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Halls of Torment Is Awesome
Vampire Survivors essentially birthed a new genre, taking the twin stick shooter and dialing down the control complexity while also dialing up the frantic pace of action. Thus, the “auto survival shooter” was born.
In the wake of that massively popular game, a ton of imitators have come out of nowhere, as small indie studios try to recapture the same monster success. You can find dozens of these now on Steam, many in early access — but so far, my favorite one is called Halls of Torment. Here’s a link to its store page. I bought this myself and this post is not sponsored in any way.
If you’re like me, and you have a genuine nostalgia for the pre-rendered 3D sprite look of the late nineties and early 2000’s, then you’re in for a double treat here. That’s right, I’m one of those annoying weirdos who thinks that the luscious full 3D art style of the new Super Mario RPG remake is a little bit lacking compared to the original, and who loves the graphics of games like Donkey Kong Country and DeathSmiles. I have a legit appreciation for the weird/interesting look of taking hi-res 3D artwork and crunching it down into 2D sprite animation.
This look was famously used by the first two Diablo games, and although it has fallen out of favor in the…