Never Mourn Review Summary

Addictive necromancer gameplay and replayability: The game delivers a captivating necromancer experience with a solid core loop, unique mechanics, and high replayability. Players enjoy building an undead army by resurrecting enemies, experimenting with different builds, and progressing through roguelike elements. The game's concept and execution are praised, making it hard to put down.

Smooth and responsive combat: The game features smooth, responsive, and fast-paced combat. Players find the character controls enjoyable and the transition between character and minion control seamless. The game's difficulty is well-balanced, providing a challenge that is not overly frustrating.

Dynamic combat with stance switching: The game's stance change mechanic for switching between damage and healing/reviving adds depth to the combat. Fluidity in switching between roles enhances gameplay, requiring quick thinking and creating thrilling moments. Spells significantly enhance the gameplay experience and offer variety.

Satisfying minion army management: Players find it satisfying to build and watch their minion army grow and evolve. The variety of minions allows for interesting combinations and tactical selection. Buffing minions and fighting alongside them is also a rewarding experience.

Deep character customization and progression: The game offers a deep and customizable progression system through its passive and skill trees. Players can experiment with different builds and playstyles, both offensive and defensive. The out-of-game progression system provides persistent upgrades, adding long-term progression.

Poor balance, high enemy damage: The game's balance is criticized, with enemies dealing excessive damage and the player character being too squishy, leading to one- or two-hit kills in later stages. The fatigue mechanic, which reduces maximum health upon taking damage, is also a major point of frustration, making healing ineffective and leading to forced deaths.

Lacks content, variety, depth: The game is criticized for lacking content, variety, and depth, leading to a repetitive and ultimately boring experience. Reviewers specifically mention limited enemy types, environments, bosses, skills, and upgrades. Some reviewers note the game feels incomplete, even for an early access title, and has not received updates in months.

Frequent crashes and bugs: Many reviewers report the game suffers from frequent crashes, bugs, and performance issues, including optimization problems and lag, especially in later stages. Some reviewers experienced spells not triggering, perks being erased, and game crashes, making it difficult to progress or even finish a run.

Unclear, weak upgrade system: The game's upgrade and skill systems lack clarity and impact. Skill/passive/upgrade descriptions are incomplete, and many abilities and upgrades feel weak. The talent tree is filled with unimpactful upgrades, and the upgrade system lacks clarity, making it difficult to understand how to improve monsters.

Overpowered enemy archers: Enemy archers are highlighted as a specific balance issue, dealing disproportionately high damage with frustrating accuracy and tracking. Players are often forced to prioritize dodging archer attacks, and the lack of off-screen attack protection leads to unexpected damage.

Stance-switching combat: Offense/Support: The player character can switch between two combat modes or stances, typically offensive and supportive. One stance focuses on dealing damage and casting offensive spells, while the other focuses on healing minions and resurrecting enemies. This mechanic adds a tactical layer to combat, requiring players to make conscious decisions about ability usage.

Core: Necromancy and minion management: The core gameplay revolves around playing as a necromancer who resurrects defeated enemies to create an army of minions. Players must manage their minions, balance damage dealing with support abilities, and strategically choose which enemies to resurrect. The game blends ARPG, roguelike, and RTS elements.

Strategic minion squad composition: Minion composition is important, with different types of minions fulfilling different roles such as tanking, dealing damage, or providing support. Larger monsters are heavy hitters and should be prioritized, while smaller monsters can act as meat shields. Strategic squad composition is key to success.

Skill tree progression system: The game features a progression system with a skill tree that allows players to create different builds. Leveling up grants access to new spells and slots for skills/servants. However, some reviewers noted a lack of equipment and relic mechanics, limiting upgrade choices.

Roguelike level generation: The game incorporates roguelike elements through randomly generated levels and room layouts. Players progress through enclosed areas, battling enemies and collecting loot, with occasional choices for reward types in the next room. This structure is similar to games like Hades and Diablo.

Widespread performance and lag issues: Numerous players report significant performance issues, including FPS drops, stuttering, and lag, especially during later stages with many enemies or visual effects. Some players experience unplayably low frame rates, even on high-end hardware. Some players indicate that the monster limit may be the cause of the performance issues.

Restarting game helps temporarily: Some players have found that restarting the game temporarily alleviates FPS drops, suggesting a memory leak or other accumulating issue. However, this is only a temporary fix, and the underlying performance problems persist.

Runs well on Steam Deck: Some players report that the game runs well on Steam Deck, despite the game not being officially supported. This is a positive point for players who prefer to play on handheld devices.

Spelling and grammar errors: Several reviews mention the presence of spelling and grammatical errors in the game's descriptions. These errors detract from the overall polish of the game.

Sound effects cut out: Some players have reported instances where sound effects cut out during gameplay. This issue can disrupt the player's immersion and overall experience.

Strongly recommended, especially for genre fans: Many reviewers recommend the game, citing its potential, enjoyable gameplay, and unique roguelike elements, especially for fans of the genre and necromancer themes. Some highlight its innovative mechanics and strategic depth, while others focus on its value for the price, making it a worthwhile experience despite being in early access.

Promising, needs more development: A common sentiment is that the game shows promise but needs further development, bug fixes, and content updates to reach its full potential. Reviewers are looking forward to the 1.0 release and future improvements, suggesting players wishlist the game and check back periodically.

Wait for updates/sale: Several reviewers advise caution, noting that the game in its current state has issues like bugs, poor optimization, or a lack of content. Some suggest waiting for updates or purchasing only during a sale, while others outright cannot recommend the game until significant improvements are made.

Worth the price: Multiple reviews highlight that the game is worth its price, offering good value for the entertainment it provides. Some reviewers consider it an indie gem suitable for both casual relaxation and longer play sessions.

Demo progression doesn't carry over: One reviewer enjoyed the demo so much they purchased the full game, but noted that progression does not carry over. This is a minor point, but potentially relevant for players considering trying the demo first.

Early access, needs polish: The game is in early access, which is frequently mentioned. Reviewers acknowledge that the game is still in development, lacking content and polish, but has a solid foundation for future improvements.

High potential, add modding: Reviewers see potential for improvement and suggest adding modding support to the game, indicating a desire for expanded content and customization options.

Need better minion information: The reviewer requests more detailed information about minions, such as nameplates for identification and statistics on minion deaths, to improve strategic decision-making.

Active developer communication: The developers are active on Discord and engage with the community, allowing players to help shape the game's future. This is a positive sign for ongoing development and responsiveness to feedback.

Bosses appear late-game: The reviewer noted the absence of a boss encounter up to stage 90, suggesting that bosses may appear at stage 100 or later. This provides information about the game's progression and encounter design.