Ghostbusters

We know what you’re thinking. “Ghostbusters? The game based on the remake? Are you serious?” Well, the good news is that FireForge Games action title, which supports co-op, will feature a brand new cast of characters. In fact, they seem to be high school students. We can sense your enthusiasm waning but hey, Extreme Ghostbusters had high school students and it was a pretty good show. Yes? No? July 12th is the date so yeah. Get hyped.

Furi

Unfamiliar with The Game Bakers’ Furi? It’s every bit as trippy as it is compelling. This third person hack and slash title is comprised of nothing but boss fights, one-on-one duels that rely entirely on skill and your reflexes as you battle for freedom. If that weren’t enough, Afro Samurai creator Takashi Okazaki is in charge of character designs, lending even more flair in the visuals and combat. Keep an eye out on July 5th for its PC and PS4 release.

Necropolis

Harebrained Schemes’ next big game…isn’t a Shadowrun title. That’s cause for attention but Necropolis is more than a deviation from the norm. It’s a third person action RPG set in a labyrinth full of treasure and danger. Not only will the environments be constantly changing but you’ll even encounter other dead adventurers as enemies. If that weren’t enough, up to four players can traverse into the labyrinth together, hopefully holding hands as they die.

Song of the Deep

Insomniac Games’ Song of the Deep isn’t quite what you’d expect from the developer behind Sunset Overdrive and Ratchet & Clank. As its first game with GameTrust, GameStop’s publishing initiative, Song of the Deep sees players as Merryn heading under the sea to rescue her father. With a rudimentary submarine, Merryn will encounter various phenomenon in what’s essentially a Metroidvania-esque adventure. Song of the Deep will be out on PS4, PC and Xbox One on July 12th.

I Am Setsuna

An RPG on the theme of sadness may not necessarily tickle your fancy but I Am Setsuna – which is out on July 19th for PS4, PC and PS Vita – will channel the golden age of RPGs as per Square Enix. How will that translate to the West? Regardless, it’s an old-school RPG from Square Enix’s new Tokyo RPG Factory. That’s reason enough to check it out.

Obduction

If you’re a fan of the Miller brothers and their Myst series, then Obduction is a return of sorts. Cyan Worlds’ first person adventure title sees the player kidnapped by aliens and exploring several foreign worlds in an attempt to return home. Along with the traditional puzzle solving that we love (and loathe) Myst for, Obduction is set to feature the same visually arresting locales and laid-back exploration that its predecessor is known for. Time will how well this plays out in 2016 but you can play Obduction yourself on July 26th to find out.

Monster Hunter Generations

Released in Japan under the name Monster Hunter X, Monster Hunter Generations will be heading to North America and Europe on July 15th for the 3DS. Along with the trademark combat that the series is known for, Monster Hunter Generations will feature different hunting styles for weapons, new Hunting Arts (which essentially act as special moves that have to be charged up every once in a while). And really, it’s a Monster Hunter title. If you love those games, you’ll love this.

10 Second Ninja X

10 Second Ninja X is a fast paced sidescroller in which you need to complete each level in 10 seconds. Don’t expect any hand holding and checkpoints – what does this look like, a walk in the park? The game has 100 levels with 40 levels remastered from the original game to essentially create a brand new experience.

GamingBolt had an opportunity to speak to project lead Chris Kohnert and art director Chris Rogers about Necropolis, including the studio’s motivation to develop a rogue-like title and the overall art direction.

"Dodging is definitely a useful skill to develop as a player, but it’s not going to get you out of every situation. Generally you’re facing off against more enemies at one time than in Dark Souls, so that dodge that gets you out of one situation may just put you into another."

After several successful Shadowrun games, what inspired you to venture into the rogue-like genre with Necropolis?

Chris Kohnert: Well, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that the name of the company is Harebrained Schemes. I say that as a bit of a joke, but it’s also has an element of truth to it. One of the things we really pride ourselves on is our ability to get passionate people together and see what they come up with. In this case, the Necropolis conversation was basically started with the question: “What if Dark Souls and Spelunky had a diabolical baby that tried to murder you constantly?” I’m a huge fan of the Souls games and the replayability and challenge of a roguelike seemed like a natural fit. It’s been a learning experience for the studio though, I will admit. It’s a pretty big leap from something tactical and narrative-heavy like Shadowrun, but we really felt strongly about the idea and how it would allow us to reach a whole different type of player. And for us, that’s tremendously exciting.

What can you tell us about the art-style, which seems to embody an abstract aesthetic of sorts? How does it factor into the overall atmosphere of the game?

