New gothic RPG The Necromancer's Tale is the answer to your Baldur's Gate 3 itch

If Baldur's Gate 3 has left you searching for that next blend of immersive, player-led storytelling and tactical RPG combat, new gothic adventure The Necromancer's Tale is certainly worth your attention. With a dialogue and interaction system akin to Disco Elysium, matched with turn-based battles that give you command over an undead army, this Lovecraftian, dark fantasy game quickly caught our eye during Steam Next Fest. Now, developer Psychic Software has confirmed its release date, and PCGamesN is happy to exclusively reveal its brand new trailer.

Set in alternate-history, 18th-century Italy, The Necromancer's Tale begins when you return home, seeking short-term employment as you attempt to collate your family finances following the death of your father. Alongside your chosen job, however, you're secretly practicing black magic and necromancy, occupations that will mean certain execution if you are discovered. This grants a dynamic of tension and trust comparable to many of our best RPGs, placing serious weight on every single decision you make.

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The depth of The Necromancer's tale is evident from character creation, where you establish your look, background, career, and early skill set through an interactive tale. Your nine stats are split across three categories: physical, mental, and social. The first set determines your combat proficiency, and applies to active skill checks. The second typically impacts your ability to discover clues or solve puzzles, and the last relates to how well you can coerce, convince, comprehend, or even seduce other characters.

Core to the world of The Necromancer's Tale are the twin elements of trust and tension. The former is a representation of how the townsfolk see your player. With various groups throughout the city spreading gossip and rumors, you'll find that a single negative interaction could gradually lead to much wider repercussions. Tension, meanwhile, measures the overall atmosphere of fear in the city; leaving corpses or evidence of black magic rituals laying around, or killing NPCs, will ramp up the level of caution even if it isn't directed at you.

As you gradually build your army of the dead, you'll be able to lead them out on excursions to protect you as you explore caves and crypts, and can eventually turn them on your enemies as the action ramps up. The turn-based combat plays out on a hex grid, with your character equipping traditional weaponry and incantations to fight alongside their numerous undead warriors. If you prefer to focus on the narrative, however, a 'story mode' setting is available that auto-resolves battles based on combat ratings.

Boasting over 180 NPCs, more than 400,000 words of hand-written narrative and lore, and fully hand-crafted art, The Necromancer's Tale is an impressively dense indie game, clocking in at between 25 and 50 hours for a full playthrough, and the best news is that it's almost here. With a successful Steam Next Fest demo ranking among the most wishlisted for the event, you don't have to wait too long to sink your teeth into the full thing.

The Necromancer's Tale launches Thursday July 17 on Steam. You can head here to wishlist it, or download the free demo and try it for yourself.

If you need something more immediate, take a stroll through our pick of the best fantasy games and the best open-world games that we recommend in 2025.

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