Necesse – A charming adventure with surprising depth
Indie games with retro charm are back in "trend" and honestly, this is the best scenario that could happen to the gaming industry. Gamers are tired of waiting for big, expensive titles that require constant monetary support, which ultimately gets exploited for even more "microtransactions." Worst of all, singleplayer "campaigns" are no longer classic like they used to be – a person must be connected to the internet for the game to function at all.
Necesse is another game on the market that goes against these norms and, honestly, I was surprised at how immersive and inclusive the game is after just a few hours of play. But, let's go in order.
Development studio: Fair Games ApS
Publisher: Fair Games ApS
Platforms: PC
Release date: October 16, 2025
Platform on which the game was tested: PC
Starting price: €14.99
Presentation - Terraria as inspiration
Necesse is a game in development that has finally reached its official full release in its 1.0 version. It already exudes atmosphere and charm, and at first glance, it resembles Terraria due to its style and design. On the second (especially regarding gameplay), it resembles PalWorld due to its perspective and colony elements. Although it has many similarities with the mentioned games, Necesse has its own identity through longer gameplay. The world is procedurally generated as an archipelago of islands, and your starting island serves as a relatively safe base from which exploration, combat, and settlement building begin.
Visually, Necesse is beautiful precisely because of its simplicity. The graphics are clean, diverse, and functional, and each enemy has a unique design, attack, and loot. The developers even made an effort to differentiate the textures of certain resources, such as stone and wood, which is a big plus.
As for the music, this aspect of Necesse deserves special praise – ambient, calming, and perfectly fitting the rhythm of exploration and building. The atmosphere of the game is often pleasantly relaxed, until you are surprised by short but intense moments of action.
There’s not much philosophy here - Necesse truly does an excellent job of creating ambiance and player immersion, drawing you into the world you have created. Which is actually a good “segue” into the gameplay of the game!
Gameplay - Dynamic chaos
When I first started this game, I was quite lost due to the fact that I hadn't played many sandbox titles. However, after a few hours of gameplay, I quickly realized what the “endgame” is - to create a world or in this case a settlement, where our inhabitants will live comfortably. There isn't a deep story where you have to complete quests or missions that will “push” you in the game, but there are tasks you must complete to even start the process of creating your settlement.
Beginnings are always tough, and this is the case in this game as well. A very sparse tutorial that made me pull my hair out at one point, along with sometimes unclear controls and key bindings, brought me to the “edge” several times and made me consider skipping this game altogether. However, persistence and the desire to understand what is at the core of Necesse prevailed, and I must admit that I do not regret it. Crafting, building, and hitting rocks, trees, stones, and other resources is the main source of the entire settlement, and you have to work hard to gather them.
Of course, the first buildings are the most important - a place for crafting tools and weapons, and then comes the turn for buildings with other functions. The player also has access to the underground, or caves where special resources and items can be found, but also enemies that are just waiting to eat you. As for combat, Necesse boasts very dynamic combat, precisely because of the variety of weapons and creative enemies, which adds another huge plus to this game. However, after several hours of grinding and fighting, a break from Necesse is necessary.
Considering that I was still learning how to fight against enemies, this aspect of the game became quite tedious for me after a while. Bashing the keyboard with very complicated controls took away my will to continue playing that day, which probably says more about me than about this aspect of the game, but I had to mention it.
Enemies are diverse - from goblins to ordinary animals, each enemy has its strengths and weaknesses, but their durability is what makes combat in Necesse very challenging. To be clear, everything is very difficult at the beginning - you don't have a well-built settlement or infrastructure to defend against enemies, and the fact that the weapons are quite primitive doesn't help either. However, it seems that the developers got a bit "carried away" and overestimated the skill of certain players (like me), so they placed very tough enemies. Of course, this aspect varies from player to player and is not a negative factor in this review. I admit, I could be better in that part of the game. They say "git good" - in this case, definitely yes.
In addition to combat and building, the game offers a lot: fishing, multiple types of weapons, cosmetic options that can be worn over shields, various items that can be found, upgraded, or dismantled. Each system is gradually upgraded so that the player has a constant sense of progress.
The settlement building system is interesting and promises engaging gameplay, although it can be frustrating for new players who are not used to such mechanics. Overall, aside from the controls, the sparse tutorial, and some minor issues in combat, Necesse has very good gameplay and is probably, apart from its atmosphere, the best part of the game.
Conclusion - a very good start to a new sandbox “hit”
Necesse is an extremely promising game that already offers a rich experience of exploration, combat, and building. Although it has a few imperfections, they are minor compared to the obvious effort, love, and quality behind the project. If you enjoy a combination of adventure, action, and light PalWorld elements, Necesse might delight you – and with future updates, it will only get better. After six years in Early Access and a new, true, and official release, Fair Games studio has given us another title that will make new players fall in love with adventure sandbox games. They even hooked me.
A copy of the game for review purposes was provided by the distributor and publisher Fair Games.
Rating: 3.5/5
