LifeisXbox’s Undead Horde Review | It’s time to take control of a necromancer, raise your very own undead army, and order them to obey your every command as you venture through various territories and kill all living beings that dare to stand in your path. Undead Horde is an action RPG and RTS will have you fighting off groups of enemies, structures, and bosses in the ultimate quest to claim back your kingdom. Whilst you grow and change your horde, you will encounter multiple NPCs with quests that ultimately will bring you closer to achieving complete domination of all living beings. Pick up different categories of loot as you go and mix up your build depending on which playstyle suits you best. Whether you want a large army of smaller minions, a small-scale army consisting of larger minions, or a mixture of both, you will be given endless opportunities to switch between who will walk beside you and ultimately purge whatever stands against you. Even turn the living into the undead and make them serve your cause. This action-packed adventure title has been developed and published by 10tons Ltd. and is certainly a simple yet effective concept that manages to keep your attention as you grow in strength. Take back the land. Live, die, respawn and repeat. One thing is for sure. Leave no-one alive. Only in death can you truly be alive.
VicciVulpix played Undead Horde for twelve hours on Xbox One S. This game is also available on Xbox One S/X, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Android, iOS, Steam, Microsoft Windows, and Linux.
What we liked!
- Vanquish, grow, upgrade | One of the main features in Undead Horde is the ability to change your items and upgrade yourself throughout. There are plenty of different builds you can use, whether it be to benefit yourself or your horde. You can have a physical and magical weapon along with five other items all equipped at the same time. There are various types of each item to allow you the option to try out different combinations to see what works out the best for you and your playstyle. Along with this, every time you gain a level, you will be given three options to improve your necromancer. These increase your health, damage, command, and mana every time but each card will work more in favour of one or two stats. For example, you may choose a card that benefits your health more than your other stats if you find yourself struggling to survive attacks.
- Customise your horde | Being able to control your own horde, change them around at the crypt, and take control of dead enemies were some very enjoyable elements of Undead Horde. As you progress through the game, killing enemies will allow you to unlock them for your horde in the future. In the crypt, you can see your progress towards each unit and how many more kills you will need to fulfill the target goal. You may choose from ranged, close quarters, tank, and even previous bosses you’ve managed to slay (though these will cost you gold). If you decide you’re not enjoying the current composition, you can either wait for them to be killed off or simply kill them off yourself whenever you want and return to the crypt for a whole new mob of loyal servants.
- Improve your Crypt | You have gold and you find yourself unsure what to use it on? Fear not! As you work your way through the quests given to you by NPCs, you’ll notice some will say they’re going to the Crypt. Once there, they will all sell unique types of items for you to purchase should you feel you’re not getting on with your current item or you simply need an upgrade. It’s also good to remember you can then invest your money in them by either contributing (this is shown as a percentage and once at 100%, you will be paying to shuffle the current items) or increasing their shop level to match yours which will then unlock better gear for you to crush the opposition. No refunds though.
- Good replay value | Now, my first playthrough took around twelve hours which I thought was a decent length/amount of time for the money. What adds replayability to Undead Horde is the Era mode you encounter once you’ve finished the main story of the game. Should you choose to play through again, Era mode allows you to keep your necromancer, gear, and previously obtained horde options with the exception of named bosses that you’ll have to kill again to gain access to. Era mode also clears the entire map for you to reclaim and increases the overall difficulty throughout each section. I think this is a great way to keep players interested as not only does it create a more challenging experience, it also takes you into the unknown as to exactly what standard of gear there could still be yet to obtain.
- Satisfying audio | From the music to the in-game sound effects, everything sounded harrowing as it should. Due to the resurrecting and death aspects of Undead Horde, I expected some type of horror theme throughout and this certainly was the case. The music managed to not only feel ominous but soothing in a really unique way and I loved every second of it. When in hostile areas, the music stays menacing but adds a touch of excitement and adventure to make for a venturesome atmosphere. Creating your horde from the crypt sounded like you were doing magic to summon them as it should. When finding myself on the battlefield, the sounds for both magic and melee attacks were reasonable. Breaking objects in the environment had natural sounds. I can’t fault the audio because everything worked well.
- Visual design | Now, I’m all for detailed graphics in the majority of modern games. However, the design used in Undead Horde looked wonderful. The combination of bright and gloomy colouring worked well together to create somewhat of a contrast between life and death. The graphics across the environment and characters were pretty simplistic with some hints of detail. Not every section looked the same as there were snowy, desert, forest, and indoor sections spread around. I personally enjoyed the close-quarters combat that came with the indoor sections. Usually, I wouldn’t be a fan of these visuals but I can surely make an exception for Undead Horde.
Somewhere between
- Overall story | If I’m being honest, I wasn’t massively interested in what the story had to offer. I knew the main plot was that your necromancer got freed and you then have to work with others to take back control of your kingdom and that alone was enough for me. The NPCs you come across do add some background to the game but I feel they are mainly there to give you quests thus allowing you to progress. There were no plot twists that caused the story to change direction which maybe wasn’t exactly necessary but I think if the story would have received more attention, I would have felt more invested in Undead Horde.
- Somewhat repetitive | Admittedly, Undead Horde is somewhat repetitive in terms of what your goals will be each time you get a new mission but this didn’t affect the fun I was having at any point. This is because the thought of acquiring better gear, leveling up, and the possibility of new horde options kept me very much entertained. You’ll find you’ve been requested to find items or clear areas the majority of the time but in defense of them, many games end up being repetitive in some way shape or form. However, that doesn’t always mean you won’t be finding enjoyment as you progress. If anything, I don’t think Undead Horde suffered much at all as the focus always meant you would get something for your troubles which made up for this other than getting to the next level.
What we disliked
- Death wasn’t punishing | One element that I felt was missing was that of having no punishment or negative impact on you whenever you died. I believe with this added, I would have been more cautious of what I was taking on and worked around areas in a more strategic way. When I found myself dying relatively frequently in challenging areas, it really didn’t matter because I could destroy structures, die, and repeat to stop enemies re-spawning from the buildings as these were the only part that saved when you perished. Having absolutely no loss of experience or gold felt like I could do anything and not have to worry about consequences. It just made it seem as if I was cheating the original concept of the game to take on whole areas at a time rather than slowly picking away at them. Even a small percentage lost could have changed how I played Undead Horde entirely.
CONCLUSION
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Hello, I’m Victoria. I’m from the UK and have been playing video games for as long as I can remember; back on DreamCast. I’ve pretty much fallen for Xbox since I was around eight years old and remember BioShock being my first game on the Xbox360. Although I find it thoroughly enjoyable to not only experience gameplay, I also find comfort in getting lost and engrossed in the online worlds that sometimes differ greatly from what we know. Another side of my Xbox passion would be achievement hunting and gamerscore. I thrive when I hear the little sound of one popping up on the screen and I’m always finding ways to work on my backlog when possible. Horror is my favourite genre so if you have any recommendations, don’t be afraid to send them my way!
