So, I was doing pretty well in House Of Necrosis until I made a big mistake. I chucked some random black serum at a creepy purple Devourer. I was really hoping it was poison, because, well, who throws mystery black goo on their chips? Turns out, it was an XP potion. Instead of hurting the Devourer, it leveled him up into a tougher "Foul Devourer".

I tried to fix my mistake with a quick hex, but it wasn't enough to make my cheap knife and pistol strong enough. Long story short, I ended up dying in a puddle of that red stuff billionaires seem to love. If this happened in the original Resident Evil, I would have lost it!

Imagine throwing a weird bottle right after the Hunter shows up and hearing a "level up" sound. I would have unplugged the console and hunted down the game's creator! Unless, of course, I had played Mystery Dungeon games before, which are known for this kind of crazy stuff.

I once said House Of Necrosis is like "old-school Resident Evil but turn-based". That's not wrong, but it leaves out a lot. This cool horror RPG is like a mix of Capcom and Spike Chunsoft games. You are running around a zombie mansion with a grid floor, where enemies, treasures, and traps are randomly placed. Your goal is to get to the next floor while improving your character and collecting items.

It's a game full of fun and annoying surprises. For example, once, I was about to be killed by a boss monster, but a teleport trap saved me. It sent me to a room full of green herbs, which thankfully work exactly as you expect. Also, for fans of classic survival horror, there's a hub area with old-fashioned tank controls.

House Of Necrosis is available on Steam and has a demo. Judging by the early reviews, people seem to like it. I did have fun with the Foul Devourer, but I think the game's dark, 32-bit graphics might get old after a while, especially compared to the brighter anime style of regular Mystery Dungeon games. It's too bad it's not Steam Deck Verified, because it would be great to play on the go. You can also find the developer, Warkus, on Itch.io. They really seem to love fifth-generation consoles.