Halls of Torment - vampires visiting Diablo

The phenomenal success of Vampire Survivors (about 7 million copies sold on Steam alone) has sparked a wave of clones, which number in the hundreds. Vampirlike games have been created by almost everyone, including a few Ukrainian ones, but none of them have managed to repeat the success of Vampires. Until now. Because it seems that the German studio Chasing Carrots will be able to challenge Vampire Survivors with Halls of Torment. As it turned out, all that's needed is to add a bit of Diablo to Vampire Survivors.

No, I'm not talking about Diablo IV, which for some reason still causes some players to have bouts of verbal aggression. I'm talking about the classic Diablo I/II, because these games, in addition to Vampire Survivors itself, copied Chasing Carrots.

Everything in Halls of Torment - graphics, character and monster figures, NPC portraits, images of ammunition and skills, the interface, and the levels themselves and their design - remind us of classic action/RPGs of the 1990s. And when we say action/RPGs of the 1990s, the first thing that comes to mind is, of course, Diablo I/II.

Everything else - automatic attack (you can turn it off), choice of abilities after leveling up, 30-minute dungeon runs, an incredible number of enemies and bosses at the end, bonuses and potions, skills and more are here from Vampire Survivors. So you know what to expect.

But I can't call Halls of Torment a 100% unprincipled clone of Vampire Survivors. The basic gameplay cycle and mechanics are copied almost one to one, but the developers from Chasing Carrots have added a lot of their own interesting things to the game.

First, there is armor and jewelry that characters can wear. There is a hero doll in the spirit of Diablo and some basic items. Additional items must be picked up from defeated intermediate bosses, sent to the surface through the Wishing Well, and then redeemed from the Wishing Well NPC to use further. No more than one item per trip unless you find an extra bucket in the dungeons.

Secondly, Halls of Torment has a multi-level metagame. This includes the strengthening of general characteristics for money, as in Vampire Survivors, as well as the completion of quests for different characters and levels. Quests give you extra money, as well as access to new skills and items. Plus, there's also an agony mode that allows you to make quests more difficult and get cursed pieces to improve your characters' characteristics.

These seemingly minor improvements and the general atmosphere of classic 1990s action/RPGs work well, both for player nostalgia and for the game's gameplay complexity and overall addictiveness. As was the case with Diablo 20+ years ago, the formula of "one more run to the dungeon and sleep" works perfectly here.

There are only five endless levels in Halls of Torment, one of which is traditionally a corridor level, but there are ten different characters, a bunch of skills and items, quests and improvements, so you won't get bored and each new passage feels a little different. The game also has a pretty good Ukrainian localization, for which the authors are very grateful.

Let's go back to my statement at the beginning of the review. So can Halls of Torment challenge Vampire Survivors? Yes. I'm not sure if Halls of Torment will be made into a TV series, as Vampire Survivors is supposed to be, but the sales figures for Chasing Carrots' game are really impressive. A Steam rating of 96/100 and about 1 million copies sold. This is certainly not 7 million Vampire Survivors, but it's also very good for an indie project. Several DLCs with new characters have already been released for VS, and it is not yet known whether something similar is planned for Halls of Torment.

Well, Halls of Torment is probably one of the best Vampire Survivors clones that have been released so far. The game evokes pleasant memories and a desire to play classic Diablo, or at least Diablo II: Resurrected.