Info about Be My Horde:

Official game description:
**FEATURES**
------------
💀 **NECROMANCY POWER** – Slay your enemies and resurrect them as loyal undead minions. Grow your dark army and turn every foe into fuel for your conquest!
💀 **FILL THE SCREEN** – Peasants, warriors, demons, flying bugs, or even sheep — if it breathes, it belongs to you. Devour souls of the living, turn them to zombies, and flood the battlefield with your forces - there are no limits!
💀 **A ROGUELITE ABOUT NECROMANCY** – Collect souls to gain powerful upgrades during and between crusades. Unlock new skills, abilities, and sinister forms of necromancy. With every death, you rise stronger!
💀 **SIT AND PLAY** – Easy to learn, hard to master gameplay. Play in short bursts or wreak havoc for hours.
💀 **PRAISE BE MORIANA!** - Become Moriana, a seductive and ruthless necromancess brought to life by hypnotic voice actress Amber Lee Connors. Dive into her twisted story through fully voiced dialogues.
Be My Horde is a survivor roguelite with a twist. Here, you don’t fight… your undead army fights for you! As Moriana the necromancess, who above all desires to dominate the world, raises every fallen enemy to become your faithful zombie servants. There’s no limit — flood the screen with hundreds of minions and leave no living thing behind. You are the evil one here!
In Be My Horde, your enemies aren’t obstacles — they’re your resource!
Harvest souls to unlock devastating powers. Gain perks during runs to boost your abilities, or upgrade your Dominion — your base of operations — for permanent enhancements by raising evil structures. Discover deeper secrets of necromancy and even unlock new, terrifying ways to raise your horde. There’s more than one way to drown the world in blood.
Travel across diverse realms, each with unique visuals, enemies, mechanics, and bosses. Shatter the latter's strength by absorbing their servants, and then face them directly in brutal final battles.
The hand-drawn 2D art blends gore and charm in equal measure — admire levels with various random weather conditions and plenty of details. Interact with the environment by pushing enemies into meteors, triggering volcanic eruptions, or corrupting trees. No corner of the world is safe from you.
Watch how Moriana breaks the fourth wall and interacts with you between crusades. She’s magnetic, cruel, and completely unhinged — and she has more power over you than you think.  
Enjoy fully voiced dialogue scenes with a talented cast, including Amber Lee Connors as Moriana, Ryan Cooper as Richard III Ovine, and Jacob Browning as the Devil himself.
The soundtrack by Davi Vasc fuses metal, jazz, and classical into a high-octane mix that fuels your wicked conquest.
**PRAISE BE MORIANA!**

Release date: Jun 18, 2024

Categories: Survivor-like, Minion Management, Horde Combat, Resource Management, Meta-Progression, Necromancy

Feature scans:
- Proton/Linux: score 10; verdict: Works Well; summary: The game is playable on Steam Deck (Linux) with no reported launch or compatibility blockers. Performance issues with large armies are noted but do not prevent gameplay. Overall, Linux/Proton compatibility is good with minor performance caveats.
- Steam Deck: score 80; verdict: Broken; summary: The game exhibits frequent crashes and severe performance issues (low FPS, high power consumption) on Steam Deck, rendering it broken for many users despite some positive experiences.

- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price:
  - Community fair range: $4.99 - $9.99
  - Reasoning: Reviews are split: some players find the current $9.99 price acceptable, while others argue the game is only worth around $5 or should be bought on sale. The evidence suggests a fair base-game price range between $4.99 and $9.99, capturing both the lower valuation from those who feel $10 is too high and the upper valuation from those satisfied with the full price.
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: 6.5h
  - Story completion: 7.0h
  - Session length: N/A
  - Endgame: N/A
  - Reasoning: Game completion: The review stating 'after 6 7 hrs I got the feeling that I nearly did everything except hard mode' indicates that typical total playtime to exhaust most content (excluding hard mode) is around 6.5 hours. Story/campaign completion: The explicit claim '7 hours of playtime for both levels to beat' directly gives the time to finish the main campaign (both current levels). Session length: Multiple reviews consistently report runs lasting 20–30 minutes, with one specifying '26-30 min to get to the boss fight' and another 'Rounds are 20 - 30 minutes', so a typical session is about 30 minutes. Endgame: No review provides a reliable estimate of post-story playtime; mentions of grinding are vague and not quantified, so this metric is set to null.
- Time-to-fun:
  - Summary: The game starts with slow, manual gameplay that becomes more engaging after unlocking automatic resurrection and a few meta progression upgrades, but fun declines after a few hours due to repetitiveness and lack of depth.
  - Stance: Fun then drops
  - Anchor: After unlocking automatic resurrection and a few meta progression upgrades
  - Time to anchor: N/A
  - Friction: manual summoning; slow pacing; unnoticeable upgrades; lack of control; easy early game; slow progression inside levels
  - Unlock drivers: automatic resurrection upgrade; meta progression upgrades that increase power and speed
  - Conditions: enjoying progression and growth fantasy; appreciating necromancy theme and humor; playing for the satisfaction of building a horde
- Player Archetypes:
  - Horde-Building Enthusiast (buy)
    - Motivation: Fun of building synergistic hordes and experimenting with builds.
    - Playstyle: Experimental, tries different perk combinations, enjoys the power fantasy of an ever-growing army.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: Necromancy fans; Roguelite enthusiasts; Fans of witty humor
    - Reference games: Skull; Hades; Vampire Survivors
  - Grind-Weary Critic (deep sale)
    - Motivation: Wants strategic depth and meaningful progression, but finds the grind tedious and upgrades insignificant.
    - Playstyle: Tries to progress but hits walls, may optimize but feels unrewarded by shallow systems.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: deep sale
    - Labels: Genre veterans; Comparison players; Critics of grind
    - Reference games: Skull Horde; Undead Horde; Vampire Survivors
  - Theme-Seeking Casual (sale)
    - Motivation: Enjoying the necromancy theme, gothic aesthetic, and a chill, arcade-like experience.
    - Playstyle: Casual, occasional play, not focused on min-maxing; enjoys the theme and relaxing pace.
    - Experience: newcomer
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: Necromancy fans; Casual gamers; Arcade enthusiasts
    - Reference games: Overlord; Undead Horde; Vampire Survivors


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Art style is praised (weight 0.28): The art style is consistently praised as neat, pretty, and wonderful, with specific appreciation for the cartoon aesthetic and graphical touches like progressive character decay.
- Concept is appealing (weight 0.27): Players find the overall concept and idea of the game interesting, cool, and nice, indicating strong initial appeal.
- Core gameplay is fun (weight 0.25): Multiple players report that the core gameplay is enjoyable, humorous, and engaging, making it a positive experience overall.
- Necromancer theme is cool (weight 0.21): The necromancer theme, including playing as a villain and the summoner mechanic, is specifically highlighted as cool and refreshing.
- Voice acting is superb (weight 0.14): Voice acting is superb and the writing for the necromancer's personality is fantastic, contributing to character appeal.
- Interesting genre hybrid (weight 0.09): The game is seen as an interesting take on the Vampire Survivors genre with potential to be a Survivors + Risk hybrid.
- Premise is amazing (weight 0.05): One player describes the premise as amazing, indicating high initial interest.
- Short but fun content (weight 0.05): Current content is short but a lot of fun, suggesting a positive but brief experience.
- First half is best (weight 0.05): The first half of playtime was more fun and rewarding, suggesting a decline in engagement later.
- Fun sense of sleaze (weight 0.05): A player appreciates the fun sense of sleaze, suggesting a unique tone that appeals to some.
- Themes are respected (weight 0.05): The game's themes and gimmicks are respected by at least one player, indicating thoughtful design.
- First stages are fine (weight 0.05): The first two stages are considered fine by one player, suggesting a decent start.
- Appeals to horde fans (weight 0.05): A player who loves horde/swarm based games enjoys this title, indicating genre appeal.
- Appeals to chill players (weight 0.05): The slow and methodical approach appeals to chill players, indicating a relaxed gameplay style.
- Update reduced tedium (weight 0.05): A new update made the game less tedious, showing responsiveness to player feedback.

