Hordes of Hunger | PC Early Access Review

Hungry for some demon-killing action? Grab a controller and dive into hordes of enemies in Hordes of Hunger from Hyperstrange! When I first laid my eyes upon what appeared to be a feast of a game, I was instantly excited by what appeared to be a combination of an ARPG akin to Diablo mixed with the horde survivor games such as the behemoth Vampire Survivors, which our own Scott Clark reviewed. Could Hordes of Hunger sate my appetite for evil-slaying destruction?

All Alone

Right out of the gate, Hordes of Hunger feels like stepping into a warm and familiar, albeit deadly and dangerous, place after an overstayed vacation. The game opens with you controlling a girl named Mirah, and in a short time you find that she is tasked with removing a curse from her world, lest it be plunged into darkness if she cannot. “Father” is your only contact, at least the only one not trying to kill you, and offers aid in whatever way possible in your ventures. This is where the roguelite features come into play, but more on that later. Soon, on your adventures, you find other survivors that will offer their assistance as well. 

This is Hordes of Hunger’s method of delivering its dark and mesmerizing story. While it’s slow, trickling feed of story bits keeps the immersion neck deep, this is also my single negative mark on the game. With the story beats so far apart due to how long it takes to progress, some of the deeper points and conversations can become lost in the mix. I often completely forgot about them and became confused trying to thread them together. Luckily, the Codex helped to tie things back together, although only loosely.

In A Dark World

The world Hordes of Hunger deploys is very dark, melancholic, and presented excellently. Even amidst the hordes having generally the same design and enemy types throughout each arena, the atmosphere permeates an evil and grungy darkness that really makes you feel like you are wading through hell itself. The music that accompanies each atmosphere adds to the feeling of despair, and quite often I found myself drawn to a dark, brooding emotion that was oddly enjoyable as I slayed foe upon foe.

Be The Light

What Hordes of Hunger does with its roguelite system is quite intriguing. Similar to every other game in the genre, after you slay enough enemies to gain enough experience, you level up. When doing so, you are given three different perks from which to choose. Some will be for stat boosts, some for abilities you can use going forward, and some are increases for those abilities in some form or another. All are pretty run of the mill features. Hyperstrange applies stat increases differently in a way I’ve never seen done before. Instead of a simple “+5% attack” or adding multipliers each time that you get that perk, their method is a “+2% every time you level up after choosing this perk.” Each time you receive the perk afterwards, it multiplies the % bonus you receive when you level up. 

Hordes of Hunger’s  gameplay and advancement systems are a shining beacon of light in a world flooded with horde games since the success of Vampire Survivors. To begin with, the multi faceted, arena based level design is an unexpected, refreshing spin on the horde survivor game. While plenty of them have had an arena based system, Hordes of Hunger adds a form of verticality with platforms. Run up a flight of stairs to escape the horde if you’ve taken heavy damage, or dash through an upper corridor to surprise the groups of enemies waiting just beyond.

Find Help

The character called “Father” offers his assistance to Mirah in a couple of different ways One of these is the ability to retrieve her from the realms she dives into, either when she’s too injured to proceed, or by her own wishes. The latter is an option available to you at segment breaks in each run, bringing me to the next facet in Hordes of Hunger’s gameplay.

Each run is divided into three segments. After culling enough of the horde, you are treated to a reprieve in the action, called Sanctuary, as “Father” freezes time in your realm. At this point, you can choose to return to the safety of the starting hub. Doing so allows you to keep any currencies or keys that you’ve collected during the run, but obviously ends the run there. This lends to a risk / reward feature, where dying causes you to lose some of the resources you’ve acquired. The second feature “Father” helps with is providing permanent upgrades using the aforementioned resources.

The other option during Sanctuary is to find and complete a random objective in the arena, and afterwards, the game proceeds as normal. The final segment ends with a climactic clash with a random boss, and if you survive, you have completed that run. Your rewards include numerous items, such as weapon parts to build a new weapon, resources to upgrade, and many more.. This, coupled with the ARPG mechanics and the minor yet game changing tweaks to the roguelite perk system, make Hordes of Hunger a true gem.

To hear me talk more about Hordes of Hunger, be sure to listen to the May 8th, 2025 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:47:39 time stamp.

This review is based off of a PC copy of Hordes of Hunger provided by Kwalee for coverage purposes. As of this writing, it is exclusive to that platform.