Revenant Survivors: A chaotic little surprise ahead of Early Access

I try to play as many different types of indie games as I can so that I can write about them here, but I’m the first to admit there are some genres I typically shy away from. Still, occasionally, a game is thrust into my line of sight that makes me wonder why I don’t cover a particular genre more often, and Revenant Survivors is one of those games. 

Revenant Survivors by Mongma Studio is an action roguelike “bullet hell” game that somehow manages to both prove and disprove everything I thought I knew about the genre. It's intensely fun and satisfying to play, while simultaneously being confusing at first because of how many different subsystems are packed in. 

However, with a little experience and more than a little trial and error, Revenant Survivors has something I didn’t expect: it’s made me want to play more bullet hell games. 

Sit back and panic

Revenant Survivors is the type of game that throws you in at the deep end with what amounts to a deflated pool float, at least in the beginning. You enter a dungeon where enemies continuously spawn and approach, attacking with brutal force while you try to survive as long as possible and deal as much damage as you can. You can do this manually if you’re into that, but I’m much happier to sit back and let the game attack for me, so yes, I played this on auto mode. 

This is the satisfying part, and sitting back while your character does at least half the hard work is something I wasn’t expecting to enjoy quite so much. Still, even with auto-attack enabled, things are less than straightforward. As more enemies spawn and zone in on you, it’s incredibly easy to find yourself swarmed, particularly at the beginning of a run. 

I’ll be honest, as I always am: I had no idea what I was doing going into Revenant Survivors. I went in blind, as I often do, and the learning curve I experienced would be better described as a cliff. Straight down. With no safety net. But as I began leveling up and unlocking upgrades for my various stats, everything started to fall into place, and things became fun for all of ten seconds before I died. 

Systems on systems

Between runs in Revenant Survivors, you get deposited in a fort surrounded by things to interact with. Not all of them are available in the demo, but the ones that are give you opportunities to improve your chances of survival against the horde. This is where I got confused, but that’s definitely more of a reflection on me than it is on the design of the game, so please enjoy my confusion. 

There’s a skill tree that’s, aptly, an actual tree. You can upgrade both yourself as the player (these upgrades presumably apply to other characters outside of the Dark Knight you can play as in the demo) and the character you’re currently playing, using different types of currency that I’m still not entirely sure how I gained. I enjoyed spending them, though.  There’s also the armory, where you can apparently unlock new abilities, although I haven’t figured out how to earn that currency either. Still, it’s keeping me playing, so I guess there’s that. 

While I struggle to understand the various routes toward upgrading my character, one thing I do understand is loot, and there’s plenty of it to be found during runs. Armor pieces and accessories seem to drop at random from defeated enemies, with different levels of rarity that offer increasingly valuable buffs to your existing stats. 

The slow climb to… Repeated death

I’m no stranger to roguelikes in general, so I was ready to die a lot while playing Revenant Survivors, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed on that front. On the plus side, every run is just a little less brutal than the one before it, and figuring out the best way to approach level-up skill buffs makes things run a bit smoother each time. 

Most of the overall progression feels like it comes from the skill tree, although that may just be my novice impression. Finding or buying better gear definitely helps, especially if you play a few runs dedicated to hunting for gold instead of leaving things to chance. The overall upgrades feel slow, but that makes them hard-earned and worthwhile once you finally see the improvement. 

The level-up buffs during a run feel much more immediate and satisfying, with a noticeable difference every time one is applied. This is especially true for Journey of Evolution upgrades, which grant new abilities for that run, and Path of Usurpation upgrades, which become available after defeating a miniboss and allow you to steal one of their abilities. 

As I said at the beginning, Revenant Survivors isn’t the type of game that’s usually at the top of my to-play list, but it has surprised me in the best possible way. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to figure out how to deal with the seemingly invincible shield bros, having finally worked out that maximizing evasion is a good idea. 

Revenant Survivors is set to enter Early Access on November 9, and I’m glad the demo has already dug its claws into me. With even more progression systems coming in the full game, I can’t wait to get confused all over again while I turn my character into a veritable tank inside the dungeons.