Common complaints:
- Upgrades are bland and incremental (weight 0.43): Players consistently report that upgrades are merely incremental stat increases, such as +5% to a stat, and lack meaningful or unique effects. This makes the upgrade system feel pointless and boring, with no noticeable impact on gameplay.
- Minion AI and control are poor (weight 0.39): Minions are criticized for being unaggressive, weak, and poorly controlled, often clustering around the player instead of attacking enemies. Players feel they have no agency over minion behavior, making them ineffective in combat.
- Lack of build and run variety (weight 0.28): There is a lack of build and unit variety, leading to runs that feel identical with no interesting skills or strategic choices. This reduces replayability and makes the game feel monotonous.
- Gameplay is boring and monotonous (weight 0.28): Gameplay is repeatedly called boring, monotonous, and tedious, with players losing interest after just a few hours. The lack of dynamic elements makes the experience feel repetitive.
- Meta-progression is short and slow (weight 0.27): Meta-progression is described as too short and boring, with rapid early progress that quickly stalls. The pace of advancement is too slow, making the game feel unrewarding over time.
- Spells are weak and useless (weight 0.17): Magic spells are considered weak and ineffective, with players feeling they do nothing meaningful. This makes spells feel useless and not worth using.
- Game runs poorly and feels clunky (weight 0.14): The game runs poorly, feeling slow and clunky, which wears out quickly. Performance issues detract from the overall experience.
- Unit tier gap is too large (weight 0.1): The gap between unit tiers is too large, making lower-tier units feel useless and progression unbalanced. This creates a frustrating power disparity.
- Balancing needs improvement (weight 0.1): Balancing is noted as needing work, with various elements feeling unbalanced. This affects the overall fairness and enjoyment of the game.
- Runs are too long (weight 0.1): Runs are considered too long, lasting 10-20 minutes, which feels excessive for the repetitive gameplay. This contributes to the game feeling tedious.
- No meaningful roguelike elements (weight 0.1): The game lacks actual roguelike elements, with the roguelike aspect feeling useless or poorly implemented. This disappoints fans of the genre.
- Writing is cringe and off-putting (weight 0.09): The writing is criticized as cringe and overly horny, which detracts from the game's tone and immersion. Players find it off-putting.
- Missing health bars for combat (weight 0.09): The absence of health bars for the player and enemies makes it hard to track combat status. This is a basic UI omission that frustrates players.

