33 Immortals Early Access review: A hellish 33-player roguelike in the afterlife

Indie game aficionados who hear the name Thunder Lotus Games will probably think about Spiritfarer, the “cozy management game about dying” that went on to sell millions since 2020. If you follow the studio’s history though, you’ll see it jumping between multiple genres over the years, and its latest project, 33 Immortals, is no different – unless its ‘fighting to get out of the circles of hell’ theme is somehow weirdly connected to Spiritfarer.

Large-scale multiplayer games aren’t uncommon, and the same goes for roguelikes with meta progression and precise combat as well as titles that require cooperative play against hordes of enemies. If you combine elements from all that into one game, you will get something like what Thunder Lotus has cooked up with 33 Immortals.

This is a large-scale cooperative dungeon diver roguelike, all streamlined for accessibility so that you can enjoy the best parts of a typical raid experience without much of the setup. As the name probably already gave it away, dozens enter a single session, all hoping for the best drops and team-mates that might have their back when the going gets tough.

I was given the chance to take a crack at the game a week prior to the early access launch, giving me around six hours with the game split across multiple play sessions. While that isn’t a massive amount of time to pump into a roguelike, I think I managed to grasp the title’s unique gameplay loop and the direction the developers want to take it.

A faceless, damned soul, a rebel who has rejected destiny to fight against God and demand a different fate. That’s who you are in 33 Immortals. Well, you and countless others who are also joining in for a fight against everything in Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. That’s all I could gather about the lore before taking my repeated trips to Hell for all that loot and boss-slaying goodness. I suspect many players will be going the same route at launch too, as listening to NPCs and reading pages of lore are probably not what most action game fans want to do when they boot up a hardcore multiplayer experience.
There is a deeper story that unfolds behind all this action and during the repeat trips back to the safety of the Dark Woods, afterlife’s sole safe haven, but don’t dive in expecting a Hades-level narrative.

Instead, 33 Immortals gives the focus to something unique in this genre, a massive cooperative experience. As you may have already guessed by the game’s title, each run through a level in this roguelike involves at most, 33 individuals. Each one doesn’t have a lot of power in their hands alone, but even Hell itself can be taken down with enough unity and coordination. At least I hope so, since none of the runs I did with my teammates ended up beating even Lucifer at his domain.

That Dark Woods safe haven I mentioned is where weapons are chosen, perks are wished for, and upgrades are purchased using loot from previous runs. At the early access launch, the title has four weapons to choose from: sword, bow, daggers, and staff, each offering a different play styles, movesets, and powers. After trying out the sword’s heavy slashes and blocks, the staff’s AOE blasts, and the dagger’s unrelenting aggressiveness, the bow was what I clicked with. It offers both light and heavy attacks, coupled with a call-back attack that pulls in all the arrows you have shot to deal a blast of damage to anyone in its path. Coupled with the weapon, players also have a handy dodge for either pin-point escapes from damage or simply kiting enemies.

A perk that reduces the cooldown of the dash by one second was one of my absolute favorites to randomly find, this made the game feel more agile and reactive, where I can be an aggressive force in the battlefield instead of being on the defensive so much and saving my dodge for later. Instances where I had this perk was also when I progressed the furthest in the final boss fight. Going back to the standard 2 second dodge cooldown in later runs felt like such a downgrade, making the gameplay feel noticeably slower and less responsive compared to when I had the perk. Thankfully, Thunder Lotus has been listening it seems, as a changelog for the day-one patch I’ve seen lists a permanent reduction of the dodge cooldown to 1 second. The update will also offer more perks when starting out and reduce the number of hurdles you have to jump through to unlock features like weapon upgrades, hopefully reducing the starting grind.

While there can be dozens of players on screen at a time, most special effects and projectiles of others are mostly hidden from your own perspective to keep the screen clear of distractions. Dodging enemy attacks is a massive factor in a game like this, akin to a bullet-hell title at points, so this is a big win in my book for better situation readability.

I spent a large chunk of my time with the game on the first available map, Hell. Entering Purgatory, the second map, requires special keys that can only be obtained by progressing far enough with the final boss battle in Hell (a three-headed Lucifer). While I managed to snag some keys, not many players from the review session were available to join whenever I entered this new world and usually ended up dying almost immediately due to the much higher tier of enemies and horde numbers. A unique boss duo awaits at the end of Purgatory too, while the upcoming dungeon set in heaven should deliver the final fight against God for those who are worthy.

