Review: Warriors: Abyss Offers Simple Thrills, but Little More

It's not difficult to see the thought process behind Warriors: Abyss. It feels like there's never been a better time for a game about a solo character taking on mobs of hundreds of enemies thanks to the smash success of Vampire Survivors. Take the classic Warriors brand of action, remove the strategic aspects, add some roguelite elements, crank up the spectacle, skew the camera just so, and you end up with Warriors: Abyss. It's a solid concept for a spin-off. Sure, it's pretty plainly biting off of Hades, but there are worse sources of inspiration.

Unfortunately, one area where it could have taken more notes from Hades was in its story and writing. The ruler of the underworld, Enma, has been stripped of most of his powers and monsters are running rampant. He summons some great heroes from the world of the living to help him out, and that's about the size of it. You'll get some short, vapid conversations here and there to progress the story, usually after defeating a boss for the first time. Sometimes you'll be prompted to respond by making a choice, but it doesn't really matter. But it's a dull story, and the writing is perfunctory at best.

The rest of Warriors: Abyss fares better. The ultimate roster of playable characters is massive, with a whopping 100 characters drawn from Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, and Warriors Orochi available. Only a small handful are initially available, with the rest unlockable as you play. Generally speaking, they play similarly to their counterparts from the mainline games. There are familiar combos and Musou moves to use, and each has their own attributes and stats to consider. You'll want to be cautious about picking anyone too slow or flashy, as you're going to have to be on the move constantly.

Truthfully, there is considerable overlap in how some of the characters play. Sometimes it feels like the only thing separating certain characters is in what kind of fireworks their attacks give off. It's good in the sense that if you have a favorite you can stick with them and not worry too much that you're missing out. There are enough archetypes to deliver the needed variety, but don't expect 100 fully distinct mechanical builds. Still, unless you have an affection for particular names and faces, you might find the characters you're unlocking bleeding together more than would be ideal. Naturally, that also applies to the narrative. No one really has any personality to speak of here, so hopefully you've brought some head-canon in with you.

Anyway, after you pick your character it's time to get to business. You've got four levels of the underworld to deal with, each of which is made up of eight rooms. The last room will always be the boss battle, but otherwise you've got the usual roguelite choice of randomly-rolled situations. Sometimes you'll be given an extra mission on top of surviving the encounter. You might also have to face a particularly dangerous wave. There are also the usual breather rooms to partake of should you need it. Once in a while, as a treat, a little narrative situation will appear. You can make a choice that will give you some kind of upgrade or bonus, albeit sometimes at a cost.

When you're engaged in the regular battles, Warriors: Abyss is a lot of fun. The gameplay flows nicely, if more than a little chaotically. You've got the usual two Warriors attack buttons, an evasive dash with a cooldown, and a button you can use to trigger your Musou move when you've got a charge. Using this simple set of moves, you can activate a satisfying number of combos and devastating attacks. It feels good! I think that's the saving grace of Warriors: Abyss. The moment-to-moment gameplay evokes the joy of the mainline Warriors games, making you feel like a superhero as you thwack dozens of foes with each swipe.

Beyond that, you have a couple of other moves at your disposal. All those other characters you didn't choose are available as helpers that you can summon once you've formed a bond with them. Each room can potentially offer up another summoned character to join your team, and you can have six on the squad at once. These characters can synergize in different ways, and taking advantage of those synergies and bonds is the key to maximizing your survival.

These characters manifest during battles in two ways. First, you can summon one on a cooldown at the end of a combo chain. Second, once you've filled up a special gauge you can pull the proverbial trigger and bring out everyone for a short-lived mass assault. If you use a Musou move during these team-up attacks, things really get wild. Sure, avoiding all of the AoE spam can be obnoxious at times, but the hacking and the slashing is definitely on point here. In that sense, Warriors: Abyss is a good gateway into the roguelite genre for Warriors fans.

It's not all good, sadly. The boss battles are often the highlights of games like these, really showing off the nuances of a well-thought out combat system. It's the opposite case here. Despite taking on very different forms, all of the bosses here play out in a very similar fashion. The bosses have guard meters that you'll have to wear down and break before you can deal any real damage. Your window for whittling down their life bars is annoyingly short, and as soon as it closes you're back to dealing with the guard meter. The bosses also love to spam AoE attacks, and the cooldown on your evasive action works against you badly here. It's not so much challenging as it is exhausting.

Even players who can't get into the basic tactics required to beat the bosses will eventually overcome them. Like many other roguelites, you'll make some permanent progress with each run. You'll unlock new characters, gain permanent upgrades on existing ones, and sooner or later you'll hit the usual tipping point that is part of every game like this. When you hit it in Warriors: Abyss, the game practically melts in front of you. Sure, the bosses are still a slog, but you'll be whipping through the game without too much trouble. And don't worry. There are more difficult challenges to tackle beyond that.

One thing that very much belongs to Warriors: Abyss is in how it presents its many systems to the player. The bond system has a lot of complex aspects to it, with various formations and interactions. Your level-ups will give you the usual choice between a few different things to upgrade. You can learn how all of that works if you want, and it might even benefit you to do so. But as King Enma makes clear in the tutorial, you really don't have to. You'll see your power number whenever you have a choice to make, and will make clear which option makes that number bigger. Making that number bigger is almost always the best option. On top of that, you can even get Enma to recommend a load-out between each room. Again, you probably should.

I'm mixed on this. It certainly makes the game easier to just jump into and play, but it almost makes it feel too streamlined. Like all of this apparent complexity is sheer illusion, and perhaps it is. You at least have the choice to go against the grain and ignore Enma's help, but you're only making things harder on yourself if you do. I suppose it's all in service of getting to the action quicker. That's the game's strongest aspect, so I can understand leaning on it. For me, it came off a bit hollow, but I could easily see someone liking that the game offers options to cut through all of that.

In terms of presentation, Warriors: Abyss isn't exactly dressed to impress. The character models aren't especially impressive, and the enemies lack any real personality. The backdrops the battles take place in are repetitive and don't do what they could to evoke what could have been a very promising setting. Depending on the platform you're playing on you might also see some performance issues. Our review is based on the PC version running on a Steam Deck, and the experience wasn't too bad there for the most part. Switch owners in particular might want to do some extra research as the game is surprisingly demanding for what it's showing on the screen.

Warriors: Abyss at least sets down a solid foundation to work from, should Koei Tecmo have interest in doing so. It could have taken a lot more lessons from the better games in the roguelite space, but it's an enjoyable enough game by and large. With a better story, sharper writing, and more interesting bosses, I could easily recommend this even to those who aren't fans of the Warriors franchise. In its current form, Warriors: Abyss is not likely to impress those looking for another Hades-style time sink, but it should at least satisfy those who enjoy a good hack-and-slash.

Warriors: Abyss is currently available on Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC via Steam.

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