Chris Rogers: The art style definitely helped us establish a tone and an identity for the game quickly. Very early on we knew we wanted to take the ideas of high fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons stuff, and give them a little bit of a humorous take. The same way “Cabin in the Woods” did a humorous take on the horror genre, Necropolis plays around with the fantasy genre.

So there’s magic swords and prophecies, but it’s all treated with a sly humor. Meanwhile, on the art side, we were exploring a more minimal art style for a variety of reasons, both aesthetic and practical. Those two elements —  the sort of abstract, low-poly look and tongue-in-cheek vibe —  just meshed. The art bounced well off the humor, a lot of which plays on the idea of the adventurer’s impending horrific death.

That’s all a little easier to swallow when the character is a faceless polygonal thief. At the same time our animation team really played it straight. So even though Necropolis is set in an abstract, geometric world, the movement and fluidity of the characters really turn the combat into a tense, visceral experience.

Tell us more about the combat system, including how timed attacks and figuring out enemy attack patterns tie into the gameplay. Will it be like Dark Souls where one’s success lays in figuring out the right timing of enemy attacks? With that being said, how much success will S-rank dodgers have in Necropolis?

Chris Kohnert: Timing is a huge deal in the Souls games for sure. It’s if anything, even more important here. Since you can’t count on knowing the exact layout of each level and how many baddies might be lurking behind that door, you have to be able to treat each encounter as a new one. And in some ways, we’re even more punishing than a Souls game, because if you die in Necropolis, you’re done, time to restart from scratch.

Add to that, that each enemy has a multitude of attacks, many are even held in reserve for special situations. For instance, the AI may analyze the current situation, and determine it should pull off a nasty backhand attack only because you happened to catch it off guard. It’s not something you might normally see, except in certain circumstances. Additionally, if you’re not paying attention, it may be a lethal surprise.

Dodging is definitely a useful skill to develop as a player, but it’s not going to get you out of every situation. Generally you’re facing off against more enemies at one time than in Dark Souls, so that dodge that gets you out of one situation may just put you into another.

"It’s been a constant struggle to strike the right balance between a fun “magical death labyrinth” and a frustrating one, but we think we’ve got it right."

Will players have a variety of stats they can upgrade or skills to gain? Can different classes be chosen and builds created?

Chris Rogers: Necropolis isn’t an RPG that has a lot of stats or builds. Because the game is taking some cues from “Rogue,” you may not be spending a lot of time with your adventurer. I’ve seen players get cut down right after they step into the Necropolis. And when you die you lose nearly everything, so we don’t want you to invest too much emotionally into your character. Your upgrades will come from things like weapon pick-ups, new recipes you can craft, and armor. Some of that is just luck.

I prefer fighting with lighter weapons, but if I come across a powerful hammer or axe I try to adapt my play style to that weapon. That might mean stocking up on invulnerability potions so I can stand in the middle of a group of enemies and pound them. In turn, that’s probably going send me seeking the ingredients I need for invulnerability potions, so I’ll be looking for the enemies that drop those ingredients and so on. The next Necropolis play-through, however, could be a completely different set of circumstances and the game may nudge me more toward using a crossbow.

So it is luck of the draw, but you can also unlock and equip a codex, which is an upgrade that persists for the player between lives. Some codices make relatively small tactical changes, like adding the ability to knock down enemies with ranged attacks. Some of the more powerful ones can automatically recover exhaustion, for example, which can be an incredible help in a game where you are always trying to fight off hunger and keep enough stamina to attack.

Is there a built-in skill cap for Necropolis i.e. is it better suited for rogue-like and Dark Souls veterans? Or can your average adventurer hop in for a good time?

Chris Rogers: Necropolis can be pretty unforgiving, especially in single-player. Dying is a big part of the game, especially at first, and we’ve worked to make it a fun part of the experience. After you die you can look at a whole bunch of stats to see where you’ve improved over the last play-through and you can earn tokens of favor with each play-through that persist between lives.

Eventually you can use those tokens to buy codices, which also persist between lives. The lesser ones allow you to last a little longer, get a little deeper, and learn a little bit more about how to survive. The more powerful ones can really expand your abilities. All along the way you’re learning about enemy behaviors, who their natural enemies are in the Necropolis and how to use them against each other. So the curve can be steep at first, but it’s easy to jump back in and try again. If you have a friend, or friends, with a little more experience with Rogue-likes or the Souls’ games they can really help you jump in and learn how to play in Necropolis’ co-op multiplayer.

