From the hands of Hyperstrange, creators of Blood West, presents us a new game that definitely needed more time in the oven for it to be great. This is a Hordes of Hunger review, and even by playing version 1.0 it has to be one of the most underwhelming games I reviewed. Being a game like Vampire Survivors promised that this would have been yet another addicting grind, but somehow the line is missing the hook as there really is nothing to bite and cling to. I was initially interested by the Steam page of Hordes of Hunger but once I stepped into it, right from the title screen, I knew I was in for disappointment.
This isn’t me taking a shot at the developers, who clearly have experience on what they do as evidenced by the other games they have did in the past, its just that this one feels pretty mediocre considering the quality coming from this studio. The art style of Hordes of Hunger goes with the typical vibes of a dark fantasy setting, yet it does not really offer anything new and blends together with other works. The regular mobs you fight in hordes something look similar to each other yet have different attack patterns, it is also very hard to spot the player character who will often be covered by them, the general muddy look makes everything merge together.
On the music front there really isn’t anything memorable to listen to, the only props I can give is that the soundtrack is fitting for the type of game, an oppressive dark fantasy soundtrack that is just forgettable no matter how many sessions and runs I did. This sentiment seems to be shared by many who have played this, since its currently available for purchase in early access and the 1.0 release is coming in some hours. This feels like yet another Early Access project that is severely under cooked and needs some more fixes to make it feel good.
Going into the gameplay, its pretty much Vampire Survivors in a 3D plane, it even has a jumping button that is important for some of the special passives you can get. There’s a parry mechanic, a block mechanic and even dashing, yet it doesn’t feel like you really need any of those because the game is so easy. Mechanical bloat is a big issue with Hordes of Hunger, and there should be ways to tune the experience to feel better, perhaps reworking systems and making them more simplified is the way, maybe ramping up the difficulty would solve this.
Enemies fall into common tropes that you find in every game of this genre, some attack you, some explode in an area of effect, there really is nothing new that surprises me in it, I would like to say if it is not broken do not fix it, yet there was nothing there to begin with. This is a new game, new games are meant to try and innovate and bring something new to the table, and while Hordes of Hunger does not innovate in the ability department it does so through other means. The questing system is very interesting and a first in the genre from what I’m aware of.
Once you select the map where you wanna slay monsters in, after slaying various hordes time will stop and it will give you to opportunity to search for a quest to do in that very same map. Initiating these quests will make time run like normal and the hordes will keep attacking you, finishing these quests is a central part of the gameplay as they award you valuable resources like feathers that are pretty much the currency for progression in Hordes of Hunger. This progression is quite typical, but you also have something neat with the ability to craft new weapons and even abilities.
This is where the positives end, while there is also focus on bosses in this game, the fights feel rather underwhelming and I would rather be playing Vampire Survivors if I want a game like this. Despite the minimalist look of Vampire Survivors that game still has a huge grip on its player base because it knows how to keep them in, and holding players is something Hordes of Hunger fails at in my opinion, at least from my personal experience with the game. Movement is rather janky, fighting feels focused on pressing left and right click like crazy, and if they made a game as easy as this they should have gone the Vampire Survivors way.
Hordes of Hunger tries to be original, it is clear that there is people who put effort into making the game, and it really pains me to be honest in this review because I’m aware games take a lot of time and resources to make. Yet art is the process, and the process has to be a fun one that you want to engage with, I didn’t feel like fun or passion was emanating at any moment. Perhaps with more updates after being released from Early Access, Hordes of Hunger can recover from its current famished state and become a better game that is more enjoyable.
There does not seem to be any bugs in the game, and at the very least its quite the stable experience, but regardless of this assessment the final game feels like a minimum viable product rather than a full fledged game with tons of stuff to explore. The foundation is solid, it just needs a general polish on the art and other aspects such as gameplay to make things feel more original and different. I really want to see the game succeed someday, even if it happens after release, hopefully people are more tolerant than I was with it. If you really are looking for a Survivor game no matter the quality, perhaps Hordes of Hunger is for you.
Hordes of Hunger Review – Verdict
Hordes of Hunger: The 1.0 release feels quite underwhelming, I would dare to say it looks famished. The art direction and soundtrack feel rather generic yet fitting for this kind of game and setting. There definitely is no hook to keep players going for more runs as challenge feels trivial. It is a solid game when it comes to gameplay ideas, but you could be playing other games in the same genre instead of Hordes of Hunger. – Hiro
[Editor’s Note: Hordes of Hunger was reviewed on PC and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.]
