and captivating gameplay experience from start to finish. Use different minions in unison to create a force that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Utilize a unique blood mechanic to harvest the flesh of your enemies as you power your undead war machine." Yup, that.
They took elements from Diablo 3, Sacrifice, Overlord, and Dungeon Keeper, so it feels old school without being terribly complex with the enhancements. Which is a great thing since I tend to have a short attention span with these types of games, it managed to keep my attention by having a small learning curve, and an event system which will eventually lead to an interesting dose of randomness and strategy.
The only disappointing thing that I came across while playing the demo alpha of Nekro was that it's release date is so far away. Now I just need to summon enough patience to wait for it to release in April next year!
