Warriors: Abyss

Warriors: Abyss may stumble in its open-ended, cookie-cutter story and cut-and-paste boss battles, but the replayability that comes from its combat and the customization of its multitude of characters and builds helped keep me slashing through thousands of enemies for dozens of hours of roguelite runs.

The four levels of Hell you'll be carving a path through are well-defined if not terribly interesting, and can get ludicrously cluttered with effects at times; so much so that brief frame rate dips can occur during particularly hectic moments.

Warriors: Abyss is a decent low-budget spinoff in the long-running hack 'n' slash series, but isn't particularly inspiring. There's tons of replayability, loads of unlockables, and a thrilling combat system that help to keep this one interesting for a while, but its paper-thin plot, repetitive gameplay, and poor visuals very much hold it back from being anything exceptional. We'd give this one a modest recommendation to fans of either roguelites, Musou games, or both, but with the caveat that you may want to wait to pick this one up on a deep sale sometime later on.

This is not a game with ambitions to stand up and box with Hades, and it obviously isn’t “the next Warriors” by any means either. It’s a fascinating experiment that misses as many targets as it hits.

Warriors: Abyss is a shallow Hades riff that doesn't put its creative squad building hook to good use.

Each level ups the stakes until the fight is an explosion of attacks, effects, purple danger zones, support heroes and carefully-managed chaos.

Warriors: Abyss surprised me in the best way. It took all the elements that made Dynasty Warriors great and combined them effortlessly into a fun roguelite experience. While each run is short and compact, the screen can get muddled with flashy effects, and there’s next to no story, Koei Tecmo has released a video game dripping with addictive gameplay and oodles of replayability. Even though I managed to tear myself away from Warriors: Abyss, I know I’ll be jumping back in for the customary “just one more go”.

Warriors Abyss is a solid roguelite experience that will appeal to fans of the Warriors series, with a massive character roster and engaging combat that shines in the early stages. While the difficulty and repetitive gameplay may lead to frustration, its smooth performance and satisfying core loop offer plenty of hours for those up for the challenge.

Warriors: Abyss is a fun spin-off that brings some good ideas to the marriage between musou and roguelite. Unfortunately, its limitations prevent it from delivering more, but it should satisfy fans of the franchise for a few hours.

Warriors: Abyss offers up some satisfying hack-and-slash entertainment, but it falls short of its true potential.