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.

And then there are Shards, found inside the chests of Torture Chambers, used to spend on weapon upgrades and more when you’re in the Dark Woods (I’ll touch on this in a moment).

With dozens of enemies and allies on-screen at any given time, this alone is a notable achievement by developer Thunder Lotus.

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.

The game begins with a 33-player map, Inferno, which is an arid wasteland of roaming demons, 12 Torture Chambers and one big ascension battle to complete. The minions running around Inferno are easy enough to dispatch for practice and extra bones (the game’s currency), or you can run right by them without punishment. Torture Chambers are miniboss rooms designed for six players to tackle at once, but you can enter them with fewer than six, even alone. However, you’re unlikely to get far solo. The minibosses are hulking skeletons and big, flopping demon worms with plenty of health, and they always have hordes of minions as backup.

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.

You’ll also find Charon, who manages the in-game shop, where you can equip and manage cosmetics for your Soul. One of those customization options is a pet by your side – I’ve got my eye on a little beagle companion.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 33 Immortals Gameplay 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.

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.