Judging from what I could experience in Hell at least, the developer has experimented and almost perfected the formula to keep the action flowing and make the map exploration-worthy.
While the primary objective is to ascend from Hell and confront Lucifer, you need to upgrade your character with temporary powerups and perks to even stand a chance. This is where the game shined, managing to entice me with valuable treats and keeping things engaging throughout each 20–40-minute run.

Almost every corner of the map is packed with jars full of materials, chests with valuable keys for unlocking boons, hidden boss battles for rewards (which need multiple players to unlock), and most importantly, Torture Chambers. Finishing 12 of these dungeons filled with waves of enemies is how the final fight against Hell’s mobs begins, all to prove the surviving souls’ worth facing Lucifer.

Every time I perished in a run, I was already thinking of how I could make the next better, trying not to rely on the chance-based item drops. In the beginning, I simply wanted to rush to the boss level, so it was all about using valuable resources to report to nearby Torture Chambers and finishing them as fast as possible. Once I had my soul’s ass thoroughly beat, I slowed the pace down and made sure to get some personal upgrades in between the dungeons, which meant sticking with groups that were farming enemies and world items instead of just the dungeons. The later runs, I was also completing meta objectives that would unlock permanent upgrades in the future. Building that perfect character so I wouldn’t let my fellow immortals down has a certain nice feeling to it, even though the possibility of meeting the same random player groups can be low.

With dozens of players on screen doing their own thing to help the anti-divine cause, the chaos is the addicting element of 33 Immortals. One wayward dodge might push you into the path of a stumbling army of headless titans, who were, until just now, chasing some other poor soul. I’m speaking of this from experience. I’m just helpful like that.

Attempting to solo almost any activity can get boring quickly. I found that even the smallest enemies can be massive bullet sponges until you build up your character with hours of upgrades. Even as a late-stage herculean character, having some backup can upgrade the amount of damage you deal exponentially. This is thanks to the title’s use of critical hits, which only begin racking up when another player is also hitting the same target. Multiple times in different runs when me and a couple of others were attempting to take down a mini boss in the overworld without making much progress with health bars dwindling. Soon, another group players that was simply passing through waded in to help out, slicing through the mobs like butter. Receiving help like this is exhilarating, usually combining the groups into a larger pile that can ravage through the map efficiently.

The Thunder Lotus team has thought of this snowballing tactic through and prepared the Torture Chamber dungeons with player-caps. Each one caps out at six players, so the ball of death I was always happy to be part of usually breaks down in these areas as everyone splits up again to find more fights or dungeons.

The focus on cooperative play is seen everywhere. Finding a healing point and using it costs resources, but it also heals nearby allies for a smaller amount. This means it’s more economical to get together and heal as a group than simply wasting money for a solo boost.

There are also the co-op abilities attached to every class, which is one of my favorite feature implementation in the game. Holding down this button makes your character slam down a massive rune on the ground, making specific areas where more players must stand and activate them together. This can be extremely perilous when so many enemies are on screen. I’ve seen players perish multiple times attempting to activate these when a massive attack is about to hit or a trap is set to activate. If successful though, the result is almost always worth it. While the cooldown can be high, activating them can rain down arrows, slow enemies within an area, offer shields to allies, and more, with each player having access to one co-op power depending on their chosen weapon.

It’s curious to see just how players of different skill levels and experience come together in groups. Even in the most organized parties that have formed non-verbal agreements (using a handy emote wheel) to focus on specific objectives, there’s that one player who is doing their own thing in a corner while hacking away at the wrong thing, and somehow, surviving to the end. Then there’s the one-man army. The ultimate dude who has min-maxed his build, got the perfect rolls during the run, and wants to get through the boss with or without his team. I saw all variations of these through my brief time with the game.

Meanwhile, dying means becoming a pinprick of light that another player can find and revive before a timer runs out. Coming back into the fight is always a good time. However, returning like this cuts down the health bar by quite a margin. Dying in this reduced state means it’s a trip straight back to the Dark Woods. Returning here always had me cursing my death at first but then being excited to find out what I could unlock with my character using everything I had accomplished during the run. This involves unlocking more perk slots, upgrading them, handing in quests, wishing for certain boons that may appear in the next run, and noting future goals to strike towards

Despite having an impressive world that encourages cooperation, massive wars against the afterlife’s forces, and a good God-killing hook for an exciting gameplay loop, there are some missing aspects that I can attribute solely to this being an early access release.