Gameplay feedback:
- Necromancer horde management (weight 0.43): The game focuses on controlling a horde of undead minions as a necromancer, with mechanics for gathering and managing the army. This is a core gameplay loop.
- Artificial difficulty spikes (weight 0.22): Enemies are health sponges with high damage, especially in stage 2 and hell, while minions are weak. Bosses have multiple HP bars but do nothing interesting, creating artificial difficulty.
- Lack of strategic depth (weight 0.18): The game lacks strategic depth due to linear progression and a single character with uninteresting skills. Gameplay feels slow and methodical without meaningful choices.
- Hold to resurrect minions (weight 0.18): Players must hold a button to resurrect dead enemies as minions, which takes a few seconds and limits summoning to one at a time. This mechanic feels clunky.
- Limited map variety (weight 0.14): There are only two maps available, which limits variety and replayability. Players may find the content insufficient.
- Few useful upgrades (weight 0.14): Only a few upgrades like summoning circles, graves, damage aura, and heal are considered useful, while most buffs are niche or weak. This limits build diversity.
- Grind-based progression (weight 0.14): Progression is grind-based, requiring farming souls for permanent upgrades like faster resurrect. This can feel repetitive.
- Spells include beam and nova (weight 0.14): Spells include beam, magic missile, death aura, frost nova, and blizzard, offering some combat options. However, they may not synergize well.
- Rerolling gives same options (weight 0.14): Rerolling upgrades often gives the same options, and players may need to reset runs to get specific upgrades like corpse explosion. This leads to frustration.
- 20-30 minute runs (weight 0.14): Runs last 20-30 minutes with checkpoint-based waves, typical of the roguelite genre. This structure is familiar but may feel long.
- Multiple upgrade trees (weight 0.13): There are three upgrade trees: one for the main base and two for biomes, with a skill tree per map. This adds some depth but may be confusing.
- Horde scatters easily (weight 0.1): The horde spreads out and cannot be regrouped, and tornadoes can scatter them. This makes army management difficult and chaotic.
- Limited banishes at endgame (weight 0.1): Players have only 2 banishes at endgame, which restricts the ability to avoid unwanted upgrades. This can force suboptimal choices.
- Limited enemy variety (weight 0.1): Only 10 types of mobs exist, and enemies in the first location are identical except for model and stats. This reduces variety.
- Passive combat mechanics (weight 0.1): Units only attack adjacent enemies, and the horde is mostly idle with only a few fighting 1v1. This makes combat feel passive.
- Spell-horde interaction issues (weight 0.09): Ice nova area is tied to horde size, but minions push enemies away, causing spells to miss. This creates a frustrating interaction.
- Forced death for story (weight 0.08): There is a forced death scenario to progress the story, with dialogue after death. This may feel like a narrative gimmick.

Performance notes:
- Black screen on startup (weight 0.07): A black screen appears on startup, persisting despite reinstalls and PC restarts. This critical launch failure blocks all access for affected users, indicating a deep compatibility error.
- Frequent crashes after updates (weight 0.06): Multiple users report that the game crashes after applying updates, indicating a persistent stability issue following patches. This affects the overall playability and requires developer attention.
- Forced PC shutdown during play (weight 0.06): The game forces a complete PC shutdown, likely due to overheating or power management conflict. This severe crash type poses hardware risk and requires immediate fix.
- D3D11 related crash (weight 0.06): The game crashes due to a Direct3D 11 error, indicating a graphics API issue. This bug likely affects rendering stability and needs fixing for smoother gameplay.
- Frequent crashes on Hell difficulty (weight 0.06): Crashes occur frequently when playing on Hell difficulty, suggesting a specific trigger related to high-level content. This disrupts the endgame experience and discourages progression.
- Repeated crash cycle (weight 0.06): The game crashes repeatedly in a cycle, making it unstable and unplayable after each restart. This issue frustrates players by denying them consistent access to the game.
- Unplayable performance overall (weight 0.06): General performance is labeled unplayable due to accumulated bugs, low frame rates, and instability. This drastic assessment suggests most users cannot enjoy the title normally.
- Game locks up completely (weight 0.06): The game locks up entirely, requiring a force quit or system restart. This hard crash type is disruptive and can lead to lost progress and frustration.
- Startup failure on specific hardware (weight 0.06): The game fails to start on systems with Intel HD Graphics 4600, suggesting compatibility problems with certain integrated GPUs. This prevents affected players from launching the game at all.
- Game freezes on spacebar press (weight 0.06): Pressing the spacebar causes the game to freeze, indicating a UI or input handling bug. This simple action becomes a crash risk, severely impairing gameplay control.
- Multiple 10-second lag spikes (weight 0.06): Players experience frequent lag spikes lasting 10 seconds, causing jarring interruptions. These spikes ruin immersion and responsiveness, especially in action-heavy moments.
- Stuttering and lag issues (weight 0.06): The game suffers from persistent stuttering and lag, making smooth gameplay impossible. These symptoms are common but severe enough to degrade the entire experience.
- Incorrect driver requirement (weight 0.06): Users report that the game displays an incorrect driver requirement, causing confusion and potentially blocking access. This misleading information wastes time for players trying to meet system specs.
- Upgrade bug causing crashes (weight 0.06): Crashes are triggered by an upgrade bug, likely related to item or skill progression systems. This design flaw penalizes players for advancing, reducing game engagement.

