8) Necropolis
Release date: 2016
Eighth place goes to a recent inductee in the Souls Hall of Fame and a valiant attempt at that. Necropolis takes a stab at recreating the magic on a fraction of the budget, a flight of fancy that sees it fall short of the mark.
Sporting a monochrome palette and a slew of procedural generated worlds, Necropolis understands what it means to be a Souls imitator: death can not simply be a formality, but a matter of consequence. Here, the developers take it a step further by introducing permanent death, an extreme measure not for the faint of heart. That’s right, every time you come acropper you have to start afresh. A bit of a bummer, that.
Our very own Dylan Chaundy reviewed the console version recently and rather eloquently described it as “a cold shadow of a much warmer bonfire.” In short, Necropolis lacks diversity and the sheer addictiveness required to make this a must-have.