Halls of Torment
Released: September 24th, 2024
Developer: Chasing Carrots
Publisher: Chasing Carrots
Systems: PC
Review copy provided by publisher
The predictable market saturation following Vampire Survivors’ success appears to have slowed its roll of late, and I’ve got no problem with that. For every Boneraiser Minions there were half a dozen rushed copycats that neither understood why Vampire Survivors was popular nor had any good ideas of their own.
Fewer of those bandwagon jumpers means quality entries genre entries stand out a lot more, and this is great news for Halls of Torment, a survivor game absolutely deserving of standout status.
Halls of Torment’s elevator pitch is inspired in its own right - the formula of Vampire Survivors with the aesthetic of old school Diablo. That pitch is followed through impressively, with both the gameplay and visuals pulling their weight and providing one of the finer games of its type.
When I say this thing looks like Diablo, I mean it really looks like Diablo. Not only does it have the isometric perspective and dingy environments of Blizzard’s classic dungeon crawler, Torment mirrors its distinctive graphics damn near perfectly.
Diablo’s graphics are best described as “detailed but not,” and Halls of Torment apes those undetailed details with authenticity, right down to the stiffly upright walking animations. A huge ton of love went into mimicking the art style and atmosphere, which is evident in all the little details.
What’s the difference between a ripoff and an homage? It’s a question that’s been asked of the medium many times, but for most people the line is a rather clear one - it’s all down to whether the game doing the copying is good or not.
So yeah, Halls of Torment is definitely an homage!
There’s a deep vein of substance to go along with the style, which really helps set it apart. A basic Survive ‘em Up foundation has been built upon in a number of clever ways informed directly by that established fondness for old school dungeon crawlers.
The basics are what you’d expect - your overall goal is to last a set amount of time against an increasingly tough horde of enemies, acquiring new weapons and upgrades to keep up. When the timer hits zero, a boss arrives that will not only test your stat allocation but your ability to dodge a shitload of projectiles and AoE offense.
There’s the option to manually attack as well as automatically - I like to stick with auto (barring the occasional bit of aiming to whittle down a tough enemy), since otherwise you’re just playing a really overwhelming shoot ‘em up. I’m really not fond of the number of Survivor games defaulting to manual offense, it feels like missing the point a little.
Auto targeting works perfectly, and will likely be a godsend for many players when the swarms get swarming. An army of skeletons, demons, jellies, and more will crowd around you before too long, providing enough of a challenge to really encourage forward planning when leveling up.
Halls of Torment doesn’t aim to give players the same kind of colorful and loud dopamine rush as its peers. True to its roleplay stylings, the acquisition of power during each run is more methodical and considered. Indeed, you can make a successful build that looks positively conservative in terms of filling the screen with weapons and spells. You certainly can fill the screen, but that’s not an inherent or requisite endgame.
Satisfaction comes from planning and tweaking a run rather than gaining immediate dramatic rewards. It’s a methodical approach that fits nicely in with the dark atmosphere, and it’s also very extensive.
There’s a whole ton of stats to potentially improve, and it’s not just basic things like damage and health. While the basics are still important, there’s stuff like Block Chance, which gives you a shot at outright negating damage, or Force, a unique trait that acts differently depending on the weapon its applied to. The range and area of your attacks are governed separately, as are the rate and effectiveness of setting enemies alight with fire-based moves.
Hell, several stats can be improved both by base increases and percentile ones. Of course, you can only pick one upgrade per level from a selection of four random offerings, and with so many parameters to consider there’s a frequent risk of not getting the rewards you want - I’ve had a few moments of frustration with this.
Offensive abilities are obtained via scrolls that appear both in set locations and as drops from mini bosses. From speedy knife-like projectiles to orbiting balls of contact damage to a golem that rolls around, there’s an inventive little arsenal. You’ll be able to pick whichever one you want on your first pickup, but subsequent ones make you choose from random selections, as is custom.
Continuing the depth of leveling up, weapons and spells have multiple paths to power. Changes can be made both to individual abilities and entire classes of them such as projectiles or summoned entities. You’ll be able to strengthen all manner of properties, and with some abilities you can go as far as to change entire attack behaviors or damage types.
Some upgrades will have a tradeoff, such as reducing an attack’s range in exchange for higher damage. There are multiple ways to upgrade each ability, with your choices actually determining what the game will offer throughout the run. In this way, you’ll not only be creating an overall build, but sub-builds for your weaponry as well.
One of the most interesting things about your suite of attacks is how they evolve. After upgrading it a few times, you may be offered a new version of an ability and, true to theme, there are multiple variants. Phantom Needles, an ability that dishes out rapid fire projectiles, can be altered so that the needles detonate on contact, but you may instead opt for having them split into two further needles when they hit.
Well, I say “instead” but, uh, if you want them to explode and split, guess what? With enough of an investment, you can have both.
