Last month, RocketBrush Studio and Team17 released their new rogue-lite title The Unliving into early access. This initial hands-on experience gives players a chance to see what the game has in store for them while giving feedback to the developers while they continue to work on the game. Well, after playing it myself, I have to say that it is a lot of fun to play as long as you can manage to stay alive long enough to enjoy it! Let me be the first to say, this is a ‘skill issue’ of course, but ultimately, I just thought my zombies would be stronger. Let’s dive into the details.

Gameplay

The game starts off with a real step-by-step tutorial area that lets you get used to having powers and the general controls of the game. They manage to do this within lore as you’re a necromancer that doesn’t seem to have their memories together and are heading out to figure out what is going on.

Here you will learn the basics which include raising the dead and where to find them, how to fight both close-range and long-range, and how to utilize your undead army for your own benefit. While you are trying all of the controls and options available to you, the combat experience will start to show how they manage to keep this game difficult. You see, you don’t need to manage your zombie’s health as the only one who can’t afford to die is yourself. However, it is almost like the enemies know this and so they will sometimes ignore your little horde and aim for you with their long-range attacks.

That means despite being a powerful necromancer and sending a ton of enemies to take out others, which you will then be able to raise into more of your undead soldiers as well, you will need to do the classic rogue-lite mechanics of avoiding attacks and managing your damage output. It turns out, you are quite weak behind your forces, so don’t let that guard down!

You’ll find that different types of enemies are raised into different types of undead soldiers. Each undead has its own attack styles, strengths, and health points. Your best hordes are mixed hordes, so while it is easy to load up on standard zombies, it is better to branch out to include a variety if possible.

Other than the combat and adventure, you will also find you have a HUB to settle in between levels. Here you can improve your personal stats at a thrown, unlock skills using some of the earned currency, and dive into the lore by interacting with those who reside here. The HUB is your broken-down quarters, so the people here are your servants - even if you don’t remember them right now. There are different currency points you earn in the missions you complete and those are what you use to level up your character and improve your abilities. Good thing is, ability points can be taken back on the personal growth chart, so if you ever want to change the style of your gameplay or focus more points on a specific aspect of your character, you can take the points back and do that.

Expectations

I hope to see ways to level myself up to a point where I don’t feel so weak. I get that I am technically a magic user and thus would be squishy, but that rule really applies when a mage is working with a party that can properly defend them. Getting attacked while behind my zombies wasn’t something I expected going into this game, but it does well to add more of a challenge to the game. I just hate how easy it is to go down given you can only heal so much after you lose a chunk or two.

The skill tree layout is really uniquely styled and I look forward to seeing them expand further on that. However, I also hope they decide to add some sort of easy-to-read screen somewhere that players can access as it is easy to get lost in all the different abilities laid out on the ground. Along with that, a demonstration screen is always appreciated for abilities that way we can see it in action and get a true understanding of what exactly each ability does.

Verdict

The Unliving is off to a great start and is proving to be a game that will be both challenging and unique. I like that they manage to keep the rogue-like aspects in the gameplay even while you have a horde of zombies fighting for you. I thought there would be plenty of times that I would be standing back while the zombies do all the work, but they definitely don’t have that in mind for the finished version of this game. It manages to change the dynamic from “raise an army to fight for you” to “raise an army to fight with you.” All-in-all, i look forward to seeing where the developers take this game as it has the potential to be a good one!

The Unliving is available now in Steam’s Early Access.