Considering the tenacity of roguelike enjoyers, having only two maps available at launch may end up being a major drawback for those who beat the two bosses within the first week, if I’m being conservative. The studio is already teasing a third gate for runs that will take place in a heavenly land, but this is slated to arrive later in 2025.

Another aspect that’s almost completely bare in 33 Immortals is the options menu, with no settings available for tweaking the graphics. The title has meager system requirements that only wants a dual-core CPU and a GPU with 2GB VRAM; it’s something you’ll be able to easily install and enjoy even on decade-old hardware. I’m surprised that it’s not launching for the Xbox One alongside the Series X|S to reach even more players.

In the same options menu, control bindings for both keyboard and mouse, and controllers, are missing. I did not have any issues with the existing control scheme, but that doesn’t mean this shouldn’t be a launch feature, even for an early access experience.

Adding to that, if you’re itching to play with a wider group of friends than three, unfortunately, four player parties are the maximum you can achieve right now, letting you matchmake into 33-player rounds with the group as if this is a co-op battle royale. I would have loved to have more open slots to add friends, perhaps with some sort of drawbacks to cancel out the added coordination.

The good news is that all these and more features and content are a part of the studio’s roadmap for 2025. The bad news is that you aren’t getting any of it right now, essentially making the early access version a worse experience if you pick it up this soon, unless you want the title in your library before the price goes up at the 1.0 launch.

The available content isn’t a small amount, but feels just a little underwhelming when there’s promises being made for more things that are coming in a few months’ time. A small delay could have meant shipping the game with at least the missing options menu items.

There is one more aspect that I am apprehensive about 33 Immortals. Multiplayer games live and die by their playerbases, and releasing a cooperation play-focused indie game that wants 33 players in each session is a tough ask even in the short-term unless the title simply blows up across the current gaming landscape. Releasing on Game Pass is a major plus for this reason, but the studio is skipping Steam for the early access launch. This has not boded well for most multiplayer games on PC.

It may be the same developer, but this isn’t the soothing afterlife of Spiritfarer anymore. 33 Immortals from Thunder Lotus Games hopes you have enough drive to repeatedly fight through the afterlife as well as a taste for cooperation. Mentioning roguelike nowadays means Hades inevitably comes up in the conversation, but this isn’t going for that kind of narrative-focused experience but leaning heavily into the multiplayer aspect. For good reasons too; without the cooperative element, I would imagine 33 Immortals would probably fly under a lot of people’s radar. It’s a fun hook, even while playing with randoms that you might not cross paths with again.

Bumping into another player or two, teaming up to fight random objectives, then going through the entire dungeon, only to get separated and somehow feel melancholy about that 20-minute unspoken bond is probably something you can only get from a video game.

33 Immortals enters the fight with simple but rewarding combat-favoring groups of allies, a tight gameplay loop to keep coming back, fantastically balanced maps for cooperative play, and a simple but highly readable graphics style. The game does a lot of things well, but there’s also a lot of promises being made, especially for things that should be staple for new games such as controls remapping. Mass multiplayer dungeon diving being its primary strength can also be a pitfall if not enough players end up being available to sustain it in a few months’ time. Game Pass is a valuable launch platform in this regard, but not having a Steam version may hurt the game more than a little.

Being an early access release, Thunder Lotus has a lot more planned for the title following its initial release. On the road to 1.0, the studio hopes to add more features like private sessions, more enemy and boss variety, and the third world that let players fight God. Unfortunately, I can’t judge the game based on promised features. Thankfully, this multiplayer twist on the roguelike genre is enough of a draw alone for me to recommend 33 Immortals.

What I can’t comment on just yet is the price of the game. The studio says it is revealing the price tag at launch, and not even reviewers have received this information early. When the official number releases in a couple of hours, I will re-evaluate my score in this review to see if it requires bumping a number down or up, depending on the value the game offers. The Early Access price has been revealed to be $19.99. I have bumped up my review’s score to 8.5.

---

33 Immortals launches on March 18 on Xbox Series X|S as well as PC via Microsoft Store and Epic Games Store as an early access experience for $19.99. It will also be available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day-one launch, while also supporting Xbox Cloud Play and Xbox Play Anywhere.

This review of 33 Immortals was conducted on a pre-release copy of the Xbox version provided by the developer and Microsoft. The game was played on a Windows PC.