Necronator: Dead Wrong Review | Deck building RTS.

They're calling it a Card Craze and it's sweeping the gaming world. OK, no one is actually saying that. But I've noticed games with more card mechanics than usual. Necronator: Dead Wrong is another one to add to the pile. A frantic real-time game that has you throwing out cards fast to spawn units and cast spells.

It reminds me a lot of a Warcraft three custom map. Necronator pulls heavily from Slay the Spire to inspire their mechanics. It's a strong foundation but is the switch to real-time a good idea? Now if you've played Slay the Spire everything in this section is going to be extremely familiar.

To start you choose one of the two characters, a third is coming soon. They each have a unique playstyle.
Number 7, yes that's the character's name, has decks focused on units. While Mirabella the Doll uses more spells. When you first start there is only one deck to choose from for each but as you level them up you will unlock more.

It's a cool idea to give some variety to the characters but have them stick to their core theme. For example, Number 7 has a Steel 'n Bones deck or one called Fresh Meat which is my favorite. I don't quite understand Mirabella's decks, they're incredibly slow.

Casting a fifty damage spell to destroy a castle with two thousand hit points takes some time. You should keep in mind the deck you choose controls which cards you'll see during a run. As you play and level up the characters you'll unlock upgraded versions of the cards to draft.

It seems getting access to those upgraded cards is key to deep runs. Then you move to a node-based map that pushes you to select nodes going up to finally reach a major boss. There are nodes for bosses, resting, merchants, and "unknown". Unknown nodes are random encounters.

You never know what kind of options the game is going throw at you. Some of them give you stuff from free, some give you negative cards for payment, and others will take health or money as payment. Often you can choose to ignore the options and continue on your way.

I had one instance where the game forced a card into my deck. But since the card has zero mana cost it didn't screw up my deck. Shops offer no surprises. Spend your money for new cards or pay to remove a card from your deck. Moving on to rest nodes. You choose to rest for twenty-five percent health back, upgrade a card, or delete a card from your deck.

It's best to not lose any health. If you always have to heal at a rest spot then you'll be way behind later in the game, you missed all those upgrade opportunities. Now, upgrading a card gives you a choice. For example, reduce the cost of the card or increase its damage.

But those aren't the only options and the game includes more. You have no idea which ones you'll see. It's a little bit of extra randomness to throw a wrench into your deck building. Finally, the battle nodes are what make Necronator unique! Your portal constantly generates mana to spend on cards.

And you'll be playing a ton of cards. While there are two different objectives the way you play them is generally the same. Either you need to defeat the main enemy castle or survive for a certain amount of time. But keeping the enemies away from your portal will reach the same conclusion.

Along the path to the objective, there are smaller castles you can defeat and haunt. If you take them over you'll gain more mana and they'll even attack enemies. In my experience, if you take a castle you've already won. The extra mana gives you so many more card options.

Also, you can spam out cards so quickly it's usually enough to overwhelm anything. One hundred of the weakest units will always be better than one super strong unit. Something Starcraft taught me. There's some strategy though because in the later larger levels there are lanes.

So you're able to adjust the path your units take to the main castle. It can get complicated with multiple crossroads. At first, it's important to head off enemies so they don't sneak by between playing unit cards. Once you get close enough to the enemy spawn it doesn't matter.

Also, once you're already leading it's like a snowball rolling down a hill. You'll keep growing and be too strong for the enemy to contain. I like the mechanic and it makes the early game interesting. It's too bad it fades away. Oh almost forgot about the cards you can play.

There are three different types, squads, spells, and utilities. Squads put units onto the battlefield. Spells are buffs, debuffs, and damage. Utility cards are everything else. Some of these buff cards in your hand, that's cool, or allow you to draw more cards.

After playing for six hours I've seen most of the cards in the game. It's not a dig at the game and it can help you plan your deck building better. Along your path, you'll come across helpful relics for global buffs. For example, Soul Trap gives you twenty five percent more mana regeneration but a fifty percent reduction in money earned.

Or another one Orb of Wild Strength increases your hand size by one but gives enemy units ten percent more attack. There's even one for a discount in the shop. I struggle to pick the ones buffing the enemies. Having an extra card in your hand is OK but you fly through cards so fast is it helpful? Helpful enough to give enemies ten percent more attack? Not for me! There's a large enough selection to get one that works for you and you don't have to take it.

Relics are fantastic for you but the enemies get relics too and they're brutal! You must check the list before battle or else you might be in a real bucket of syrup. For example, there's a relic to silence a card in your hand if you have over sixty mana.

That could ruin your plans. Another example is the Stone Cold Shield. If you have more than twenty units on the field then enemies gain ten armor but lose thirty percent move speed. Whew, very specific. There's another to buff the enemy if you have less than six units on the battlefield.

The game is trying to pressure you into playing a certain way. For the most part, I ignore it because once again with enough units or spells you can overcome anything. Some enemy relics are at odds with your current deck. So my favorite deck, Fresh Meat, spawns a million minions.

But the Militia Handbook relic will spawn three militia whenever the player plays a squad card. So for every unit card I play the enemy gets even more units. It can be frustrating since it completely counteracts your deck. Even worse the relics can stack to be even more powerful.

So now six militia are spawning, it's impossible to overcome. It can lead to more generalized decks since you don't want too much of one card category. Other relics inhibit the use of spells and utility type cards. While it's your fault for not building the correct deck it doesn't change the helplessness of your inevitable defeat.

I'm not a fan of the random enemy relics. The Fresh Meat deck would be too powerful without it but it goes too far. It's all luck based on how far I progress if I find too many of the relics are against my deck. It's not all bad since with some strategy you can sometimes get by them.

Instead of spamming out units I hold back and buff them with utility cards so beefier units go out. But if they have the relic to spawn enemies quicker at the beginning of a level it can turn into a nightmare. The enemies get closer and closer to your portal while you have nothing to send out.

You're going to be flooded with enemies, far too many to defeat. And as we talked about here a lot of one unit will overcome a powerful unit. Overall, Necronator: Dead Wrong is fine. I love the cute artwork and silly tone, the cards are interesting, and the quick game speed.

It's lacking a little polish and the enemy relics are deadly. I felt like I was slamming into a brick wall a few times after my deck was crushing it. If you're a card game lover and want to try something different with the real-time mechanics then Necronator could work.