Skull Horde

As someone who likes dungeon crawlers and survivor-like games, Skull Horde felt like home. It was great to play, with an interesting setting, wonderful 8-bit visuals and a very good gameplay loop. It also adds some complex systems like upgrades which help further enhance the gameplay and make it even more fun.

What makes the game a challenge, and this is where the core gameplay comes in, is the enemies throughout the dungeons. Hordes of various nasty hellspawn gravitate towards you, the skull, and your band of merry murderers. In Skull Horde, it’s a matter of getting from point A to point B without being overwhelmed and collecting enough resources to reinforce for the next area. Akin to Risk of Rain 2, Skull Horde uses a timer mechanic to gradually ramp up the difficulty of each run. So, the weigh up is: grind out enemies for more resources, but end up with significantly harder enemies in the next area, or rush through and end up underpowered. The final boss of each level is much more of a struggle when its minions are beefed up from a slow run-through.

Skull Horde is a unique product within a saturated genre. By combining the unpredictability of roguelikes with a genuine strategic layer, the game manages to stand out without sacrificing accessibility, giving any player the ability to jump in and understand its concept, but mastering it is another challenge.