Spelunky‘s procedurally generated levels have also been cited as an influence. How does this affect the overall layout of environments and the scale of difficulty for players? How much variety will there be in the levels themselves?

Chris Kohnert: Early on, we definitely took a hard look at how Spelunky was doing things. When you dig into it a bit, there’s actually a really neat structure there that keeps the game moving forward yet still provides interesting challenges. We wanted to create something similar that would help the player know where to go while always mixing it up. “Down Is Good” was a mantra we repeated early on.

You’re delving a dungeon, so of course you go down to make progress. Over the course of development, we’ve created a lot of prototypes and iterations that had various sizes of each level, different complexity within those levels, etc. It’s been a constant struggle to strike the right balance between a fun “magical death labyrinth” and a frustrating one, but we think we’ve got it right.

But even within the overall level layouts within each macro-sized procedural element (we call them modules), we have what we call “micro” procedural elements that will mix up how you engage within the space itself. It really provides a unique space to play in, and as you go further down, you start seeing different parts of the Necropolis to make sure there is always more to discover. Even I still haven’t played every module yet.

"I would say that the co-op experience is faster paced, frenetic, a little more chaotic, and overall the stakes are lowered a little bit. Plus you can drop in or out really easily, so a friend can join you mid-game."

What kind of puzzles can be expected in Necropolis? How will the ability to alter the world factor into the overall progression?

Chris Rogers: There won’t be puzzles in the traditional sense, the sort of “flip these switches in the correct order” stuff. That said, you can change things to your advantage. It’s easy when you are playing to attract the attention of something much more dangerous than you or even a whole mob of things that are much more dangerous than you.

When that happens you can run out to a moving platform and swing the bridge away from the enemies behind you. You can also bring the enemies that will attack each other with the same method. If you can buy yourself a few moments, you can craft a super jump potion or some bombs to help you survive. Necropolis gameplay is very improvisational, and thinking on your feet will definitely give you an advantage.

How does the game’s co-op mechanic set it apart from similar titles? Are there certain challenges which become easier with multiple players on-board or unique challenges for co-op players?

Chris Rogers: Co-op play definitely gives you a leg up because your friend has the opportunity to revive you if you run out of health. In a single-player game you would be starting over when your ran out of health. I would say that the co-op experience is faster paced, frenetic, a little more chaotic, and overall the stakes are lowered a little bit. Plus you can drop in or out really easily, so a friend can join you mid-game. They will be under-powered at first, but it can be a lot of fun to shield your friend while you scrounge up the weapons and armor that they need.

There’s a little bit of an edge to the co-op as well. Friendly fire is on and that provides opportunity for some shenanigans between friends. Since loot drops are shared across all players, you really want to get what’s inside any chests you come across. A well-timed power attack can knock your friends back long enough for you to run in and scoop up a new armor set or weapon.

All in all, you’re a little more free to take risks, so it’s a much more freewheeling experience. We’re still balancing the scaling in multiplayer so I’m not sure exactly where we will end up yet, but that’s the way it feels right now in our internal play tests.

When can we look forward to the game’s release?

Chris Kohnert: We still haven’t decided the final date yet due to our recent announcement to simultaneously ship the game on both consoles and PC in collaboration with Bandai Namco, but it will definitely be sometime this summer.

Harebrained Schemes is best known for working on games such as Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun: Hong Kong Crimson Skies, BattleTech, and MechWarrior. Necropolis will have the same composer for its musical score as Shadowrun Returns in the form of Jon Everist.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

Harebrained Schemes officially showcased Necropolis with a reveal trailer at PAX 2015. During that reveal, the title was announced to launch for the PC early in 2016. In January, Necropolis was announced as launching in March of 2016 with pre-orders starting on February 2. At the same time the company announced this release date, it announced new features to the title including a four player multi-player mode.

On February 25, 2016, Harebrained Schemes announced they were delaying the release of Necropolis on the PC. As a kind of way to blunt the hurt of this delay, the company also announced it was bringing the game to the PS4 and Xbox One. The firm said it had partnered with Bandai Namco for publishing the console versions. A new release date has not been officially announced but the companies did say they expect to release Necropolis during the summer of 2016 for all platforms.

Story

The story of Necropolis centers around an archmage named Abraxis who creates and then dwells in a secret underground maze. Contained within the walls of this magical structure are reported to be the world’s largest collection of powerful magic items, as well as a treasure that is more vast than anything else the world has ever known. The players will take on the role of excited treasure hunters who go into this maze-like structure to find and take the treasure and magical items for themselves. The problem is that the Necropolis has been built in such a way that it actively works to confuse those who are trying to make their way through by shifting the walls, ceiling, and floors.

