Army of Ruin Review Summary

A fun diversion packed with content, challenges, and unlocks, but excessive grinding, slow progression, and repetitive unoriginal design quickly wear out its welcome.

Extensive variety of content: The game offers a wide array of characters, weapons, items, and unlockables, allowing for diverse builds and replayability.

Many challenges and unlocks: Multiple clusters highlight the abundance of challenges, achievements, and unlockables that provide clear goals and long-term engagement.

Game is fun and enjoyable: Players consistently describe the game as fun, enjoyable, and engaging, with frequent mentions of it being a good time filler.

Surpasses Vampire Survivors: Several reviews explicitly state the game is better, more modern, and more polished than Vampire Survivors and similar titles.

Satisfying progression system: Players find the progression rewarding and engaging, with a steady stream of upgrades and unlocks that keep them invested.

Excessive grind and slow progression: The game is heavily criticized for its grindy progression, slow character growth, and tedious upgrade systems. Players feel that excessive playtime is required to afford upgrades and unlock content, which hampers enjoyment.

Gets repetitive and boring: Players consistently report that the game becomes repetitive, tedious, and boring, especially toward the later stages. The repetition of level replaying and monotony is a major concern across multiple reviews.

Unoriginal and similar to competitors: The game is often compared unfavorably to Vampire Survivors, with critics noting a lack of originality and similar weapons and mechanics. Some players find it too easy and slower-paced than its main competitor.

Low map and level variety: Players note the game has only a few maps (often five) and minimal points of interest, leading to repetitive environments. The limited level and game mode variety contributes to the feeling of monotony.

Underwhelming weapon evolution system: The weapon evolution mechanic is criticized for being convoluted and not providing a clear qualitative improvement. Evolved weapons feel like mere strengthening stages, with plain visuals and performance that don't convey strength.

Extensive unlockables and progression: The game features a robust meta progression system with many unlockables, upgrades, and challenges. Players enjoy the sense of advancement and the variety of content to unlock.

Vampire Survivors-like auto-shooter: Players consistently compare the game to Vampire Survivors, describing it as an auto-shooter in the same genre. It follows the familiar formula but is noted to feel fresh.

Weapon evolution mechanics: Weapons can evolve into stronger versions based on the stats of accessories and passives. This evolution system is a core mechanic that adds depth to runs.

Multiple difficulty levels: Each map offers different difficulty settings, and levels have three difficulties each. This provides replayability and challenges for different skill levels.

Variety of weapons and characters: The game includes a wide array of characters, weapons, passives, and other equipment. Players appreciate the large variety in gameplay options.

Performance praised as stable: Many reviews highlight stable frame rates, extremely stable performance, and lack of lag or stutters. These positive mentions are from clusters 5, 6, 11, 12, 15, 17, 19, 22, and 24.

Steam Deck runs game well: Multiple reviewers report excellent performance on Steam Deck, including stable 60+ FPS at max settings and smooth play at lowest quality. These accounts come from cluster 1, which has the highest frequency.

Game runs smoothly on various hardware: Players report smooth performance on different systems such as MacBook Air M4, Linux, and low-end PCs, including a 12-year-old machine with GTX 770. These positive experiences are cited in clusters 2, 16, 20, and 23.

Game crashes or freezes: Some players experienced game crashes, freezes requiring reboot, or a movement bug at game start. These issues are mentioned in clusters 7, 13, and 18, affecting gameplay stability.

Performance issues on high-end setups: Occasional reports include poor performance on an RTX 4090 with ultrawide monitor (5 FPS low), and the game not using GPU, which indicates optimization problems on specific configurations. These are niche but noteworthy.

Recommended for genre fans: Multiple clusters explicitly recommend the game to players who already enjoy survivor-like, bullet-heaven, or roguelite genres. This feedback is consistent across many reviews.

Not recommended: A minority of reviews advise against purchasing the game, citing issues like grind, lack of content, or better alternatives. These negative sentiments are present in several clusters.

Similar to Vampire Survivors: Reviews frequently compare the game to Vampire Survivors, with some saying it offers more depth and others preferring the original. This comparison is central to many recommendations.

Worth the price: Many reviews state that the game is worth its asking price, especially given its low cost and quality. This positive sentiment is expressed in several clusters.

Enjoyable casual gameplay: Reviews describe the game as fun for casual play and relaxation, suitable for killing time or playing in short bursts. This is a common theme among positive feedback.

Community fair range: $5.00 - $10.00.

Game completion: 57.0h.

Session length: 15.0h.

Army of Ruin is fun from the outset, but enjoyment declines as repetition, grindy unlocks, and endgame difficulties turn the experience into a chore.

Friction: Slow starting progression; Quality-of-life features gated behind achievement progression; Weapon evolutions require finishing a run and restarting.

Unlock drivers: Meta progression upgrades; Unlocking new weapons and characters; Player knowledge of systems.

Grind-Weary Balance Critic: Attempts to progress through stages but hits walls due to enemy powercreep; grows frustrated with repetitive grinding for upgrades. Motivation: Fair progression and balanced challenge without artificial time sinks. Stance: no buy.

Achievement Hunter: Targets specific achievement requirements, repeats stages to complete challenges, and grinds efficiently to unlock all content. Motivation: Completing achievements and unlocking every character, weapon, and meta-upgrade. Stance: buy.

Genre Veteran Build Explorer: Tries different character/weapon combos, theories about synergies, and enjoys the challenge of solving unlocks. Motivation: Exploring unique builds and playstyles while comparing the game to other survivors-likes. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The game performs admirably on Steam Deck, delivering stable high frame rates and smooth gameplay across most user reports. The only notable drawback is elevated thermals and fan noise, but this does not hinder playability. Full controller support and native Linux compatibility further enhance the experience.

Linux and Proton: All user feedback about Linux/Proton compatibility is positive. The game runs out of the box on Linux and Steam Deck, achieving stable framerates and no reported crashes or stutters. The only negative notes are about Steam Deck heat and fan noise, which are hardware/environmental comfort issues rather than compatibility problems. No launch options, Proton versions, or community fixes are mentioned, indicating zero tinkering is required.

Comparable to Vampire Survivors: The game is frequently compared to Vampire Survivors, with many reviewers considering it on par or even better in terms of polish, graphics, and gameplay. It is often described as a standout in the survivors-like genre.

Affordable price praised: Multiple reviewers highlight the low price point as a significant advantage, noting that the game offers a large amount of content for its cost. The game is considered great value for money.

Early Access unfinished: Some feedback mentions that the game was released out of early access in an unfinished state, while others note it is still in Early Access with ongoing adjustments. This suggests mixed reviews regarding the game's completeness.

Favorable comparisons to genre: Alongside Vampire Survivors, the game is compared positively to other survivors-like titles such as Nordic Ashes and Army of Ruin, and is considered one of the best in the genre. It also stands out among similar games.

Sometimes considered below average: A few reviewers compare the game unfavorably to other survivors-like games, saying it is below average in gameplay quality. Some even call it a weak clone of Vampire Survivors.