Netherworld Covenant

I keep a soft spot for the games that arrive quietly, built by a skeleton crew with something to prove. Netherworld Covenant is exactly that kind of game. It comes from a two-person studio, MadGoat, and it arrives fully formed enough that you could easily mistake it for the work of a team four times its size. That is the right place to start, because context shapes how you weigh both its strengths and its rough edges. The structure is a 3D isometric roguelite sitting at the crossroads of soulslike combat and procedural progression. You play from the borderland camp, a liminal hub between the mortal world and the netherworld, where you forge weapons, level passive skills using Black Stones and Legion Relics earned on previous runs, and assemble a roster of spectral Soul Companions before each attempt. The Soul Companion system is the mechanical hook that separates this from its many genre siblings: four spectral ally types, Swordsman, Ranger, Guardian, and Rogue, each offering distinct abilities you can slot into your build and trigger mid-fight. Phase through walls, ambush from dimensional gaps, evade lethal blows by shifting planes entirely. The system rewards creative stacking and punishes passive play. Combat itself leans hard into the soulslike side of things: parries, timed dodges, and an Ethereal Dash that doubles as a counter window. Hesitation gets you killed. Button-mashing gets you killed faster. The 1.0 release expanded the class roster substantially, adding the Berserker, Mage, Hunter, and Shield Guard alongside new weapon types including a double-bladed axe, staff, bow, and spear, which meaningfully broadens build variety across runs. The atmosphere earns serious attention. The visual approach pairs fully 3D character models against greyish, crumbling dungeon environments, giving everything a slightly diorama-like quality that feels intentional rather than cheap. Boss designs stand out with real presence, though standard room layouts can feel sparse in spots. The soundtrack sits low, moody, and atmospheric rather than dramatic, and the sound design does its most important job well: hits, parries, and dodges all read clearly by ear, which matters in a game this precise. The story unfolds in fragments through lore pickups and borderland dialogue. It keeps things appropriately bleak and mysterious without ever demanding your full attention, which suits the run-based format. The honest criticism is about scope. Community sentiment flags a relatively compact run count, a skill tree that some players wish were deeper, and a difficulty curve that collapses a little too easily on lower settings once your hub upgrades compound. The game plays best when you resist the urge to over-upgrade and keep the difficulty one notch above comfortable. That deliberate rhythm, roll, charge, strike, retreat, is where the design breathes. Flatten the tension and the slower movement pace starts to feel awkward rather than purposeful. Post-launch, MadGoat has continued to add modes including Boss Rush, Chaos Mode, Corruption Mode, and the recently released Endless Frenzy wave mode, showing ongoing commitment to the title beyond the 1.0 line. For the right player, this is a tidy, atmospheric, mechanically satisfying package from a studio clearly working at the edge of its resources. If your reference points are Hades for structure and Dark Souls for feel, and you can accept a game that runs roughly 15 hours before the build variety carries you further, Netherworld Covenant earns its place on your shortlist. If you want the sprawl of a major studio roguelite or a deep narrative, look elsewhere.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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