Nekromonda: War in the Next Nest review: Gang warfare in a vast worldview

In the Warhammer 40K worldview, humans have a large enough space to live in: an entire universe where countless epic stories take place. The series dates back to the original edition of the board game in 1987 and continues to be updated to this day. The universe has a world view of a magnitude and depth that we can hardly imagine.

In this universe, there are human emperors who are equal to the gods and lead an army on an expedition to the stars, there are indescribable beings whispering in the darkness, and there are ordinary people who are humble to the earth and live like cockroaches. The new game in the "Warhammer 40K" series worldview, "Nekromonda: The War in the Next Nest", tells the story of the cockroaches, that is, the bottom people.

The characters in Nekromonda: War in the Next Nest are veritable underclass. This is not only because of their low political status, but also because of the environment in which these gangsters live, deep beneath the Nest tower, in perpetual darkness. In a geographical sense, they are also at the bottom.

The "Nekromonda" in the title of the game is a corner of the vast star field of the human empire, which is responsible for turning the overburdened population into resources as the nest world. On the planet Nekromonda, all resources had to be handed over to the Empire, and humanity was confined to the nest.

Except that the nobles had the right to live on the nest tower building, enjoying what could be described as a normal standard of living. A much larger number of people at the bottom can only live in underground nest cities. At the bottom of the populace, a large number of families gathered, competing for each other's living space, while serving the nobility in exchange for certain resources. The "war" in "Nekromonda: The Next Nest War" refers to the war between these gang members living in a bad environment and each other in order to seize the living space.

Although the screen looks completely like a TPS game at first glance, it is actually a pure turn-based SLG. The gameplay system is similar to that of "UFO" or "Battlefield Valkyrie", the core is to use action points rationally, expand battlefield advantages by controlling the actions of "pieces", and turn advantages into victories.

The game's story mode serves as a guide for beginners. Unfortunately, the game's current beginner's guide is clearly flawed in design. For example, the logo's mission-critical interaction points are often missing, which leaves the player trying to advance the story through trial and error during certain tasks in the first step.

In addition to this problem, the other guidelines of the story mode are not humane enough. For example, when the player controls the character and acquires new abilities as the story progresses, there are no obvious signs, and the player has to explore the use of abilities on his own. Of course, after the player has mastered the gameplay and become a "master", the impact of these issues on the play experience will eventually be limited. Compared with the problem of novice guidance, what is more worth talking about is the gameplay system of this game.

Although there are core gameplay similarities with the traditional "UXcom" turn-based SLG, "Nekromonda: Next Nest Wars" still brings players a new twist on the basis of the turn-based SLG's already well-established gameplay.

Let's start with moving. The moving mechanism of this game is not the traditional grid, but to set the motion power slot value for each role, in the base coordinates of the latest action, with the coordinate point as the center of the circle, in a radial shape to calculate the movement power consumption of the role. This is more applicable to the non-flat, complex map with a height difference than the "go grid" gameplay.

The slot values of action and movement are independent of each other. Various actions, such as weapon attack, skill release, item use, and scene interaction, are required to consume corresponding action values. The independent design of the two slots allows players to do more in a single role, a single round, rather than simply carry out a "next round attack" brain deployment. In the end, the core problem of how to play the game well is how to maximize the operating space of each character.

Due to the difference in character skills, some characters can perform slot recovery for themselves through specific skill releases and item use, and this is exactly the difference between the novice and the master of this game.

For example, the class "saboteur" has the ability "Eco-mobility," which can be activated after using a throwable explosive or picking up a target item to give himself movement points. As a result, the "saboteur" can recover the move points to a safe distance by using projectiles against the enemy after a long distance move. And similar "micro", each family, the role is different, which provides the player with enough combat schools to choose from.

After the story mode is passed, players can choose one of the three families of Escher, Goliath and Orrke at present, and then create a new gang attached to the family for member recruitment and task acquisition.

Of course, although it is the operation of the game, according to the setting of the nest city, the system arranges for the players to fight against the AI gang. They compete with player gangs for resources on the territory. Although, in essence, such a design is just the "add" to the gang formation of gameplay, but also creates a kind of, somewhat restored gang competition atmosphere.

In addition to grabbing territory resources, there are other elements of gang operation gameplay, such as a certain depth of character development gameplay. Fighters of the player's gang can earn additional, freely distributed experience points after the battle is settled by completing key missions during the action, or by killing enemy units.

The freedom to distribute experience points is an interesting design, which allows for more freedom in the customization of character upbringing. Experience points in this game are not directly related to character levels, but are used in ways that the player chooses. It is up to the player to increase their stats to increase their character's level, or to acquire new skills to increase their ability in combat.

Other than that, the gang play is really uninspiring. The main system of the game is still based on a somewhat simplified combat gameplay.

Nekromonda: The Next Nest War's specific combat style is the kind of turn-based SLG gameplay we can imagine. Characters become "chess pieces" on the battlefield through melee, ranged weapons or various skills, and the possibility of "peerless" is basically zero. Character attributes and skill carrying bits are capped, and even the "helper" role with special skills cannot be more than one enemy.

Compared to the same type of games, this game's combat system is not outstanding. In addition to the exquisite character modeling and the depressing overall game atmosphere, the lack of depth in gameplay is one of the biggest shortcomings of the combat system. However, consider that Nekromonda: The Next Nest War is not a purely single-player game, but also has an "encounter" mode as an online multiplayer battle. There is a good reason to simplify the combat system and consider the multiplayer mode to attract more light players. But even so, the lack of gameplay in the gang business model does not leave much room for "washing".

Obviously, the main player group for Nekromonda: The Next Nest War is fans of the Warhammer 40K series. If you don't know the story of this vast series with a long history and are not interested in post-apocalyptic games, this game may not catch your attention.