Undead Horde

Genre: Top-Down Action-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Undead Horde is a Top-Down Action-RPG released on mobile devices, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2019. This game puts you in the role of an undead necromancer escaping from magical confinement and seeking to regain your former power and raise an undead army to wreak havoc on the living world.

The presentation in this game makes use of pretty simple low-poly 3D visuals, but there’s a reason for this – as the game progresses, you will be controlling an increasingly large horde of undead soldiers, and no doubt the graphical simplicity was in part to offset the complexity of the large number of characters moving around at a given time. These simple visuals are accompanied by some fun, cheesy voice acting filled with lots of fun pop culture references, and a subdued, moody soundtrack that fits the game’s theme but clashes humorously with its silly tone. It all works, and makes for an overall appealing experience.

When it comes to the gameplay, the simple way of describing this would be to say that it plays like a cross between Diablo and Pikmin. However, that’s not quite accurate. Your control over your horde of minions isn’t as fine-tuned and individualized as what was in Pikmin, and character customization is nowhere near as deep and involved as what’s in the Diablo series. However, while it may not beat either of those respected franchises at their own game, the combination of elements works really well together and makes for a fun and unique experience.

One part of this experience that I particularly enjoyed was the fact that, being a necromancer, players are able to re-animate the bodies of slain enemies and add them to their horde, even including enemy boss characters. To balance this out, players are kept from becoming too powerful by having a limit to how many minions they can control, with each type of minion requiring a different amount of control points to command. This gives players some fun and interesting choices in assembling their army – do they want to fill out their ranks with melee attackers? Archers? Big hulking bears? A flock of chickens? Finding the right combination, and then augmenting that combination with spells that buff their unique talents, is one of the fun challenges of the game.

On the other hand, I do have some issues with a few frustrating elements here. On occasion, you’ll inevitably find your army torn apart by enemies that overpower you, and minions who are killed often enough can’t be re-animated again. As a result, you could find yourself having to hoof it back to your lair to re-summon a new army, something that’s needlessly tedious. In addition, I’m disappointed to see that enemies don’t respawn, meaning that if I wanted to grind my way to supremacy, I simply wouldn’t have the option.

While there are definitely areas here that could do with improvement, overall I found Undead Horde to be a delightful game, one that does a superb job marrying some of the best elements of two great franchises while still being unique in its own right. It’s not without its flaws, but overall I think this is absolutely a game that Action-RPG fans on Nintendo Switch should get their bony, decaying hands on.

tl;dr – Undead Horde is a Top-Down Action-RPG that mixes elements of Diablo and Pikmin, with players taking the role of a necromancer re-animating the dead to form the ranks of his growing army. There are areas where this game could be improved, but overall it is a fun and original take on the genre and well worth playing.

Grade: B

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