“In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.”
Over the years, I’ve become quite the fan of both Warhammer, namely 40K, and that of the Vampire Survivors genre, playing more than a dozen of them this year alone. Many of them come with their own personality and mechanics, characters, and bizarre abilities, while others shamelessly aim to recapture the magic that made Vampire Survivors so memorable; with little actual change. While many have failed in that attempt, Warhammer Survivors largely succeeds, if not for some choices I’m not fully on board with.
What really impressed me here is that Warhammer Survivors has both aspects of Warhammer, both the swords, orcs, and fantasy, via the Age of Sigmar, and the bolt pistols and space marines of the 40K universe. It basically feels like two games in one, each complete with their own menus, characters, abilities, and overall presentation. Sure, some abilities and skills are shared, but they still feel like their own thing, most of the time.
The general loop remains unchanged here. You’ll pick a character and attempt to survive for a set period of time as the game does everything it can to silence you with hordes of enemies via waves that get increasingly harder. You’ll kill enemies, collect experience orbs, or in this case, tiny skulls, and then level up. You’ll choose from a selection of skills, both passive, offensive, or defensive, and then use those skills and abilities to survive even further. It’s a loop that is easy to understand, and even easier to grasp in the middle of gameplay.
Despite the simple premise, Warhammer Survivors can get tough, until you start to use the gold you collect to purchase permanent upgrades such as boosted damage, health, or how your abilities work, via their cooldowns and general hitting power. Once you start making a dent here, the game gets a bit more manageable, but still deeply challenging, especially the bosses.
It’s also worth pointing out that gold can also net you new characters, those that unlock once certain conditions have been met, and more will appear as you do so. Some characters cost 200 gold or 800, so making sure you balance that gold via your upgrades can certainly change the experience as you start unlocking new characters with new skills and abilities that may serve you better, playstyle depending.
It is finding a good balance of what powers are going to work for the situation at hand, and what character is going to get you there. Granted, since RNG plays a big focus, you may not get the build you want every run, so having alternative builds in mind is crucial to survival.
Warhammer Survivors doesn’t quite have anything unique to it, or anything that pushes the bullet heaven genre forward. It’s very much a direct copy of what has come before, but with Warhammer characters and certain trademarks of the series put on display. Hell, even the bursting chest sequences are directly pulled from Vampire Surviviros. I do like that Malum Caedo from Boltgun is the default 40K option here, given this is also by the Boltgun developer, Auroch Digital.
What didn’t quite hook me, and still doesn’t, is that for the 40K cast, your boltgun and other weapons only fire in the direction you are facing, instead of the standard targeting of whichever enemy is closer. The Warhammer characters don’t share in that as many of their projectiles will aim in whatever direction the enemy is facing. This made playing as the 40K characters a bit harder to really clean out enemies when most games of the genre have you moving away and kiting enemies, not charging into them. Now, this makes sense given the space marine approach, but your health bar isn’t as generous here as it is in something like Space Marine 2.
Still, once you start leveling up your weapons, abilities, and basic stats during a run, you can really start mowing down all manner of creatures, 40K or otherwise. Bosses are big, deadly, and can easily one shot you if you are backed into a corner. And, with some levels having walls and blocked off areas, that is very much a possibility. The game is also inconsistent if an enemy is blocked by an obstacle or if they can just shoot or phase right through it.
Where some of the immersion begins to break, not that the title is incredibly immersive, is that one particular weapon is a set of dice that rolls onto the battlefield and explodes, or one stage that is literally a Warhammer tabletop setting, complete with a DM’s guidebook. For as grimdark as the series is meant to be, there is some odd lightheartedness here that I’m not fully on board with. It’s cute, but Warhammer shouldn’t be.
What is interesting here, despite the separation of the Age of Sigmar and the 40K campaigns is that they do connect in certain ways. Certain collectibles appear in both universes and are needed to unlock specific characters and other secrets. And, once you have maxed out a particular enchantment in one, you’ll gain a bonus rank that buffs your roster in the other. It’s a really cool idea that benefits playing through both campaigns.
Warhammer Survivors features 40 heroes and a ton of weapons; we’re talking hundreds after all is said and done. And, from passive skills, and companions you’ll find out in the wild to join you, there is a lot here to seek out. And, since certain characters cannot use specific weapons and skills, given Warhammer tends to stay friendly to its rules, those weapons and skills often have other characters step in and handle those abilities. What helps you there is that they fire those weapons themselves and don’t take damage, so you only need to worry about yourself.
Visually, I am really on board with what Auroch Digital has done here, even if the result isn’t visually unique to the genre. Personally, while I do love the sprite work, I really hope this kind of thing gets the Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel approach, with Diablo IV quality visuals, giving the grimdark Warhammer vibe a jolt in the arm. Still, the sprite work here is solid, and the environments, while a tad plain in some circumstances, still look and feel relatively good.
Warhammer Survivors could have benefited from some unique ideas and a bit more atmosphere to compliment its source material. It is still incredibly addictive and fun, but can lean into being a bit too colorful and friendly. Regardless, there are tons of characters here to unlock, weapons to discover, and with two Warhammer universes to conquer, you certainly get your money’s worth.
Developer - Auroch Digital, Poncle. Publisher - Auroch Digital. Released - Nov 10th, 2026. Available On - PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC. Rated - (E 10) Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch 2. Review Access - A review code for Warhammer Survivors was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.