Those die while raiding the Necropolis will also be turned into violent automatons who haunt the ever changing hallways, with the sole purpose of killing any additional adventurers.

Gameplay

Necropolis is a third-person role-playing game that has quite a few aspects of the Roguelike genre. The game takes place in a labyrinth that features moving walls and floors geared towards hiding the treasure stored within. Each time a player dies in this maze, they will have to start all over but won’t be able to use what they learned in their last playthrough because the shape and size of the maze change with each play through.

One aspect that sets Necropolis apart from other Roguelike games is that the players will be able to “re-roll” and alter various parts of the massive maze by solving a series of puzzles. Even those areas of the labyrinth that have been edited by the players will not remain in place and unchanged for very long or from one playthrough to the next. The maze is hard enough to get through, but there will also be enemies placed throughout the levels which include dead adventurers from previous playthroughs.

Exploring plays a large part in the game but there will also be some different fights and boss fights throughout the levels. According to the developers, combat will include timed attacks and attack patterns. Items such as potion ingredients and books can be collected. These collected items can be used by the player for their own characters or, if the game is being played with up to three friends online, items can be given to teammates.

The developers have said strategy is the name of the game. One wrong step and players will either find themselves dead, or back at the beginning of the labyrinth. Powering up is an important part of the playing Necropolis. The magic items will make the player and any teammates in the game harder to kill, as well as better at killing the monsters lurking in the labyrinth. The developers have also said there is a kind of ecology in the maze. Creatures players run across can play both predator and prey depending on the situation. Players can lure one kind of animal or monster into the path of another. Learning the best way to go about this is key the longer one plays.

Characters

The central character in Necropolis is an unnamed adventurer. There are some enemies that have already been named in the lead-up to the release. The big boss, who also built the labyrinth is called Abraxis and he is accompanied by his servant the Brazen Head. This character will reportedly assist in shaping the environments found inside the labyrinth. It’s not known how often or when these characters are going to be met. There are other unnamed NPCs in the game serving as foes throughout the maze.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game

Necropolis, the new game from the developers of Shadowrun Hong Kong, will no longer be launching on March 17 as it was originally going to- instead, the launch has been delayed to this Summer. That’s not all- versions of the game for the PS4 and Xbox One were also announced, as was Bandai Namco’s new involvement as the publisher of the game.

“Simply put, we were impressed and excited when we discovered Necropolis at PAX East,” said Eric Hartness, the vice president of marketing at Bandai Namco Entertainment America, in a statement. “Blending a skill-based 3D action game with a roguelike means it’s never the same experience twice. Necropolis’ off-kilter humor and unique visuals add perfectly to the mix, making it the perfect companion game for Dark Souls fans and a great addition to our game portfolio.”

Honestly, I really am not too mad at this delay- it makes sense, since now the game will get far more financial backing than it would have before, as well as a wider audience. I just hope there aren’t very many delays after this.

Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun: Hong Kong developer Harebrained Schemes is back…with something slightly different. It’s announced Necropolis, a four player co-op title that will release on March 17th and for which pre-orders go live on February 2nd.

Necropolis is a rogue-like title which takes many mechanics from Demon’s Souls like blocking, dodging, heavy attacks and whatnot while offering procedurally generated levels. You can see how exactly it works in the trailer below.

Harebrained Schemes studio manager Mitch Gitelman stated that, “Everyone thought the game was a blast when we played it single-player, but we were blown away by how fun it is to attack the Necropolis with our friends.

“If you think hanging out with your friends and whacking on monsters sounds like fun, then this is the game for you.”

What are your thoughts on Necropolis? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information in the coming months.

Fresh off the success of Shadowrun Returns, which any self-respecting RPG fan should play, Harebrained Schemes has announced the development of its next project Necropolis. Necropolis will see an archmage and an AI which trap the player in a world that’s larger on the inside than out. You’ll need to fight your way past various monstrosities in order to escape.

Unlike Shadowrun Returns, Necropolis is a third person title with rogue-like elements. Combat is in real-time and you’ll be fighting within procedurally generated dungeons, though you can re-roll the randomness of these dungeons while playing. The enemies in Necropolis will apparently have their own ecosystem, with some species dependent on others, and will fight among themselves given the situation. Cabin in the Woods has been cited as a major inspiration for the foes which means we’re in for some truly twisted creations.

Necropolis is slated for a 2016 release on PC, Mac and Linux. Currently, Harebrained Schemes is also looking at a release on consoles. Thoughts on the new project? Let us know below.

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