Ask me my favourite game of all-time and I'm split between two titles: Spelunky and Demon's Souls. Excitingly, Shadowrun Returns developer Harebrained Schemes is attempting to mix the two in its upcoming action roguelike Necropolis. Whether it will succeed in such a lofty ambition is another matter, but the Shadowrun developer seems to have a good grasp on what it's doing, even if it's following in From and Mossmouth's nearly impossible to follow footsteps.Taking hold of the controller in Necropolis puts you right in pure Souls territory. The right trigger buttons handle light and heavy attacks, left triggers block and bump the shield, the D-pad handles weapon and item swapping, while the face buttons evade and use items. There is a dedicated jump button - so that's new - but the basic skeleton of Necropolis will feel familiar to anyone who's handled a Souls game.
While the controls are well-worn territory, the design is entirely new. This is a procedurally generated dungeon-crawler with a neon, aquamarine-hued aesthetic. Passages, enemy waves, and items reconstruct with every playthrough as you take the reins of what essentially amounts to a groundskeeper whose omnipotent boss' collection of demons has run amok in an ever-shifting inter-dimensional zoo.
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