I’ll be honest: I was initially a little nervous about reviewing Hordes of Hunger. It’s been something of a worrying trend lately—I mean, who are we kidding, it’s been a trend in the game industry for decades—that as soon as something becomes popular, everyone tries to chase its success. So, seeing yet another attempt at Vampire Survivors had me mentally check out a little bit, but that started to change once I began playing it.
To its credit, Hordes of Hunger provides a pretty compelling experience that can be as captivating as the game that inspired it. It delivers gameplay that’s easy to understand, creates a decent amount of tension, and adds a few interesting mechanics to put its own unique stamp on its inspiration.
However, it also somewhat misses the point of what made Vampire Survivors so great. Whether intentional—for the building of its own unique world—or simply to differentiate itself from its inspiration, Hordes of Hunger never really creates an experience that gets as exciting or varied, and it just starts to feel a bit mindless after a while.
“Hordes of Hunger never really creates an experience that gets as exciting or varied, and it just starts to feel a bit mindless after a while.”
Which is kind of ironic, since Hordes of Hunger does the only thing any Survivors-like does in an attempt to mirror Vampire Survivors and appear more “approachable”: it makes combat active rather than passive. On the one hand, this does give the game more of a top-down action RPG feel, as players can hold the attack button for an endless standard attack spam, or—once they’ve built up enough Focus—unleash powerful heavy attacks.
Not only that, but different weapons have different special abilities that can be assigned before attempting a run, so choosing one that suits your playstyle—or that best suits the level you’re attempting—does add to the strategy. Furthermore, it gives players a few more movement options, as they can jump, dash and sidestep while fighting enemies to avoid damage.
But probably most influential is how Hordes of Hunger implements a parry system, where attacks are given visual indicators and can be countered for decent damage. I won’t deny it does make for a pretty exciting experience that feels like Vampire Survivors, but also challenges you to be a bit more on your toes if you really want to optimize your experience.
But on the other hand, a big part of what made Vampire Survivors so engaging was just how limited your role as a player was during each run. Only being able to move around each level while your character auto-attacked the ever-increasing hordes did create a very subtle and engaging strategy to how you approached every fight, and it made every level up a captivating question of what power-up would be most optimal.
“Hordes of Hunger is to Vampire Survivors what a big bag of chips is to a high-class meal.”
By comparison, Hordes of Hunger feels just a bit lacking. So long as you’re holding the attack button down and paying attention to parry icons, you can get through pretty much any run relatively easily. On top of this, the game doesn’t really have the same variety of abilities, so you always end up kind of feeling exactly the same with each run, and never approaching that untouchable god status that you could in Vampire Survivors. It’s not bad—just not really as satisfying as it should feel.
But I will say, I like how Hordes of Hunger approaches its levels as well. During each run, players are given objectives that they need to complete in order to advance towards facing the boss monster. There’s a pretty decent variety, from hitting kill numbers, killing specific enemies or guarding a precious donkey transporting supplies. After two objectives, players are given a brief reprieve, where all the enemies freeze, and they have time to explore the level and gather any loose EXP or healing items.
And it’s also a very pretty game. It’s got that beautifully bleak setting that is reminiscent of Dark Souls, where everything is kind of decrepit or on fire, but so richly detailed you can’t help but get captivated by it. Monster designs are really interesting too, ranging from ghouls with flesh loosely hanging off their bodies, to Eldritch wraiths surrounded by mists of blood, to giant ogres made of teeth.
Hordes of Hunger is to Vampire Survivors what a big bag of chips is to a high-class meal. While it’s still tasty in its own right, it’s easy to mindlessly chomp away at it without really thinking. There’s no real problem with it, but it’s never quite as satisfying as the high-class meal that takes a bit of slowing down to appreciate its finer elements.
