HORDEKILL

☀️

Jak dla mnie, nędza. Odpuszczam po 30 minutach grania. Monotonne. No i ten zielony kolor. Blueee

HORDEKILL caught me off guard because the setting is so strange. I am dropped onto an alien world where a group of slaves are fighting against the creatures that conquered them, and everything around me looks completely messed up. The world is full of strange biomechanical structures, torture devices and creatures that look like they came from some horrible nightmare. It has a very dark science fiction style that I think works really well, especially because the game does not try to make the setting look clean or normal. The actual shooting is pretty straightforward, but there is a good amount of pressure behind it. I am fighting through waves of alien creatures from a third person view while trying to use cover and survive long enough to keep going. The enemies can come at me in large numbers, so I have to pay attention to where I am standing rather than just shooting everything in front of me. There is also a first person section at the start, before the game moves into its main third person combat, which gives the opening a slightly different feel. The card system is probably my favourite part of the gameplay. After each wave I get to choose different cards that can change how the next part of the run plays. Some can make enemies attack each other, while others can increase my damage or give me strange creatures that help me fight. I like this because it means I am not simply doing the same run over and over with exactly the same setup. I can make different choices and see how they affect the way I deal with the next group of enemies. I also liked the story more than I expected. I am playing as a slave fighting against the people who conquered my planet and turned my species into food for their higher Lords. Another escaped slave fights alongside me with a shotgun, and his survival can depend on the cards I choose and how well I play. It is not a massive story with loads of characters and dialogue, but the basic idea gives the violence a reason to exist and makes the world feel more disturbing than just being a collection of monsters to shoot. The biggest issue for me is that the combat can start feeling repetitive once I have seen enough of the enemy types and worked out the basic rhythm. The card system helps with this, but I still wanted more weapons and more ways to approach the fights. I also think some of the movement and shooting could feel smoother. The game is free, which makes the rough edges much easier for me to forgive, and there is a small supporter pack with extra skins and the option to play as an enemy, but I would still like the main game itself to have more variety. The visuals are easily one of the strongest things about HORDEKILL. The grotesque creatures and bizarre alien structures give it a personality that the simpler combat would not have been able to create on its own. There are also 13 achievements, which gives me a few extra things to work towards after I have learned the main gameplay loop. I think the atmosphere does a lot of the heavy lifting here, because even when I am doing another combat section, I still want to see what strange thing is waiting around the next corner. Overall, I think HORDEKILL is a really solid free sci fi shooter with a genuinely memorable atmosphere. The combat is simple and can become repetitive, but the cover shooting, wave structure and changing card choices give me enough to work with. What really keeps me interested is the bizarre world and the brutal story behind it. I would have liked more weapons, enemies and combat variety, but I still think the game has a strong identity and does a good job of making a small shooter feel much stranger than it first appears. Rating: 7.5/10

Si cuando jugaste a SCORN pensaste "Joder, ojalá fuese un horde shooter muy indie en vez de un FPS/puzzler", hoy es tu día de suerte porque HORDEKILL es justamente eso. El juego es increíblemente indie, no esperéis un grado de pulido bestial porque no lo tiene, pero consigue ofrecer una experiencia con un feeling bastante bueno reminiscente de cuando el modo horda de Gears of War 2 era el no va más. Tiros, habilidades y rollito Giger por un tubo totalmente gratis, ni tan mal.

has potential but not there yet, kudos for free tho