‘Skull Horde’, developed and published by 8BitSkull, is very much my sort of game. It’s simple but challenging, basic but interesting; a combination that just works for me. This auto-fight dungeon crawler, while lacking much diverse point-to-point action, is oozing with charm and something I just can’t put my finger on. It’s addictiveness, I swear.

This tale unfolds in the most bizarre way possible, and I was instantly curious. On the eve of your uprising, you, a powerful necromancer, are betrayed….. By yourself. Uncontrollably, your own body raises its sword high, gleaming and sharp, into the air, and cleaves your own head right off your own body! Your own flesh double-crossed you, and while your skull rots in the ground, you decide you WILL have your revenge.

Flesh is TEMPORARY, but bone is FOREVER! This is all shown through an introductory cutscene with impeccable voice acting, and it’s very engrossing. I just wish there were way more scattered throughout, not just at the end of runs, because sometimes they are few and far between.

Gameplay is very similar to another iconic cult game, ‘Vampire Survivor’. You will dive into randomly generated dungeons, each more chaotic than the last, designed to have you die each run to improve on the next. I actually love these types of games, the frustration of constantly dying is there, yes, but achieving progression through skill tree XP is so gratifying, whether it be lasting longer, making it to a further dungeon or the ultimate satisfaction of beating a final dungeon boss. What differs is the amazing array of minions at your disposal; from mages to bombadiers, archers to bannermen, these guys are the stars of the show.

Objectively, you are a floating skull commander with a tiny bone army of varying skills surrounding you to fight in your honour. As they take down attacking enemies in these dungeons, they drop Cudats and Corpuscles. Cudat coins are used to purchase and reroll squad members, and Corpuscles’ blood is used to purchase and to roll items to improve different stats of your run. Things that can be buffed or even debuffed could be damage rates, spawn timers or even ultra-rare buffs that affect the whole squad.

Units in your army that are eventually slain will respawn in the order they die, with a cooldown timer shown at the bottom of the screen. Also, on screen is a blood-filled timer, and every time it turns, the dungeon threat rises, causing enemies to grow in strength and number; an annoying, albeit innovative twist to the genre that can be turned off in settings. A good, challenging addition, though.

In between dungeon levels, as you teleport to the next, you can buy more units with 3 of the same upgrading to a better and more effective tier types, and you can also reroll types using your cudats. Upgrading units of the same class will earn you oaths. These class tags will give you more epic multipliers on an aspect of gameplay, such as damage, dodge, health, etc.

You can also upgrade from drops in chests littered throughout the dungeons and Wraith vendors, where you can buy items that also upgrade stats that can turn the tide of the battle. It all feels a little complicated initially, but you can quickly work your head around it and master progression as you strategise which units to buy to get that much-needed upgraded power. It’s a very deep system.

As you progress and meet challenge requirements, you can unlock new levels of dungeons and even different types of skulls to use, each with its own set of skills to drop in with. Also, you can add your own challenges before even entering, called ‘Curses’ and ‘Rites’, one dealing with a negative and the other a positive effect. This adds a bit more variety, as the game does at times lack some differentiation as you get most things unlocked. A few more outlandish and visually defining attacks would help distinguish factions of units from what is often just a swarm on the screen.

Visually, the game to me is a stunning ode to retro games of the past. Delivered in an 8-bit style, the dungeons are dark and menacing, but the enemies are deep shades of fleshy reds. You yourself are shades of vibrant greens to contrast perfectly with the levels, a perfect visual juxtaposition. There isn’t a great deal of detail, but there is enough to feel like you are on an old arcade system.

The voice acting, as stated at the start, is perfect. The Necromancer’s voice dominated the short amount of scenes; worth every cent to develop such an atmosphere in the short narrative. The sound effects and music are generally not very memorable, not particularly bad, though I often found myself multitasking while playing anyway.

Despite the slight slumps in point-to-point gameplay, Skull Horde is very addictive, and I melt minutes melt away into hours, because it’s definitely a game you can play while listening to something in the background. With truly authentic retro graphics, it’s visually satisfying, and with tidbits of awesome lore, you will find yourself willing to keep pressing on to get your revenge… on yourself.

Written by: Stacey