Halls of Torment Review

Vampire Survivors meets classic Diablo in a new roguelike survivor game perfect for handhelds like the Steam Deck.

Vampire Survivors became a smash hit in 2022 and is still beloved today - an indie roguelike with visuals inspired by classic Castlevania games from Konami. Regarding how it plays, it distils the classic action RPG formula into a bite-sized 30-minute slice of dopamine hits, fireworks, and rewards. Cynically, it can be described as a game that just about plays itself, but in reality, it makes the mathematical numbers game that sits under the hood of every action RPG the main focus.

With bullet-hell elements, secrets to discover, and a long list of quests and achievements to unlock, Vampire Survivors nails its tone and vibe so convincingly that it has spawned several Survivors-like games -- or clones. With the arrival of the Steam Deck in Australia (stay tuned for our review), I recently jumped back into Vampire Survivors to check out its new Castlevania DLC -- which is fantastic.

In addition to dipping into classics like Batman: Arkham Knight (which looks and runs very well on Valve’s handheld) and the long-awaited Red Dead Redemption remaster, I’ve also been checking out random Vampire Survivors-style games. It’s a style of play that is easy to fall under the spell of -- passive, hypnotic, and that engaging sweet spot that feels right at home on a handheld. 

Halls of Torment

Genre: Roguelike
Developer: Chasing Carrots
Publisher: Chasing Carrots
Release Date: September 2024
Classification:
Author: Kosta Andreadis
Date: November 19, 2024

After a few weeks of trying several different Survivors-like games, only two hit the same heights as the original Vampire Survivors - Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and Halls of Torment. The latter is the focus of this review and can be summarised as follows: What Vampire Survivors is to 16-bit Castlevania games, Halls of Torment is to old-school Diablo. 

"It’s a style of play that is easy to fall under the spell of - passive, hypnotic, and that engaging sweet spot that feels right at home on a handheld."

The pixel art style, the isometric perspective, and your choice of heroes or classes sitting around a campfire. Bosses and elite enemies that look like they could be found around and underneath the town of Tristram. And really, the pixelated 2D sprites that look like they were rendered on one of those Silicon Graphics workstations from the mid-1990s are enough to warrant a look.

From a vibe perspective, Halls of Torment nails the retro CD-ROM era voice acting, 16-bit sound effects, and compressed music. This carries over to the gameplay, which initially feels like a simple riff on Vampire Survivors but quickly evolves into its own thing - to an extent. Each class has its own set of weapons, stats, and strengths/weaknesses, which is familiar; equipping them with their loadout of armor and leveling up various stats that make sense for them is brilliant. 

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Even though Vampire Survivors launched in 2022, it has already spawned several ‘clones’ or games that have drawn inspiration from its design and roguelike formula. Here are just a few: 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Brotato, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, Codename: Ocean Keeper, Zombie Survivors, Void Scrappers, and, of course, Halls of Torment.

The fact that the roguelike-style progression of the Survivors-like games spills over to finding items and equipping each character with a different loadout of armor, rings, and amulets is pure Diablo gold. The way character stats and Diablo-style item affixes serve as the in-game progression feels spot-on for the tone. It even gets to a point where you start chasing rare and unique items with powerful build-changing stats for the various classes.

There’s a quest system with objectives and challenges to complete, bosses to battle, and a mode that lets you ramp up the difficulty for more significant challenges and rewards. It builds on top of the formula laid out by Vampire Survivors by rewarding you with new abilities, experience, and other elements.

"The fact that the roguelike-style progression of the Survivors-like games spills over to finding items and equipping each character with a different loadout of armor, rings, and amulets is pure Diablo gold."

However, like Survivors, it doesn’t take long (around a dozen or so hours) before it begins to feel like progression slows down, and all you’re doing is chasing that next objective. Having the ‘Main Quest’ objectives move between the various classes, stages, weapons, boss battles, and secrets is great, but unlocking rare and powerful gear to equip takes a backseat to things like ‘Survive for this amount of time in this Stage with this Character’.

Also, there’s no real story or narrative meat that transcends its classic Diablo aesthetic. A game like this doesn’t necessarily need a narrative through-line, but with voiced characters that act as merchants and other things, they’re nothing more than the sort of talking animated GIFs you saw when you clicked on a random soldier in StarCraft. Halls of Torment doesn’t need to go as far as Hades in roguelike storytelling stakes, but something would be better than the sporadic teases of lore you get.

Even after 20+ hours, Halls of Torment still has its hooks in me. It’s one of those perfect bite-sized games you spend hours playing when you have a spare 20 or 30 minutes. 

What’s Boss?

  • Nails the Vampire Survivors tone and feel
  • Retro Diablo-inspired visuals
  • Good class/character variety
  • Finding and equipping powerful armor to create new load-outs
  • Boss battles, quests, and hidden secrets keep you engaged

Not Boss Enough?

  • Becomes repetitive and 'grindy' after a few hours
  • Performance grinds to a halt when there's too much happening on screen
  • Voiced characters to 'rescue' but no real narrative to be found

A new survival roguelike that takes its aesthetic and progression cues inspiration from the first two iconic Diablo games. If you're a fan of the breakout hit Vampire Survivors and looking for something similar, look no further.

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About the Author

Written By Kosta Andreadis
Kosta Andreadis is a veteran gaming and technology writer with decades of experience across news, reviews, and in-depth articles. Between Diablo seasons, he can be found creating new electronic jams (music, not the digital condiment) and tinkering with retro gaming hardware.
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