The last time I checked in with Hordes of Hunger, we were in a pre-Megabonk world. The hack-and-slash survival roguelike had just launched into early access, and it wouldn’t be until many months later that the bright colors and skateboarding skeletons of Megabonk took over the cultural zeitgeist in a whirlwind success story. Hordes of Hunger 1.0 has just arrived, and it’s ideal if you crave more measured, intentional action – or prefer a splash of grimdark fantasy with your run-based mayhem.
Hordes of Hunger comes from Hyperstrange, the developer behind excellent eldritch shooter Blood West. While its horde survival bears plenty in common with the likes of Vampire Survivors and Megabonk, you’re given direct control over the action here. Pull the camera back a little, and you might be forgiven for thinking it was Diablo, but I prefer to zoom into the chaos, giving the whole experience more of a ‘Dark Souls on steroids’ vibe.
Rather than simply sliding away from everything that approaches you, Hordes of Hunger embraces its more weighty combat. Incoming attacks are presaged by a closing circle marker, and you’re able to avoid them with a dash, dodge, or parry. The Bloodborne-style sidestep is quick and can be buffed with skills you learn as your character grows, the roll provides some invincibility frames to escape tight situations, and parrying poses the greatest risk, with the biggest potential reward through counterattacks.
There’s a range of weapons on offer, from fast swords to heavy-hitting greathammers. Upgrades work much like Vampire Survivors, with each level you earn offering you a choice between three possible boons. Some add specific damage types to your attacks, others can apply buffs when certain triggers are met, and a handful will offer long-term stat growth for every level gained after picking them up. There are defensive options that can provide brief protection on a cooldown, or even offer you hyper-armor that lets you soak up incoming hits while charging a strike of your own.
Hyperstrange has injected Hordes of Hunger with more narrative weight than many of its peers can boast, too. Your home between runs is the Sanctum, which floats between time and plays host to your parents. There, you can improve your loadout and cook meals that provide food buffs to kickstart your next outing. Other characters will join the Sanctum as you progress deeper, with full voice acting lending the whole experience a Hades-like presentation. It doesn’t hit quite as hard as Supergiant’s epic, but it serves to keep giving you reasons to care about the world.
Those reasons to care extend into the quest design. Often, you’ll simply be tasked with taking down a certain amount of enemies to progress, but that begins to shift. Early on, you might need to recover food stores being held out in the world to feed the survivors back at base. Later, you’ll find yourself hunting a mage that’s performing rituals to defile the land, or playing hide-and-seek with playful spirits. There’s more variety here than I initially expected, and that helps to elevate Hordes of Hunger above the pack.
Version 1.0 introduces more upgrade levels for many of the perks, along with two additional difficulty modes to push you to your limits. ‘Nightmare’ increases the enemy count, buffs some of the grunts, and makes its big fights significantly tougher. ‘Hell’ escalates those even further, with a significant number of regular enemies boosted and boss fights gaining elemental immunities that you’ll need to deal with.
Hordes of Hunger 1.0 is out now on Steam, and it’s 20% off until Thursday February 19 to celebrate. Expect to pay $11.99 / £10.23 if you buy it now, or $14.99 / £13.79 once the sale ends. Head here to take a look for yourself.
There are also some bundle deals on offer that increase the savings further, including one with Hyperstrange’s aforementioned Blood West, which is a great pickup in its own right. Hordes of Hunger has come a long way since I first saw it back at Gamescom 2024, and it’s definitely one to investigate if you’re all Megabonked out.