Hordes of Hunger Review

There's nothing more memorable in gaming than zombies and addictive gameplay loops, and boy, oh boy, does Hordes of Hunger have this in spades. Over the past few years, we've seen something of a massive explosion of roguelikes and roguelites in the Indie scene. Some would say the scene has become a bit overstuffed, with every budding indie studio trying to get their piece of the pie and releasing their take on the genre, whether for better or for worse.

However, despite Hordes of Hunger and its developer, Hyperstrange, following this very formula, the studio has definitely brought something interesting to the table. Hyperstrange, the developers of Hordes of Hunger, is a relatively small Indie studio operating out of Warsaw, Poland. The studio has probably the most perfect origin story ever, as it was founded on none other than 20 March 2015, which just so happened to be the day of the 2015 eclipse.

It seems that the studio has a theme going, not just in their name and backstory but also in the games they develop, which, as described on their website, "bring Metal, Fantasy, Action and 'Hyper-strangeness' to gamers worldwide." Which is something that is most definitely welcome. For many, you are probably not all that familiar with Hyperstrange, but you are probably familiar with one of their games, Blood West, which was a dark and gritty open-world first-person horror western title that had an eye-catching art style and gripping premise.

Their other titles include a surprisingly fun boomer-shooter spin-off of Postal of all things called, Postal: Brain Damaged, and a Soulslike, that much like Blood West, seemed to have a style that was clearly meant to pay homage to the early PS3 to late PS2 era of gaming before things got washed in 50 shades of gritty and brown.

That's not to say that the studio sticks to the same conventions as the titles they pay homage to, especially with the story of Hordes of Hunger. The story goes as follows; the land has been plagued by a grave affliction, the Beast's Curse. This supposed curse corrupts and twists all things that come into contact with it, turning man to a shambling ghoul or unholy amalgamation of man and beast. It is up to our hero to rid the land of this disease and save all survivors that remain.

And who is our hero? It is none other than the stoic and strong Mirah, a brave swordsman whose village was the most recent casualty in the curse's reign of terror. As mentioned before, the game doesn't like sticking to stale old tropes; instead of a zombie plague, the game decides to take werewolves, zombies, mutant plants, mutant people, and eldritch abominations and fuses them all into one affliction, similar to the darkspawn curse seen in Dragon Age: Origins. It is as cool as it is horrifying. 

Another convention that the game breaks but also pays homage to from the PS3 era of gaming is Mirah. She has everything you would expect from an action protagonist of that era, stoic and serious personality, witty and snarky dialogue, loner badass with a heart of gold, and most importantly… A stunning jawline.

She's everything you would want in a protagonist, and she acts as a great vessel for players to project themselves onto, as, despite being a sword-wielding badass, a zombie-werewolf curse that has twisted the world around her is definitely something new to Mirah. That and being resurrected by a tree… We'll get into that.

Mirah is not the only poor, unfortunate soul in this mutant hellscape, as Hordes of Hunger has quite the colourful, if gloomy, cast of characters, including Father. As his name, or rather title, would imply, he is Mirah's father and has become the guardian of the ancient Yew. It's the tree that resurrects and acts as a gateway between the main hub of the graveyard and various arenas that you will be fighting in.

Speaking of arenas, you will unlock more characters as you play through the different arenas. Many of these characters will make the graveyard their new home. While some offer useful services such as rations or upgrades, many will merely expand on the lore and story of the game.

When it comes to gameplay, Hordes of Hunger borrows a lot of its main gameplay loop from the Indie darling, Vampire Survivors. A good example of this is the arenas, when you enter a combat area, you start off with whatever gear and abilities you chose in the graveyard before heading off. Once you are in an arena, you will have to fight through hordes of hungry monstrosities, collecting experience and eventually levelling up. With each level, you will need to choose an ability to add to your arsenal.

From there, you kind of just keep doing this until you either finish the level or have a rather awkward reunion with Father in the graveyard. Now, at a first glance, this probably just seems like Hordes of Hunger is just another copycat, but remember that thing at the beginning of this review; despite being yet another roguelite with inspiration from other successful indie games, the game adds its flair to things, which lets it stand on its own feet. 

While it has the same gameplay loop as Vampire Survivors, Hordes of Hunger takes it in its direction. Instead of one giant map, you fight in a small arena, with different pathways, nooks, and open spaces. You now have to plan your movements and positions more carefully, as getting stuck in a tight spot with an impending wave of man-eating ghouls is a great way to end a run.

Another unique feature of the game is the way enemies spawn; when you go into an arena, there will be randomly placed points of interest on the map, which will act as missions you will need to do in order to advance the level to the next stage. This is where the game will spawn its titular hordes, and each arena has its own unique type of monster.

The Main Square has exploding hogs from hell, the Cathedral district has knights, and Festin has a zombie that looks like the unholy fusion of a meatball and a bag of mealworms. However, when you are not in these missions, the level will still spawn enemies, but they tend to be run-of-the-mill zombies, which gives you time to gather resources.

On a map, there are two kinds of resources: Rations, which are found in crates that you can smash; these will provide healing when you're in a tough spot, but heal you slowly and gradually. The other resource is chests; unlike rations, chests can't just be smashed open and instead require keys, which are rewarded by completing missions. However, whenever you die, you will lose whatever keys you were carrying during that mission. Chests will often hold important crafting materials, such as equipment parts. These are important for crafting gear at the forge.

Speaking of forging things, one of the most interesting mechanics in Hordes of Hunger is the forging system. Whenever you want to create new equipment, you will need to provide certain blueprints and materials. If you add three of the same blueprint, you will get the item that was on the blueprint, with the rarity of the blueprint dictating the quality of the equipment piece that was crafted.

However, you are not just limited to what's on the blueprint, as you can mix and match what blueprints you use and can instead make unique equipment that has its unique traits and abilities that you can tailor to work in a specific combat scenario.

When compared to its peers, Hordes of Hunger is a much slower and well-paced experience, where you're encouraged to pace yourself and strategize your next move. Father will regularly appear during a run to check up on Mirah and offer her a chance to head back to the graveyard to readjust yourself and change your loadout if things aren't going according to plan. It's forgiving, but you are still incentivized to see a run to the end, but you decide to make.

So far, Hordes of Hunger seems like a phenomenal take on a roguelite, with unique arena-based combat, slow-paced progression that rewards strategy, and an amazing story that reminds us of games of the past but with that modern polish. This is all true, but there is one massive, glaring issue that destroys the whole experience, and that is the balancing of combat… or the lack thereof. You see, when people complain about unbalanced gameplay, it's because it's unfair to the player.

In the case of Hordes of Hunger, it's the complete opposite. The whole appeal and gimmick of any roguelite is the fact that they are games of luck. There's no guarantee on what abilities or equipment you will get, but in Hordes of Hunger, it doesn't matter what cards you are given. If you choose any projectile ability and ranged ability, you become an untouchable killing machine that will somehow kill most bosses without you having to swing your sword.

This may be an unforeseen consequence of what abilities are currently available, or perhaps this is an intended feature. Whatever the case is, it just ruins the intensity and tension of your runs, and it makes the game lose the serious tone it tried so hard to establish with its gorgeous art direction and stunning soundtrack.

Overall, Hordes of Hunger is incredibly fun and will have you reminiscing about the games of your childhood or teen years. It has so much love and passion put into it and is an excellent, slower-paced roguelite that gives you a chance to try again and incentivizes you to try again, not through spite and frustration, but rather the guiding hand of a hopeful father. It's just a pity that, as of writing, the game doesn't have much challenge, and you'll probably finish it in one sitting.