33 Immortals is the new game from developer and publisher Thunder Lotus Games, currently in Early Access, and it marks a stark departure from their previous title. Where Spiritfarer (2020) was a cozy and relaxing story-focused single-player game that really pulled on your heartstrings, 33 Immortals is a co-op action roguelike with barely any story to speak of. I’m not sure that pivot was really for the best.
You play a damned soul trapped in the afterlife who decides to defy God and fight your way through hell and beyond. The depiction of the afterlife here is modeled after the famous literary classic The Divine Comedy, with author Dante Alighieri even being a character in the game. 33 Immortals has primarily three areas that you’ll be running around in: the hub area which has a number of NPCs that can help you with your gear and skills, the Inferno that you have to fight your way through round after round, and smaller dungeons within the Inferno in which you collect loot.
The general structure is really like any other roguelike. There are four weapons you can choose between (bow, staff, sword and shield, dual blades), and once you’ve picked one, you run out into the battle. From killing enemies, you will get items to make you stronger for the run, as well as XP to upgrade your stats. If you’re lucky, an enemy might even drop a badge that can be equipped and upgraded for permanent enhancements. If you get keys, you can join little dungeons with a small group in which you have to fight waves of enemies for even better loot. If you die, there’s a one-time revive. If you die again, it’s back to the hub and prepare for the next run.
The big difference from your usual roguelike is the fact that 33 Immortals is an MMO. You don’t do runs by yourself; you do them with 32 other players. And with that, the larger progression within the game felt much closer to a sort of live-service MMO than a standard roguelike. You do have the runs that you do over and over again, but your real goal is completing the feats. They’re a bunch of different little quests you have to do with pretty meaningless tasks like using an ability a certain amount of time, killing a specific enemy a number of times, or destroying an objective in the environment during your runs. With that also come daily quests, of course. That’s the real metaprogression 33 Immortals offers you, and it’s pretty damn boring to be honest.
While 33 Immortals requires you to play with other players, it’s barely built around that, to my disappointment. You do need to fight enemies together, but that’s for the simple reason that they have way too much health to ever be killed on your own. But beyond that? You can revive each other. And there is the special move you have once your bar is full that requires other people for activation. But that’s basically it. I understand that building a multiplayer game like that around too much cooperation could be dangerous and remove the fun for people when others aren’t going along with it. But this is the only element that makes 33 Immortals unique compared to other games like it. Make better use of it.
The combat is also super slow. Not just because the enemies have an unreasonable amount of health (though that certainly does not help), but the attacks feel clunky. Even using the dual blades still feels sluggish. But even with the calmer combat, it doesn’t really feel strategic. You still get by just fine by mashing the attack button as long as you dodge roll at the right timing. You had the opportunity here to create a massive, fast-paced, hectic battlefield with 33 players and any number of monsters; instead, it’s just a bunch of players swinging their swords around in the hopes of hitting something.
33 Immortals needs more interesting quests to complete and more exciting combat that emphasizes cooperation with players more. In its current form, I just got tired of it very quickly and have no desire to return to it. If they don’t make huge additions to the game for the full release, I doubt I will.
Nairon played 33 Immortals on PC with a provided review copy.
