Slay hordes of terrifying monsters in this horde survival roguelite. Descend into the Halls of Torment where the Lords of the underworld await you. Treasures, magical trinkets, and a growing cast of heroes will grant you the power to vanquish these horrors from beyond. How long can you survive?
Halls of Torment is a horde-survivor roguelike with a dark, old-school Diablo look. It keeps core gameplay simple and instead leans on exploration, a huge amount of unlockables, and a strong sense of progression. He compares the early hours to first playing Vampire Survivors. Drawbacks are poor UI and stat explanations, limited replayability once everything is seen, and too little content per level. His main complaint is simply wanting more, and he places it in A tier.
Liked
Visuals evoke classic Diablo and have a unique charm
Massive amount of unlockables, with achievement boards per character and general boards
First few hours of progression feel amazing, like early Vampire Survivors
Each new level looks different with new enemies, bosses, characters and abilities
Hidden quests in levels (find a tome, follow a blood trail) reward exploration, e.g. boss damage and unlocks
Abilities are cool and some unique; upgrading then evolving them feels great
Game explains itself terribly; UI is bad, e.g. keyword 'force' needs multiple clicks and stays confusing
Stat explanations barely matter since most picks are generally good
Less replayable than other horde-likes once all levels, bosses and abilities are seen
Only one unique quest per level, which disappointed him once he knew
Wants more unique things to find, more bosses and more levels
Top 10 of 2024 (#10)
Halls of Torment is a top-down bullet heaven (which he calls a 'horde-like') with simple controls: move and occasionally aim abilities. He calls it one of the best horde-likes of the year even though it is less unique than other games on his list. Its Diablo 1 style look and hack-and-slash feel are a highlight. His verdict is a solid pick for anyone wanting a simple take that recaptures some of the Vampire Survivors thrill.
Liked
Aesthetics and hack-and-slash gameplay reminiscent of Diablo 1
Plenty of unlockable characters
Unique equipment that opens up many possible builds
Pacing is the best part: constant reward from new maps, secrets, characters and achievements in early hours
Every run feels rewarding and keeps him engaged
Disliked
Gameplay is a bit more repetitive than Vampire Survivors
Wants more secrets and late-game content such as extra encounters or events during runs
Wants more abilities to unlock
User interface and information given to players are weak; stats are hard to understand
A Diablo 1/2-styled horde-survival (Vampire Survivors-like) action roguelite with pre-rendered retro art, from Chasing Carrots (Stuttgart), where you pick a hero, auto-fire abilities into huge mobs and fight a timed ~30-minute run to a boss.
Halls of Torment is rated Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (about 95% of roughly 31.9k reviews) and scores 88 on Metacritic from 8 critics (user score 7.6). Critics and players alike treat it as one of the best Vampire Survivors-likes, mostly on the strength of its Diablo-era atmosphere, build variety and deep meta-progression, though several note it does not reinvent the genre. It was in Early Access from May 2023 (70k+ sales in week one) and had its 1.0 release on Sep 24, 2024; it is still being updated (Boglands DLC Nov 2025, a free Archives preview-update series running through Sep 2026). Recent reviews are a bit cooler (about 83% positive over the last 30 days in one snapshot), driven by stability complaints on high Agony difficulties and by fatigue with fixed-length runs.
Players love
Diablo 1/2 pre-rendered pixel aesthetic, gothic atmosphere and music nail late-90s ARPG nostalgia; PC Gamer and many Steam reviewers single this out
Large hero roster with distinct playstyles plus a huge pool of traits, abilities and items (reviewers cite 1,000+ traits, 60 items, hundreds of rare variants) gives real build variety
Deep meta-progression and unlocks (maps, heroes, quests, Agony difficulty tiers) keep the 'one more run' loop going for hundreds of hours
Excellent value: usually under $10, and several players report 100-300+ hours
Satisfying power fantasy as builds snowball and the screen fills with effects; ARPG-style itemisation and loot feel instead of only passive upgrades
Polished quest/achievement tracker (500 achievements) that gives clear goals; one reviewer calls it the best tracker they have seen
Actively supported developer: years of free updates, paid but well-received DLC, plus mobile (Oct 2024) and PS5/Xbox (Oct 2025) ports
Common complaints
Fixed ~25-30 minute runs: the first ~10 minutes are busy, then long stretches of low-decision autopilot waiting for the boss timer; many negative reviews cite boredom here
Crashes and performance problems in late-game/high Agony content with massive hordes, especially certain abilities (for example Avalanche) and the Boglands map; also reported on Steam Deck and Linux despite 'Verified' status
Buildcraft and map design can feel samey: some players say unlocking all maps/heroes changes little, and Ars Technica (per Wikipedia) noted levels lack distinct identity
Does not innovate beyond the Vampire Survivors formula; several critics and positive reviewers say so
Some achievements depend on rare RNG spawns/events that may not appear, turning completion into waiting
Missing quality-of-life options: no game-speed or run-length toggle, no save-and-resume mid run, no mute when unfocused (per one reviewer)
Sparse 'dopamine drip' feel: one reviewer said it made them hyper-aware of time spent and they walked away
Some reviewers find the game slow and primitive early on: few skills, several heroes feel alike, and some characters are noticeably weaker than others
Can feel tedious
Long stretches of standing and auto-attacking after the map is cleared, waiting for the 30-minute boss
Grinding the 500 achievements, especially those tied to rare enemies or events that refuse to spawn
Crash-induced loss of progress and the need to avoid certain abilities or maps to stay stable at high difficulty
Unlock treadmill where heroes/maps unlocked late do not noticeably change how runs play
Level-up and item pause screens stretch the nominal 30-minute run to roughly 40 real minutes, with no suspend option
What's unique
Fully Diablo-flavoured presentation: pre-rendered sprites, ARPG loot vocabulary, dark fantasy underworld framing and 'Lords' as bosses
Creative director's pitch: Diablo as a three-course meal, this as the candy bar; it plays like a compressed ARPG instead of an arcade score-chaser
Very deep trait/item/rare-variant system and a 500-quest progression layer on top of the usual survivors loop
Timed structure with a mid-run boss spawn and a 30-minute main boss, closer to a Diablo act structure than endless survival
Built in the open-source Godot engine after the team moved away from Unity; five-person studio and a cheap ($6.66) price point
Players want
Add run-length options, a speed-up/turbo toggle, or save-and-return so the 30-minute loop is less of a commitment
Fix stability and memory issues at Agony 3+ and in the Bog before shipping more content (a recurring 'fix crashes first' request on Steam)
Make achievements less RNG-dependent so quests/spawns reliably appear
Increase decision density mid-run (more mid-run choices, events, more differentiated maps) to cut the autopilot stretch
Add audio option to mute when the window is not in focus and general QoL settings
Make buildcraft more exciting / make hero and map unlocks change gameplay more meaningfully
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Roguedex
Tier list Part 3 (2025)
Halls of Torment is a horde-survivor roguelike with a dark, old-school Diablo look. It keeps core gameplay simple and instead leans on exploration, a huge amount of unlockables, and a strong sense of progression. He compares the early hours to first playing Vampire Survivors. Drawbacks are poor UI and stat explanations, limited replayability once everything is seen, and too little content per level. His main complaint is simply wanting more, and he places it in A tier.
Liked
Disliked