Open-world colony-building survival game 'Necesse' gets a HUGE expansion

Have anyone played it? Can someone share their experiences with the game? I wishlisted it some time ago, thinking that it would leave early access soon, but it doesn't and will not be AFAIK in the foreseeable future. I'm a fan of Terraria, Valheim and their designs if that's saying anything. Should I consider getting it now?

Quoting: voxHave anyone played it? Can someone share their experiences with the game? I wishlisted it some time ago, thinking that it would leave early access soon, but it doesn't and will not be AFAIK in the foreseeable future. I'm a fan of Terraria, Valheim and their designs if that's saying anything. Should I consider getting it now?

Valheim is still in Early Access, too, and it gives more than enough value for its price, even though two biomes are still missing.

Quoting: voxHave anyone played it? Can someone share their experiences with the game? I wishlisted it some time ago, thinking that it would leave early access soon, but it doesn't and will not be AFAIK in the foreseeable future. I'm a fan of Terraria, Valheim and their designs if that's saying anything. Should I consider getting it now?

I've played it a few times, though not very extensively. It's definitely fun, though. As you like Terraria and Valheim, I'd think you like Necesse too.

Quoting: voxHave anyone played it? Can someone share their experiences with the game? I wishlisted it some time ago, thinking that it would leave early access soon, but it doesn't and will not be AFAIK in the foreseeable future. I'm a fan of Terraria, Valheim and their designs if that's saying anything. Should I consider getting it now?

I haven't played Terraria, but compared to Valheim, Necesse scratches a somewhat different itch for me: it doesn't offer as much in the way of exploration/discovery, doesn't aim for a coherent theme or atmosphere, and doesn't really do the ADHD-friendly "let's get lost in the game world somewhere and work our way out of this crazy situation that we've gotten ourselves into" all that much. It does have plenty of "what the heck is this for?" moments and does reward "boldly going" to new places (with generally less severe punishment than Valheim). It's also a fair bit more playful in what it offers and in what it throws at you. But the particular thing that it offers that I haven't seen elsewhere yet is a worthwhile base-building experience and plenty of quality-of-life features that help reduce the grind. (Note that I haven't played Dwarf Fortress yet-- waiting for the Linux release, so I can't comment on how that one would compare to Necesse).

Having (and quickly returning to) a home base is crucial for some of the game elements, and while I personally don't enjoy the process of coming up with base designs as much in Necesse as I do in Valheim (or in Minecraft, though I haven't played in a while), Necesse offers a much greater reward for putting effort into base building. Raids on your base are also a more central and better-balanced part of the game than the other games that I've mentioned; for example, messing up during a base raid isn't going to set you back for days (though it will be painful enough that you'll want to get better at protecting your base).

IMO, the game's greatest strengths are its quality-of-life and automation features (centred around the home base), and the ways in which those features make the NPC villagers actually useful.

For me personally, the game offered more than enough fun and novelty to warrant the purchase. I haven't tried converting my friends to it (as I did with Valheim), but the solo developer behind Necesse has delivered a steady stream of content and balancing, and seems to have just hired two artists (and another developer?), so I'll keep my eyes on it as a candidate for future online game nights.

In summary: if you enjoy the base-building part of survival games and are happy with what you see in the trailer, I'd recommend Necesse.

I’ve "finished" the game in 2021 (more to do today, but i’m waiting for full release) in about 25 hours i think. It was really fun, and i didn’t try to collect everything etc, i just went until i killed the last boss of that time (end 2021). So, finished but not finished. It’s very much Terraria topdown, the feeling, loot, updates etc feel very similar, in a good way. Very recommended by me.

Currently 33% off for the Steam Key on Humble Store, or even bigger discount if you have a Humble Choice subscription. I decided to pick it up myself.

Quoting: cjr

Quoting: voxHave anyone played it? Can someone share their experiences with the game? I wishlisted it some time ago, thinking that it would leave early access soon, but it doesn't and will not be AFAIK in the foreseeable future. I'm a fan of Terraria, Valheim and their designs if that's saying anything. Should I consider getting it now?

I haven't played Terraria, but compared to Valheim, Necesse scratches a somewhat different itch for me: it doesn't offer as much in the way of exploration/discovery, doesn't aim for a coherent theme or atmosphere, and doesn't really do the ADHD-friendly "let's get lost in the game world somewhere and work our way out of this crazy situation that we've gotten ourselves into" all that much. It does have plenty of "what the heck is this for?" moments and does reward "boldly going" to new places (with generally less severe punishment than Valheim). It's also a fair bit more playful in what it offers and in what it throws at you. But the particular thing that it offers that I haven't seen elsewhere yet is a worthwhile base-building experience and plenty of quality-of-life features that help reduce the grind. (Note that I haven't played Dwarf Fortress yet-- waiting for the Linux release, so I can't comment on how that one would compare to Necesse).

Having (and quickly returning to) a home base is crucial for some of the game elements, and while I personally don't enjoy the process of coming up with base designs as much in Necesse as I do in Valheim (or in Minecraft, though I haven't played in a while), Necesse offers a much greater reward for putting effort into base building. Raids on your base are also a more central and better-balanced part of the game than the other games that I've mentioned; for example, messing up during a base raid isn't going to set you back for days (though it will be painful enough that you'll want to get better at protecting your base).

IMO, the game's greatest strengths are its quality-of-life and automation features (centred around the home base), and the ways in which those features make the NPC villagers actually useful.

For me personally, the game offered more than enough fun and novelty to warrant the purchase. I haven't tried converting my friends to it (as I did with Valheim), but the solo developer behind Necesse has delivered a steady stream of content and balancing, and seems to have just hired two artists (and another developer?), so I'll keep my eyes on it as a candidate for future online game nights.

In summary: if you enjoy the base-building part of survival games and are happy with what you see in the trailer, I'd recommend Necesse.

What a lovely and detailed review! Thank you very much. Bought it instantly after reading!

So far I really enjoy this, thanks for the tip (and yes also Valheim/MC/loot-resource-hoarding-survival-crafting fan), going to try with server+friends soon.

But I wonder if it's only me having issue with no-audio at all (neither music/sound etc) - in ingame settings i see only 'Default' and 'Default JACK' choices none of them works.
(Necesse app does not appear in audio source in pavucontrol / volume mixers)

I'm on Fedora 38 with pipewire (so pipewire-pulse/pipewire-alsa) and was wondering if that might be something which makes it not working?
Anyone else here by chance with pipewire tried it and had working sound?

Update: so i went to ask about this on discord and yes there is bug with pipewire (maybe was, they mentioned there should arrive update for pipewire with fix).
Workaround is using ALSOFT_DRIVERS=alsa %command%


Last edited by queria on 4 September 2023 at 1:09 pm UTC