Snekromancy
- NeX
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
Introduction
Snekromancy is a fresh take on the classic game Snake. It mashes together elements of roguelike and bullet heaven to deliver a fun experience. It’s developed and published by Final Screw. Based on the name alone, you can tell these devs like puns, and there are plenty in the game!
Gameplay
There are many versions of snake available. Why play this one? First of all, this game will not appeal to everyone, in the sense that the core mechanics are those of a roguelike. Every run starts with nothing, and it’s up to you to build everything from the ground up. You begin a run by choosing your snake and a starting minion (picking up a relic as well, but that’s optional). Each one has positives and negatives - try to find what works best for you.
The core gameplay loop is actually very simple: find the keys, open gates, get to the exit. Sounds very basic and simple, but it’s far from it. Some levels have seemingly locked-out areas. These are unlocked by pressing a switch found somewhere in the level.
As time passes, your HP drops due to hunger; if it reaches 0, you lose a snake segment; if your last segment dies, you lose the run. Collect fruits to restore HP and get one segment (some fruits also provide additional effects like slowdowns or speed-ups). Another way to recover health is by eating enemies (you cannot eat bosses).
The most important part of a run is the minions. These are units you put on your snake that will defend it by attacking any nearby opponents. Each minion has a unique attack that you can boost by consuming snacks - some give a permanent stat boost, some temporary, while others give perk bonuses (a minion can only have one perk active at a time). Finally, when having more of the same minion type, you can combine them into a more powerful version of that minion, up to 2 times (for example: Skellington -> Bone Daddy -> Bone Jovi ). And the last thing about minions: you can actually put one on the tail of the snake!
Each level has some coins you can spend at a shop, a certain number of fruits and treasures which will provide you with 3 options to choose from; these are either new minions, or passive upgrades. These upgrades can vary vastly, from new minions, improving the snake's speed, to increasing the number of food or chests in future levels.
One fun interaction is an item which prevents hunger decay, but spawns an invulnerable snail that chases you around. It sounds simple to dodge it at first, but with many tight corridors and dead ends, you will find that the snail will catch you and absolutely obliterate snake segments.
Finally, you can find an assortment of items in the level to help you against the overwhelming swarm of enemies. Some of these include a damage shield, a magic elemental wand, or a simple speed boost.
Some of the levels do not have enemies in them; the goal in these treasure rooms is to find as much treasure as you can (or are willing to spend life) and get to the exit.
Mini-bosses and Bosses spawn when opening the final gate - the boss room. These enemies are tougher, sometimes have their own entourage, and drop a chest when defeated. Some bosses have attacks that go full 360 degrees, at which point it just becomes a damage check to see if you have enough damage.
Positives
● Fresh take on a classic game
● Several different units
● Cheap
● Unlockables
Negatives
● A run takes too long for a roguelike
● Gets repetitive
● Text (font) is difficult to read
● Some bosses appear to be a damage check
Video, Audio & Sound
Video is probably the weakest point for me, not because it’s bad, but the text is just difficult to read. Pixel art, in my opinion, is good; it’s a choice; however, some people do not like it. And I can’t blame them; it’s hard to tell stuff apart, especially when time is on the line.
The music is great though; I really like it. Even though it sounds retro, it fits the castle exploration and the art style. Sounds are nothing special, but you don’t need them in this type of game. All of the important ones you will notice - losing a segment, hitting a wall, announcing a minion surge…
Personal Thoughts
I had fun playing this a couple of times, several different snakes, plenty of units to summon. However, the sheer length needs to be reworked imo; 3 floors with levels on the last one being significantly longer than previous just killed the joy for me.
Another issue I consider silly is that some bosses have these huge AOE attacks, and if your snake is long-ish, you simply cannot avoid damage, and it’s basically a damage race to see which one dies first: you or the boss.
Conclusion
The game tries to be a “cooler” Phasmophobia and fails. I wasn’t expecting much and still ended up disappointed. I would not recommend it.
Factors | Rating | Description |
🎮Gameplay | 8 | Fun on paper, but gets repetitive and too long |
🎧Music | 8 | Very immersive - fits the pixel graphics; it feels like you are exploring a castle |
💲Price | 9 | Cheap and good to pass some time |
🎰Overall Rating | 8 | A solid choice you can pick up for cheap. Constantly being updated as well. |
Rating: 8/10
Gaming PC Specs
CPU: I5 14600 KF GPU: Nvidia RTX 5070
RAM: 32GB of DDR5 @5600Mhz