Recommendations:
- Overwhelmingly not recommended (weight 0.97): The majority of feedback strongly advises against purchasing the game in its current state, citing bugs, lack of content, performance issues, and the need for major updates or reworks. Many reviewers explicitly state they cannot recommend it until significant improvements are made.
- Potential but needs updates (weight 0.38): Several reviewers express that the game has potential but is not ready for recommendation, emphasizing the need for updates, content additions, or a core rework before it becomes worthwhile.
- Better alternatives available (weight 0.09): Some reviewers suggest buying other games in the same genre instead, such as Boneraiser Minions, indicating that better alternatives exist.
- Only worth on deep sale (weight 0.08): A few reviewers indicate the game might be worth buying only at a significant discount, such as 90% off or half price on sale, implying it is overpriced currently.
- Cosmetic issue blocks recommendation (weight 0.04): One reviewer specifically mentions not recommending the game until a witch skin shoe design is reverted, highlighting a cosmetic issue as a dealbreaker.
- Only for meme enjoyment (weight 0.04): One reviewer notes the game is only suitable for players who enjoy meme content, not for those focused on gameplay quality.
- Not for grind-averse players (weight 0.04): A reviewer warns that the game involves heavy grinding, making it unsuitable for players who dislike repetitive tasks.
- Poor performance on old GPUs (weight 0.04): One reviewer points out that the game is not recommended for users with old Intel integrated GPUs, indicating performance issues on low-end hardware.

Other player notes:
No miscpoints

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.3): Players are frustrated because the latest update removed all player power and locked it behind achievements, making progression feel meaningless. Severe balance issues, such as useless abilities, broken scaling, and unwinnable boss fights, compound the problem. The movement system also worsened, with hordes spreading uncontrollably, leading to a tedious and unenjoyable experience.
- Anger (weight 0.15): Anger stems from the waste of tens of hours of grinding and min-maxing due to the update, which invalidated player effort. Specific mechanics like tornadoes scattering the horde ruin gameplay, and the second level is perceived as impossible without repetitive grinding on the first level.
- Annoyance (weight 0.15): Annoyance arises from a gameplay loop that forces constant resetting to obtain the right upgrades, with limited banishes and useless rerolling. Additionally, the game offers less content as players progress, making the experience feel repetitive and unrewarding.
- Disappointment (weight 0.15): Disappointment is driven by technical issues like crashes after updates, which break the game. Weak magic spells, few viable upgrades, and zombies that fail to attack enemies targeting the player further diminish the experience. Late-game upgrades become slow and tedious, making wins feel impossible.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.05): Nostalgia is felt for the old throne aesthetic and upgrade mechanics, which players preferred over the current version. This suggests a longing for a previous, more satisfying game design.
- Dislike (weight 0.05): Dislike is specifically directed at the stage design in boss battles, which players find unappealing. This aesthetic issue detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game.
- Boredom (weight 0.05): Boredom results from upgrades that are merely stat increases and items that lack inspiration. The lack of creative or meaningful progression makes the gameplay feel monotonous.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.05): Enjoyment is derived from the game being fun and interesting, particularly due to its cartoon art style. This positive aesthetic appeal contributes to a pleasant gaming experience.
- Excitement (weight 0.05): Excitement is generated by the reviewer's love for horde/swarm-based games, and the game's premise aligns with that interest. The initial concept sparked enthusiasm, though it may not have been sustained.}