Warriors Abyss review – Beautifully complicated

Warriors Abyss is an action roguelike, and I am completely obsessed. There are 100+ heroes to play and more coming with DLC, and a surprising level of depth that I wasn’t expecting. You can summon these heroes as you push through the game, and each one has a different ability that will aid you. On top of that, you can select any of these heroes to play as, and each character plays differently. 

As you fight through hell, you’ll be met with a variety of enemies and damage types, bosses, and while you go through that, you’ll be enjoying a beautiful soundtrack. This was my first Warriors game, and it ran me for a loop, but after restarting the game and diving deeper into the mechanics, this game became an absolute joy to play. 

There is a lot of fun to be had here

Warriors Abyss plays and runs beautifully. I am playing on the Xbox Series S and have had no issues playing through the game. I had to restart once because I failed to understand the gameplay. There is a surprising level of depth here, but some of this depth is hampered by weird design decisions and a lack of clarity within the tutorials. 

Each phase lasted about 11-15 seconds for me when I first started, and that was satisfying enough for me. I have played both Hades 1 and 2, as well as TMNT: Splitters Fate, and I adore all three of those games. Warriors Abyss offers a much shorter fight time, and I enjoy the break from the levels that will typically last a few minutes. But as you go through the first level, you run into an awful boss. 

This boss has a shield that negates attacks and is so spongy that it nearly made me stop playing the game. The boss is not fast, but the dash cooldown is unnecessarily punishing, and the radius of abilities is simply obnoxious to deal with. The boss doesn’t feel like a rewarding encounter, and that doesn’t change as you get further into the game. One thing that helped me get through this was unlocking the heroes and continuing to practice. You have to make sure to shoot for unlocking the heroes in the web that are glowing first because they provide more bonuses and are great for teamups, depending on the hero you’re playing as. 

As your runs go on, you can easily be played for 45 minutes to an hour, if not longer in some cases, because the bosses are extremely spongy. The first two runs were fine, and I didn’t mind how long things were taking, but the game quickly started to feel like it was being held up. This was strictly because of the way that bosses are designed. 

There is a fair bit to collect, though. One of the things that stood out to me most was the formation system, which provides you with benefits based on the formation you use during your run. This formation can be changed anytime, and more can be unlocked within the character web. You can also unlock an enhanced version of your character's weapon and more costumes for some of the characters. I also appreciate that each character comes with a biography because I had no idea who any of these warriors were. 

Art and Design

The overall design of the game is great when it comes to the artwork. The warrior designs are great, and each one stands out on the field without any issues. The stages you play on could’ve had another pass to make sure they had some variety. The constant brown tones with reds and blues tossed it get old to look at after a while. 

As you go through the 7 phases in each world, you’ll start to notice how bland the color palette is until the warriors do something flashy. This bland color palette makes it hard to tell the enemies apart, and that would be fine since they all go down easily, but I would’ve still liked the special enemies to stand out more. The voice acting is great, and the actors carry a lot of emotion in the dialogue. 

A note about the story

As I said before, I had to ignore the story and get right into the gameplay because the dialogue between the demon and us could not hold my attention. It often felt like the conversations were dragging on well past the point where they should’ve stopped. You also are not hearing any of the 100+ cast members do much of anything in terms of speaking or contributing to the story. 

Final Thoughts 

Warriors Abyss is a game that you can sink many hours into, and it is extremely replayable. Each warrior plays differently enough that you can have fun experimenting with them on a gameplay side, while they each have different effects that you can use when recruiting them during the course of your run. There are also various unlocks, costumes, and enhancements to take advantage of that will change the way the game is played and also improve the gameplay experience. 

Sadly, Warriors Abyss is held back by bland stage design and, frankly, outdated boss design. Bosses clog up the gameplay, and it seemed to me like their only purpose was to force you to use your “teamups” to take them down. There is also an issue with the way that the tutorials are structured. Each tutorial is seemingly small and packs enough information to get you started, but never expands upon itself.