From 2D to 3D: Is Sword of the Necromancer Resurrection a Smash?
Sword of the Necromancer Resurrection is a third-person action RPG that transforms the original 2D dungeon crawler into a full 3D experience. The premise sees you adventuring into the Necromancer’s Crypt to bring a loved one back from the dead using a forbidden sword that can reanimate fallen foes. It’s a dark fantasy of exploration, monster-slaying, and summoning that aims to flesh out the world with new visuals and mechanics.
Specs & HUD | Gameplay Review | Performance & Fidelity | Settings & Controls
Sword of the Necromancer Resurrection PS5 Review: Specs & HUD
- 1.14GB download size.
- Platinum trophy available.
- You get the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game.
- Own in-game achievements called feats.
- On-screen damage numbers, enemy levels, and EXP earned show in-game.
- The map fills in as you explore.
- Heart health bar system where you collect hearts from the world to replenish.
- On-screen button prompts help you learn the controls.
- The library houses feats, lost diaries, the bestiary, and weapons that get catalogued as you find and kill them.
- The Necromancer’s Crypt is the bulk of the game and contains story scenes; each stop on the world map gives details on difficulty, monsters, best clear time, and special conditions.
- Full item and loadout management.
Gameplay Review & Mechanics Breakdown
Opening prologue dungeon to learn the basics, and the game is a light RPG loop of dungeon crawling, clearing enemies out and taking out the boss. It’s a game you can get into rather quickly. Combat is what you make of it, but at its core, it’s very hack-and-slash-based. With the sword of necromancy, you can reanimate a slain enemy and assign them a button to have them attack enemies for you and become an ally. Reanimated characters that fight for you can die and be gone forever, but they can also earn exp and level up to get stronger and learn new attacks. Summons can level up and learn a new ability, which you can swap in for an old one if you like. Every time a summon level-ups, they get a stats boost.
In this version of the game, you can have up to three summons at one time, and the summons have their own summons entry, so you can still have all your weapons. You can release summons to get materials from them. Breakable objects can drop resources and materials along with journal entries. Find materials and resources in breakable objects and then use these at the Altar, the main hub area, to upgrade weapons or add elements to them. Big boss encounters, and they all have a boss door and a stronger minion to find and kill in order to get the boss door key. You can replay levels and find chests for loot. You can also unlock local co-op; the only caveat is that you need the special flask to then cast it, so it takes an inventory slot that is already limited.
Two new extra game modes – Boss Rush and Challenge Mode. Challenge mode is where you make your way across a randomised set of levels and get powerful new gear and items. In this version, you can grab onto ledges and pull yourself up, and with the levels being more vertical, it helps a lot. The aiming of long-range weapons has you zoomed in using a crosshair for aiming.
Sword of the Necromancer Resurrection PS5 Review: Performance & Fidelity
- Decent chunky graphics in a 3D game world.
- It’s the original game but in full 3D.
- Third-person view and your 360-degree camera controls.
- Rooms in the dungeons are dark until you enter them.
- Two voice choices – English and Japanese.
- Cutscenes are text-based but have minimal animated backgrounds with full voice work.
- All new still art cutscenes with voiced interactions, and you can skip them if you hate words.
- The music player is the in-game place to listen to any song in the game.
Settings, Customisation & Control Details
- 3 game difficulties – Easy, Normal, and Hard.
- Simple enough control scheme: dash/dodge button and then the face buttons.
- As you pick up weapons, summons, and abilities, they get assigned to face buttons, and you can manually swap them out when you get too many.
- Dash acts as a way to go across small holes, but it can also be used for dodging. Based on a stamina system, you have blue dots to denote how many dashes you can do, but they do replenish automatically over time.
- Earn exp and level up to increase your stats instantly.
- Game settings – show tutorials, enemy vision lines, ally vision lines, rotate mini map, and combat assist.
- Controller settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders, and vibration toggle.
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Sword of the Necromancer Resurrection PS5 Review
Summary
THE GOOD STUFF
The move to full 3D really changes the feel of the crawl, especially since you can now grab onto ledges and pull yourself up to deal with the more vertical levels. It’s got decent chunky graphics and a loop that’s simple enough to get into quickly. The way you can reanimate your enemies to fight for you is still a winner, and having up to three summons at once with their own dedicated slots means you don’t have to sacrifice your weapons. It’s great that they’ve added new stuff like the Boss Rush and a randomised Challenge mode to keep you busy, plus getting both the PS4 and PS5 versions with a Platinum trophy to hunt makes it a solid package for completionists.
THE BAD STUFF
Even with the new 3D look, the combat is still a basic hack-and-slash for the most part, and it just gets flat after a while. The 3D view is fine, but it can be a real pain when the camera gets stuck or things get messy in those tight-spaced combat sequences. It’s a slow burner of a game that forces you into a lot of menu surfing, especially when you’re trying to manage your party. You can’t just resurrect a new summon and have them automatically join; you have to go digging through the menus to make space first, which just kills the flow. At its heart, it is still the same game as before, with just a few new mechanics bolted on.
FINAL VERDICT
Sword of the Necromancer Resurrection is a decent 3D facelift that keeps the core necromancy hook intact. It’s a bit of a slow burn with some clunky menu issues, but if you want a simple hack-and-slash where you turn your kills into your crew, it does the job. I do like how they managed to get the transition right, going from 2 to 3D, and if you’ve never played the game before this is the better version.
