Necesse is an open-world sandbox RPG where players can establish colonies, explore a randomly generated world, and fight formidable bosses.
Necesse is one of the many survival crafting games available on Steam through the Early Access program, so we decided to drop by and check in on its progress, as it does show a lot of promise.
So, is there a lot of content? How does it compare to other sandbox RPGs? Is it too early to get into it? Find out the answer to these questions and more in our preview for Necesse.
It’s difficult to talk about Necesse without talking about Terraria, not because the games are linked in any sort of direct way, but because Necesse follows some of Terraria‘s design philosophies quite closely.
Things like the freeform class system, armor sets and trinkets that give you mobility skills, a hard mode after progressing through enough bosses, and NPCs that live with you and provide services are only a few of the mechanics that Necesse pulls from Re-Logic’s legendary title.
Now, none of this is necessarily a negative for Necesse, as the concept of a spiritual sequel is nothing new in gaming, and indie developers are frequently seen taking inspiration from more successful titles, but it does bring in comparisons and expectations that Necesse might not be able to deliver on.
Most players will understand why these comparisons might sometimes hinder Necesse as soon as they spawn into the world, which always comes with a pre-built shack that is already inhabited by the Elder, this game’s version of the Guide.
Starting off with a pre-built base is not exactly fun, as it takes away from the game’s early sense of progression. Building a temporary shack that is slowly enhanced and turned into an actual functional fortress is a major part of the survival crafting experience, so having a pre-built lodge for you to start the game in is a little disappointing.
This lodge comes equipped with some of the bare essentials a player will need to start the game with, including a bed, a chest, a cooking station, and a ladder to the underground. The house actually belongs to the Elder, but it’s easy to take over it in the beginning before you establish your own colony.
Necesse expands upon Terraria‘s NPC housing feature by actually featuring a few colony management mechanics, similar to the ones found in Rimworld. Different NPCs will visit the player’s settlement every few days, offering either items or their services, but the player can also find new settlers underground or by visiting a village.
Most settlers will provide a service, like enchanting your items or mining for ore on demand, while others have settlement-related tasks, like farming and hunting. It’s important to keep your settlers happy and well-fed, because the cost of their services and effectiveness at their jobs is based on their mood.
Raids will happen every few days, so it’s also important to hire guards and give them good equipment, as the raiders seem to scale with your world progress. Necesse doesn’t necessarily reach automation territory with its colony mechanics, but having a few settlers mining for ore or tending to your farm while you explore the world is quite nice.
Necesse‘s exploration is tackled in a unique way as well, having its world built as a set of islands that can be reached by sailing to the borders of the screen. There are multiple biomes to visit, all with their unique monsters and bosses, as well as underground areas.
Instead of featuring cave entrances, Necesse‘s world is divided between layers, meaning the overworld sits on top, while the cave systems can be accessed from anywhere with a ladder.
The position that the player uses the ladder in corresponds to the same coordinates in the cave system, meaning you can have an underground entrance inside of your own home. The overworld feels a little disposable in Necesse, as it’s easy to just reach an island, put down a ladder as soon as you touch ground, and teleport home after you grab what you need.
Underground exploration in Necesse isn’t exactly thrilling either, as the caves just feel like a vehicle for players to fight the current biome’s boss in. It’s very easy to find enough of the materials you need without much exploration, and most of the worthwhile items are crafted instead of found, so the early game biomes tend to feel disposable.
The cave systems don’t change a lot from biome to biome, with most of them sharing the same enemy pool of zombies, spiders, and vampires. The few biomes that do have unique enemies don’t fare much better, as most monsters behave like zombies anyway, making the cave exploration part of the game blend together as one reskinned experience.
After defeating the pirate boss, players gain access to the deep ladder, which adds a new layer of caves to each of the game’s areas. The deep caves are much harder to explore and feature their own unique bosses and endgame materials.
Necesse‘s deep mode isn’t very transformative to the world itself, but it does give players access to areas with higher enemy variety, as well as items that will only be available to craft later, finally forcing the player to actually explore and mine for resources.
It’s understandable that everything before deep mode is basically a tutorial that gets players ready for the actual content, but killing the same zombies and spiders for 10 hours is enough to leave a lasting impression of monotony in Necesse‘s early game.
Necesse‘s late-game content increases in difficulty substantially, with fights like the Fallen Wizard serving as a very tough test of a player’s build, enchantments, and trinkets. Defeating the Fallen Wizard unlocks incursions, which contain even more challenging bosses that currently serve as Necesse‘s true endgame challenges.
Overall, Necesse is a pretty fun survival crafting game, but its first half misunderstands its main source of inspiration and might not be able to hold players until they reach the better content. The game manages to find itself after deep mode is unlocked, featuring some great boss fights, but that is roughly 10 hours into a playthrough.
Almost everything that Necesse attempts is done in a competent manner; it just happens that the few things it gets wrong are incredibly substantial, like the exploration and underground components of the game being half-baked.
Fair Games has been doing some impressive work with Necesse, and the things they get right thankfully offset some of these mistakes, but they need to either study their inspirations better or come up with some original ideas so Necesse can step out of Terraria‘s shadow and become its own title.
Necesse is available on Microsoft Windows (through Steam’s Early Access).
