The Necromancer’s Tale Is Gothic Disco Elysium With Teeth
Step cautiously into the flickering candlelight of The Necromancer’s Tale, where every whispered secret and buried body pushes you deeper into a world of 18th-century occultism. This narrative-rich RPG plunges players into a realm where courtly diplomacy grapples with black magic, and every choice threatens your sanity or your neck. Our in-depth look begins in the shadowed halls of an alternative Venice, where forbidden spellbooks, undead allies, and political seduction await. What unfolds is not just a descent into madness but a deliberate dance with it.
The Necromancer’s Tale Review Pros
- Beautiful graphics.
- 3.82GB download size.
- Steam achievements, it actually has 100 achievements!
- Controller support, including the DualSense (PlayStation 5).
- Graphics settings – resolution, brightness slider, framerate, shadow quality, fullscreen, painterly effect, bloom, water and mirror reflections, and v-sync.
- Controller settings – remap the controls, pan when the pointer is at the screen edge, auto run option, NPC vision arc opacity.
- Mouse settings – swap WASD and arrows, camera rotation speed, and pan when at screen edge.
- Text settings – size slider, reading speed slider, brighter chat text, white chat text, fancy fonts in books, and location hint.
- Combat settings – hex grid opacity slider, hex grid range, trigger zone opacity, auto pan camera, and camera shake.
- Three game difficulties – Story mode, Balanced, and Strategy mode.
- Excellent voice work.
- Cutscenes are a mixture of in-game conversations and books with art.
- The Opening Prologue asks you questions that shape your character and your starting stats.
- You have stats for – strength, agility, constitution, acuity, knowledge, investigate, analyse, impress, and convince.
- Book and conversations can be clicked through, or you can turn on the auto-play button.
- A full 3D game world, and you can move the camera around.
- The game will be in the world, but then the text is a small text box conversation, and images can pop up when seeing something of note.
- Action-adventure gameplay.
- Tutorial pop-ups as you play, and you have a menu to re-read any entries.
- The core game is a choice-based based with multiple options and conversation choices.
- Save and load when you want.
- Interactive markers show when you are close to them, and you have a button you can press to show all interactive elements around you.
- A full drag and drop system for the inventory and doing actions like using a key on a lock requires a drag and drop motion.
- As you learn and interact with people, you can and will fill in details and places on the map.
- I appreciate that you can increase and decrease the size of the hotbar at any point in the game.
- Autosaves are generous and have gotten me out of a few sticky situations where the unstuck command has failed me.
- The world you explore is fantastic and full of beauty and dread in equal measure.
- The journal will give an entry and a brief description of the task in your journal, and you can use the arrows to change the order and priority of the tasks.
- You have control over how the game plays out, from decisions to what order you do the tasks in, etc.
- You can sometimes pet the dogs and cats of the world because sometimes they just want to be left alone.
- Turn-based combat that plays out on a hex-tiled board.
- You will accrue a lot of party members, and you can handle and manage them however you like.
- The writing and voice performances are excellent, and honestly, you should play the game with headphones.
- A personal thing, but the game is small text for journal entries, so what that means is you can feel alone, but you can also feel more inclined to explore.
- It’s the animations and spells and magic you conjure that keep me going, as they look awesome and never disappoint.
- Day and night cycle, and you can use beds and spells to change the time of day to your will.
- With multiple paths happening all the time, there are indeed multiple endings.
- I never got the feeling I got penalised for exhausting all the text choices.
- Fast travel is possible to key locations initially, and then you can open up more.
- There is a lot of text and lore to find around the world.
The Necromancer’s Tale Review Cons
- The controller doesn’t work in every menu. If you are using the Dualsense (PlayStation 5) controller, you are in luck, as the touchpad is a mouse.
- Using the menus can be a real pain.
- If you are using a standard controller, you will need a mouse by your side at all times.
- Slow starter, the story and character creator is drawn out, it’s a cool idea, but expect it to go on for a while.
- It’s a real pain to use the controller and the mouse in tandem to just do basic actions.
- The movement is a bit janky, going up stairs can be hit or miss, and corridors can be a pain.
- I was not a fan of how the camera works and how often I have to interact with it.
- The unstuck menu is not always good. I got stuck in the early game, and unstuck did not move me, so I had to lose progress and use an autosave.
- It felt like I had to clean out every option in a chat to get everything ticked off.
- I constantly lost track of my goals and tasks, which in normal circumstances is fine, but I was under a time crunch.
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The Necromancer’s Tale
Developer: Psychic Software
Publisher: Psychic Software
Store Link:
The Necromancer’s Tale Review
Summary
The Necromancer’s Tale – The Thrills and Highlights of Gameplay:
The Necromancer’s Tale draws you into an 18th-century world of occult intrigue, political seduction, and dangerous choices. From the opening prologue that shapes your stats to the branching paths and multiple endings, every decision matters. You explore a full 3D world with day and night cycles, interact with NPCs, uncover lore, and manage a growing party in turn-based combat on a hex-tiled board. The game offers deep customisation with adjustable graphics, controls, and text settings, plus generous autosaves and a drag-and-drop inventory system. Fast travel, interactive markers, and the ability to pet dogs and cats add charm to the dark atmosphere, while excellent writing and voice work make headphones a must.
The Necromancer’s Tale – Where It Falls Short: Key Negatives:
While rich in detail, The Necromancer’s Tale can be slow to start, with a drawn-out character creator and early pacing issues. Controller support is inconsistent, forcing mouse use for certain menus, and movement can feel janky, especially on stairs or in tight corridors. Camera handling often demands constant adjustment, and the unstuck feature is unreliable, sometimes costing progress. Menu navigation can be cumbersome, and under time pressure, it’s easy to lose track of goals. Clearing every dialogue option can feel like a chore rather than a choice.
The Necromancer’s Tale – Immersive Story and Narrative Elements:
Set in an alternative Venice steeped in gothic atmosphere, The Necromancer’s Tale blends courtly diplomacy with black magic. The narrative is choice-driven, with conversations, books, and visual cues revealing secrets and shaping your path. Political intrigue, forbidden spellbooks, and undead allies create a constant tension between sanity and survival. The writing invites exploration, rewarding curiosity with rich lore and multiple narrative outcomes.
The Necromancer’s Tale – Visual and Performance Aspects:
Visually, The Necromancer’s Tale balances beauty and dread, with painterly effects, dynamic lighting, and detailed environments. Animations, spells, and magical effects are consistently impressive. Players can fine-tune performance with a wide range of settings, from resolution and framerate to shadow quality and reflections. The mix of in-game cutscenes and illustrated book sequences adds variety, while the sound design and voice acting enhance immersion.
The Necromancer’s Tale – Overall Verdict: Is It Worth Playing?:
The Necromancer’s Tale is a richly atmospheric RPG that rewards patience and exploration. Its depth of choice, strong writing, and immersive world make it a compelling experience for those willing to navigate its slower start and occasional control frustrations. For players drawn to gothic storytelling, strategic combat, and layered role-playing, it offers a memorable journey into darkness.
Back of the Box Quotes:
Step into the shadows of The Necromancer’s Tale and dance with madness in a world of beauty and dread.
