Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUEHollow Survivors
Battle through hordes of horrific creatures as you hack and slash your way to the top of the Tower in this rogue-like dungeon crawler game. Choose from a variety of upgrades and weapons, and save the Tower.
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Video reviews
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Archived third-party reviews and community material may refer to different versions. External opinions and ratings are presented separately; consult the original videos for their full context.
Community discussion
A top-down action roguelite from solo dev Danny Deer (published by PlayWay/Gameparic) where you fight up a tower of about 20+ floors of monster hordes, picking soul-card upgrades and building up a settlement between runs, in a Vampire Survivors/Hades hybrid style.
Players rate it Very Positive on Steam (82% of 201 reviews) for its snappy, fast combat, art, and quick meta-progression, but many recommend it only on sale because the content runs thin after a few clears. The few critics who covered it echo that: Worth Playing scored it 75 and said the loop is fun but does not sustain interest beyond a couple of hours. Negative reviewers find the combat clunky (contact damage, forward lunge on attacks, non-invulnerable dashes) and the meta-progression grindy. It is a full release (not early access), launched 10 Apr 2025, and at least one 2026 reviewer asks whether it was abandoned since Aug 2025. Sales look modest: one estimator puts it near 19k USD gross.
What players praise
- Fast, fluid, snappy combat when kiting hordes; several reviewers enjoy the roguelite-deckbuilder plus bullet-hell mix
- Pixel art and grim atmosphere praised even by players who dislike the gameplay
- Progression feels smooth and quick, with a steady ladder of unlocks so you rarely feel stuck
- Bosses, weapons (scythe, great axe and others) and spells give variety; spell-based upgrades are the ones with real synergies
- Story has a grim opening and a Loop Hero-like tone that one reviewer found enjoyable
- All achievements obtainable through normal play with no guides needed
- Difficulty described as fair, not too easy or too hard, for a cheap indie; controller support and Steam Cloud included
What players criticize
- Clunky combat: touching enemies deals damage, attacks lunge you forward into enemies, and dashes lack full invincibility so you often dash into damage
- Shallow content: only a handful of unlockable weapons and subweapons, and the same power-ups recur
- Most upgrade picks are generic stat buffs or simple triggers; few meaningful synergies outside spells
- Confusing boss hitboxes and inconsistent drops (a run with no health orbs, then four or five in one stage)
- No in-game encyclopedia or explanation of upgrade-card mechanics; weapons can only be judged from panel stats
- Price feels steep for the amount of content (about 10 USD) according to several reviewers
- Higher difficulties scale weakly, so post-game replay value is limited
Distinctive features
- Survivors-style auto-fight fused with a per-stage reward pick (alternating essence currency and upgrades) instead of XP-gem levelling
- Hades-like camp where you invest currency in permanent stat upgrades (one reviewer calls this artificial friction)
- Fixed-length tower (about 20 to 24+ floors) with a handful of set bosses rather than endless survival
Divided opinions
- Whether combat feels fast and snappy or jerky and clunky, especially the forward lunge and contact damage
- Whether it is a worthwhile 10 USD buy or only a discount pick for its amount of content
Repetition and friction
- Grind for meta upgrades: one reviewer with 4 hours and thousands of coins said the game still felt like its first five minutes
- Alternative weapons and spells are a grind to unlock and some are no better than the starter weapon
- Rare materials and keys come only from the latest bosses, punishing players who usually die around floor 17
- The per-floor reward alternation produces a linear, boring power climb
- Repetitive enemies and same-feeling moves become monotonous after about an hour for some
Hoped-for improvements
- Add an in-game codex and clearer explanations for upgrade cards and curse mechanics
- Fix contact-damage and forward-lunge combat, and give dashes real invincibility frames
- Add more content: more weapons, subweapons, enemies, stories or quests per character, and stronger endgame difficulty scaling
- Rework upgrade pools so there are fewer dead cards (curse cards need their enabler) and more build-defining synergies
- Make unlock and material acquisition less grindy, since rare materials come only from late bosses and boss rewards are random
- Post-launch support: a player notes no updates since Aug 2025
Launched 10 Apr 2025 as a full release on Windows, macOS and Linux at 9.99 USD; a prologue and demo also exist. Steam has a very positive label but small review count. Metacritic lists it with only one critic review and no user ratings, and no OpenCritic entry was found. Developer/publisher team posts pinned suggestion and bug threads on Steam, but a 2026 reviewer says no updates since Aug 2025, suggesting support has wound down. Reddit and other outlets could not be read; community detail comes from Steam reviews and Steam forum. No major controversies found. Sample of local Steam reviews is small (19 texts); forum-sourced claims were dropped as unverifiable.
Community sources
- Top helpful positive and negative English Steam reviews (local file) ↗
- Local Steam metadata: developer, release date, tags, review totals, revenue estimate snippet ↗
- Steam store page: description, features, Very Positive summary, full release ↗
- Steam forum: complaints about dodge, contact damage, currency scarcity, developer pinned threads ↗
- Metacritic page: score TBD, 1 critic review, no user ratings ↗
- Lists Worth Playing 75 review and its verdict on limited content ↗
- Worth Playing review (read via Metacritic summary): fun loop, not enough content ↗
- Boxleiter-method revenue and copies estimate ↗
- OpenCritic search; no entry surfaced ↗
Archived creator commentary 1
Third-party summaries based on automatic captions may contain transcription or interpretation errors.
Tier list Part 4 (2025)
Hollow Survivors is a fairly traditional action roguelike where you climb a tower out of hell, with a Hades-style hub between runs and survivorlike hordes of enemies in the rooms. He was drawn in by its vibe and art style, and he enjoyed the journey to the ending thanks to meaningful meta progression. After completing it, though, he finds content and replayability thin: boons are the only thing that changes a run, and there are no shops, events or weapon-specific upgrades. He places it in the low-to-middle B tier for now and hopes for more content updates.
What the creator praises
- Great vibe and art style, with visually distinct biomes
- Hub world with characters and permanent upgrades between runs, Hades-inspired
- Fast-paced, hectic core gameplay, especially after unlocking the double dash
- Infinite wall-less arenas feel immersive
- Starting weapons each have their own move set
- Meta progression makes the path to the ending a satisfying adventure
- Challenging bosses and difficulty before meta upgrades are unlocked
Issues raised by the creator
- Little content: few unique events, NPC interactions or unique floors, and mostly the same hordes
- Room rewards are weak; boons are rare and the only thing that changes a run
- No shop or mid-run currency, so little player choice during a run
- Many boons are not impactful, and weapons lack unique upgrades so runs feel alike
- Replayability is weak after the ending; hard mode gives no real reward once everything is unlocked
- Could lean harder into the survivorlike aspect with far more enemies
Design observations
- Blends Hades-like hub and structure with survivorlike horde rooms
- Endless wall-less floors where you never run out of things to fight
- Design lesson: mid-run currency and a shop would add player agency and reward choice
