revealed a surprising amount of depth for what could first appear to be a simple action-roguelike. And there’s so much more for me to see: What’s the Ascension Battle like? How hard is it to face down Lucifer?

, and though I initially tried to fade into the pixels and treat it as a single-player game, I quickly found myself emoting and seeking groups of warriors to join.

With dozens of enemies and allies on-screen at any given time, this alone is a notable achievement by developer Thunder Lotus.

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Dodging enemy attacks is a massive factor in a game like this, akin to a bullet-hell title at points, so this is a big win in my book for better situation readability.

This multi-tiered approach to finishing your roguelike “run” is challenging, yet very fun to play with — even though I only managed to complete just three Torture Chambers before succumbing to the elements (aka ‘ripped apart by monsters’). As I would learn during repeated runs – it seems the number of completed Torture Chambers is retained should you die and reenter Inferno — the larger the group of fellow Souls I traveled with, the larger my chances of survival became – and you can imagine how much bigger those chances get with 32 other people on your side.

, is pelo different – unless its 'fighting to get out of the circles of hell' theme is somehow weirdly connected to Spiritfarer

Meanwhile, dying means becoming a pinprick of light that another player can find and revive before a timer runs out. Coming back into the fight is always a good time. However, returning like this cuts down the health bar by quite a margin. Dying in this reduced state means it’s a trip straight back to the Dark Woods.

Mass multiplayer dungeon diving being its primary strength can also be a pitfall if not enough players end up being available to sustain it in a few months’ time. Game Pass is a valuable launch platform in this regard, but not having a Steam version may hurt the game more than a little.

How much more difficult will the second world, Purgatorio, be compared with Inferno? How badass can I make my weapons? What’s it like to run around hell with a beagle by your side? These are all exciting questions I’m looking forward to answering once 33 Immortals

Each of these weapons have a primary and secondary attack that rely on you inflicting damage on enemies to build up their respective gauges.

Being an early access release, Thunder Lotus has a lot more planned for the title following its initial release. 33 Immortals Gameplay On the road to 1.0, the studio hopes to add more features like private sessions, more enemy and boss variety, and the third world that let players fight God.

As the name probably already gave it away, dozens enter a single session, all hoping for the best drops and team-mates that might have their back when the going gets tough.

You start a run by picking a weapon — justice sword, sloth staff or greed daggers — and each has a special ability that only works when three players stand together and activate it. It’s different for each weapon, but the effect is consistently grand. I stuck with the Staff of Sloth, a weapon that flings purple balls of magic and whose special ability slows enemies across a large swath of the battlefield.