Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 13/Jan 03:30

Netherworld Covenant – Review

Roguelites and roguelikes come in all shapes and sizes, and even bigger franchises try their hand at the genre from time to time. We recently played through The Rogue Prince of Persia and ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN, both highly entertaining games that had a lot to offer. It’s clear that high-budget studios can do a lot within the limitations of the genre and still offer an expansive and amusing experience. Today, however, we scale back down in size for Netherworld Covenant, a roguelite that seemingly takes some inspiration from other IPs, such as Dark Souls, Berserk, and Lords of the Fallen. While the game could use a bit more polish here and there, we still quite enjoyed what Netherworld Covenant had to offer. Story While a story is present in Netherworld Covenant, it takes a backseat throughout most of the experience. You’ll be playing as a fallen warrior who is given the Nether Lantern to bring back those who have fallen beside you. While there is more to it, that’s pretty much the gist of things. You’ll be fighting monsters in a place that’s in between the mortal realm and the afterlife, and you’re seemingly the only one who is able to vanquish the evil forces that are present. Graphics Graphically, Netherworld Covenant left us with mixed feelings. We loved the character designs, even though some seemingly took inspiration from Dark Souls, Diablo, and Berserk. Even so, we could still appreciate the detailed models. The enemy models were also nicely designed, with the bosses in particular looking rather sharp. The animations themselves also looked really fluid, and we didn’t encounter any performance issues. We mainly disliked the really empty and simplistically designed stages, which felt more like placeholders rather than finished sets. Some of the boss rooms did look nicely done, and we found it a shame that many regular monster rooms looked so dull. Sound While the sound design of Netherworld Covenant isn’t too bad, we expected a bit more. For the most part, you’ll be treated to a soundtrack that suits the setting, although the sound mixing or timing of the music occasionally feels off. The sound effects are decent too, and they provide good audio feedback for the on-screen hacking, slashing, and spell casting. We did find it a massive shame, however, that the short dialogues or even the introduction were not voiced, as this would have given the game a more premium vibe. Now you pretty much just get cheap dialogue boxes that will tell you the few things you need to know. Gameplay Netherworld Covenant is a top-down roguelite that combines elements from Dark Souls and Lords of the Fallen into its gameplay. You’ll play through runs, of which you can adjust the difficulty level, clearing rooms of enemies, with a boss fight every few rooms. You’ll almost always get offered branching paths at the end of each room, offering you different rewards upon clearing them. It’s a fairly straightforward roguelite experience, and Netherworld Covenant surely nails its core gameplay loop. Like with any good roguelite, you’ll gain materials and blueprints during your runs, which can unlock new weapons, passive and active skills, new skins, and so on. This means that if you should meet your untimely demise, subsequent runs can become easier with the purchased and unlocked upgrades. The game also offers different class options, ranging from characters that perform short-ranged melee attacks to long-ranged bow attacks and spell-wielding staffs. This does create a nice bit of variation if you want to try to beat the game with different characters. The combat itself is also very satisfying, as you’ll have to time dodges just right, while also deciding when to use your so-called ghost skills or when to strike in general. Eventually, it becomes really rewarding when you manage to time your dodges perfectly or when to attack. We did notice that the hitboxes sometimes feel a bit off. After a few runs, however, things grow a bit stale, and you’ll probably move on to other titles before clearing everything the game has to offer. Conclusion Netherworld Covenant is a fairly entertaining roguelite with a satisfying gameplay loop, but it does grow a bit stale after a few sessions. The game has fun mechanics, a decent progression system, and nicely designed bosses, but it falls a bit flat on the audiovisual side of things, making it fairly forgettable. Don’t get us wrong, it’s certainly worth looking into, and it will provide you with quite a bit of fun, but it will just not be game-of-the-year material, which is just fine. If you’re into top-down roguelites that borrow a bit of inspiration from other famous franchises, then you can’t really go wrong with this one.