Halls of Torment

Most horde survivors strip away RPG identity in favor of abstract power curves and anonymous avatars. Halls of Torment, developed by Chasing Carrots, pushes in the opposite direction: eleven distinct playable characters, each with their own ability pool and class power unlocks, set against pre-rendered environments styled after late-1990s isometric RPGs. The aesthetic is deliberate and consistent, not nostalgic decoration.

Runs last around thirty minutes and follow the standard horde-survival structure of enemy waves building toward boss encounters, but the build construction is dense. Characters are shaped by traits, abilities and ability upgrades, and items drawn from a pool of sixty unique pieces with 240 higher-rarity variants. Abilities number seventy-four including upgrades, and over a thousand traits modify characters and their skills, creating enough combinatorial space that synergy hunting drives replay rather than raw stat accumulation. Bosses number more than thirty-five and carry distinct mechanics rather than inflated health pools.

Between runs, progress is tracked through a quest system of five hundred objectives that unlock blessings — twenty-five permanent buffs applied to future attempts. Rare items retrieved during runs can be sent to the overworld and used to modify subsequent runs, and craftable tinctures offer additional directional control over outcomes. Thirty artifacts further adjust game rules. Six stages each bring unique environments and enemy rosters of more than seventy monster types, with an endgame Shrine of Torment designed to stress-test optimized builds beyond ordinary completion.

Halls of Torment released on September 24, 2024, following an early access period during which Chasing Carrots hit a sales milestone of one million copies, noted in an October 2024 update. Post-release development has been active: a Supporter Pack DLC arrived in early 2025 alongside content fixes, and a Lord of Greed and Scriptor update landed in February 2025. The Boglands, a new stage, launched in October 2025 along with the Bard character, previewed through experimental builds over the preceding months. A further update called The Archives was previewed in March 2026, with fixes continuing into April 2026.

For players who found Vampire Survivors too shallow but Hades too narrative-heavy, Halls of Torment occupies the mechanical middle ground with a build system that rewards planning over reflexes.