In something a lot closer to Vampire Survivors, the aim would be to maximize your hurt delivery by filling all your weapon slots. In Halls of Torment, it’s absolutely valid to leave slots empty
Oh, and there are character classes, each with their own signature weapon and play styles. It really is impressive how much diversity has been mined from the roster of adventurers.
If you want to deal raw melee damage, the Swordsman’s namesake weapon is a solid choice, and if you’d like to score critical hits at a distance, the Archer’s got a quick firing spread of arrows for you. The Sorceress, meanwhile, specializes in magic-based attacks and anything that deals lightning damage, while the Summoner - in a shocking twist - best takes advantage of summon abilities.
Such straightforward options are joined by a range of more exotic alternatives. The Shield Maiden’s damage output rises as her Block Chance does, making her an exponentially dangerous tank. The Exterminator’s flamethrower is focused on racking up burn effects, and the Beast Huntress has a dog that attacks independently of the character.
Classes have their own unique leveling options alongside a general pool of upgrades. Like with abilities, many of them have tradeoffs and determine future offerings - the Landsknecht, for example, has an attack pattern that alternates between firing a rifle and lobbing grenades, and you can specialize in one weapon at the expense of another as you gain levels.
It’s a really neat way to add yet more RPG flavoring.
Speaking of which, there’s loot to grab during your runs. Tough enemies drop chests that give out equipment with unique benefits and passive boosts. These range from simple things like helmets that increase your defense, to wilder items like boots that leave slowing slime trails and a ring that increases stats while you’re moving but decreases them if you stand still.
You’ll lose all the gear you’re wearing after a run unless you first send it up to your surface headquarters via the well that’s in each dungeon. Gear you’ve sent up is purchasable with gold and subsequently available for any character to permanently wear. Sadly you can only rescue one piece of equipment per run unless you’re lucky enough for an enemy to drop an extra bucket.
The fucker on the other end of the well could just, y’know, send the original bucket back down, but considering he’s selling the shit you found back to you, one can’t expect too much from him. Fucker.
Basically, there’s a bloody lot when it comes to developing characters as you fight through the hordes, and that’s alongside other stuff like permanent upgrades.
The variety of actual dungeons, conversely, is far more limited. At least for now, there are five "Halls" to go through and they behave largely the same way each time you run through them. The lack of unlockable environments is starkly felt due to all the variety elsewhere, and some of them have certain enemies or quirks that make them feel like a bit of a drag.
Part of the issue is the otherwise great aesthetic, which makes quite a few enemy types look generic and indistinct while environments all capture the same dingy atmosphere. It's a terrific art style, of course, but it has contributed to the feeling of treading the same ground.
Agony Mode shakes these stages up at least. This optional mode has a dynamic difficulty that responds to your performance and gives you more ability scrolls as well as less predictable enemy waves. Naturally, the more agonizing the run, the greater your rewards will be.
As you beat stages on Agony Mode, you’ll unlock more modifiers that make things even harder, adding brutal traps or incessant lava explosions. A few of these modifiers, particularly that lava one, just aren’t very fun, sometimes making huge amounts of damage feel practically unavoidable.
It’s a bit of an issue with Agony Mode overall. Depending on your luck, the sheer volume of enemies and the nastiness of modifiers can become quite unenjoyable. At the most extreme levels I’ve had the screen become so cluttered with danger that I had nowhere to move without losing all my HP. It didn’t help that during these moments, at least on the Steam Deck, the framerate chugged to a degree of extremity I’ve seen from no other Survive ‘em Up, making it literally unplayable.
Halls of Torment’s tougher portions often expose how unequal the classes can be - or more to the point, it demonstrates how overwhelmingly more capable of survival the Shield Maiden is than anybody else.
Halls of Torment is well polished and runs without a hitch except for one single but thoroughly dreadful bug - I’ve only seen it while using the Deck so far, but the game can completely freeze without warning, necessitating a full closure of the software. It seems to be a random occurrence, and its happened frequently enough that I’ve cumulatively lost progress that must be a few hours by now.
It says a lot about the game’s quality that I kept coming back for more even after losing a run to technical fuckshittery, but it still sucks that a problem I’ve had since Early Access has made as far as my review build.
If you can stand the risk, or wait for an inevitable patch, there is a ton to like about Halls of Torment, and it’s just a ton of game in general. Some classes could definitely stand to have their survivability improved and I’ve gotten bored of the maps provided, but the gameplay itself is incredibly well put together and I’ve definitely found myself absorbed enough at points to not notice hours going by.
Halls of Torment is more than simply Vampire Survivors wearing Diablo’s clothes. It’s a clever and engrossing Survive ‘em Up that uses RPG trappings to add a ton of versatility and rewarding complexity to what would still be a fun game without it. There’s a pile of quirky character classes and a massive number of ways to build them during each run, just a big pile of content and not a shred of it feels like padding.
Plus, y’know, it is wearing Diablo Clothes, and it’s wearing them with a hell of a lot of style.
8.5/10
