Another Friday arrives, and once again the weekend presents a fresh opportunity to find all sorts of gaming entertainment. In honor of the closing of the winter Olympics in Russia, we thought this would be a great weekend to showcase an international Let’s Player. There are plenty of really exceptional gaming video creators from all over the world, a high concentration of whom can be found in Europe. This weekend we are heading to the UK, to check out a gamer whose “About” tab describes him simply as “A British Let’s Play’er.”
This week, GameWisp recommends that you spend some time getting to know Necroscope86. As always, here are three video reasons why:
The Collections
If John Oliver (The Daily Show, Community) made Let’s Plays, his commentary would probably be a whole lot like Necroscope86. It is Necro’s pacing and inflections that first reminded me of Oliver, as well as Necro’s blend of exceptional dry British wit with excellent comedic timing that often turns the simplest observation into hilarity. Necro has been bringing this signature style to Let’s Plays for the last five years, and has racked up quite a library.
His latest channel intro video (from February of 2013) contains links to approximately 72 separate gaming video series. Fortunately, Necro understands that he has a large library, and has arranged the vast majority of his series into playlists. In addition to playlists, however, Necro has also taken the time to further group his playlists into what he terms Collections making navigating his channel that much easier. Currently his channel features a Point and Click collection containing nine separate point and click Let’s Plays and a Resident Evil collection, containing Let’s Plays of seven separate Resident Evil titles.
Today’s header video was taken from his Point and Click collection and is the first episode in his playthrough of The Secret of Monkey Island. This game is story-driven making it an excellent option for a video series, and Necro employs his usual witty commentary to add depth to the experience. Though he is somewhat more subdued in this video, giving the story and gameplay a chance to set the pace. This is the special edition of Monkey Island with updated graphics and voice acting which enhance the experience. Necro is quite pleased with these aspects and points them out several times. Overall, this is a solid opening to a Let’s Play and showcases Necro’s signature style well. That being said, Necro is a great Let’s Player, and any of his long form Let’s Play series are worth your time.
Strange Game Saturdays
Strange Game Saturdays is an apt title for this series of one-off gaming videos. The series is fairly similar to a first impressions series in that Necro takes some time to walk through the opening portions of each game, giving his opinion as to its merits, and showing off some of its more interesting quirks. But rather than showing off the latest GTA5 or Battlefield 4, or even the more well known and anticipated indie titles, Necro has chosen to showcase little known and extremely odd games. From promotional games meant to sell cereal and candy to misguided games about collecting soda, this series never fails to present the strange side of gaming with all of Necro’s wit and humor.
This video is an excellent example. In it, Necro plays European Bus Simulator from Excalibur Publishing. Though the premise of the game tends to immediately lend itself to ridiculousness, Necro takes it to the next level, showing off the protagonist’s apparent super powers as he walks through cars and pushes them around with nothing but brute strength.
Eventually, Necro does actually drive his designated bus, but spends most of his time breaking traffic laws, running over other cars and pedestrians (who never seem to notice that they are being hit by a large European bus), and getting stuck on the sidewalk. All of these shenanigans are humorously commentated by Necro, with several moments eliciting quite audible laughter, thoroughly distracting my wife, who was trying very hard to focus on figure skating. With its many strange and interesting games and run times between ten and thirty minutes, this series is definitely worth checking out.
Noobcraft
If you are an expert in all things Minecraft and Minecraft video, then this video may not be for you. However, for those of us with little Minecraft experience or skill, Necro’s recent foray into the world of blocks is one of the more relatable Minecraft videos floating around YouTube.
Necro enters the world alongside two Minecraft veterans and attempts to learn the ways of punching trees and crafting wooden tools to assist in even more efficient block breaking. While the tree punching itself seems to come easily, the other necessary tasks come slowly with much hilarious frustration on Necro’s part and plenty of his creative substitutes for swear words (or maybe they are just British and lost in translation).
Night inevitably falls with no shelter to speak of, and the three are left to battle hoards of mobs as they try to survive until dawn. Ultimately, Necro does catch on, builds tools, and begins a structure. As someone who often is in awe of the creativity and skill of veteran crafters, it is refreshing to see someone who is unafraid to display his own inexperience in what is probably the most popular game on YouTube.
Over all, Necroscope86 is an excellent channel.
The extensive library means that there is plenty to amuse any gaming video enthusiast. Necro’s dry wit and comedic timing are rare in the world of gaming video commentary, allowing him to stand out in the crowd. His videos are not quite as polished as some, but this bit of roughness around the edges is never distracting or frustrating. I, for one, am very excited to continue digging into Necro’s channel to see what other hidden gems I can find.
