Lethal Honor: Order of the Apocalypse is a roguelike with a strong sense of identity. Using a brilliantly executed comic book style to convey its world and characters, it’s easy to get sucked into the gritty narrative as you fight back a demonic invasion. Combined with its excellent visual presentation and storytelling is a fast-paced combat system that, while bearing its flaws, gets the job done. While there are definitely areas in the game I would improve, it overall serves as an exciting and engaging roguelike that kept my interest throughout.
The game begins as Aaron, a soon-to-be sacrificed tragic hero, awakens in the middle of a secret government lab under siege by demons. Fighting through the horde and freeing the character who will serve as one of our main protagonists, Aaron sacrifices his life to cut off the path of a dangerous demon and restore power to the complex, ultimately allowing for the demon’s downfall.
As one of endless agents like Aaron, it is your job to fight back the demon invasion, solve the mystery of who unleashed it, and restore order to the facility as you climb your way to the top.
The first thing you will notice, and something you’ve likely already noticed through this review, is that Lethal Honor: Order of the Apocalypse pays homage to gritty graphic novels with its art. The comic book look is not just an artistic gimmick but a core piece of the game’s DNA that appears in every aspect, from the storytelling to the character designs to the colorful yet bloody splatter that coats our characters and their weapons as they tear through the armies of Hell.
This inspiration shows most clearly in the game’s comic panel cutscenes or in moments just before boss fights, when we get these really cool comic panel introductions to the enemy.
Mechanically speaking, Lethal Honor: Order of the Apocalypse is a hack-and-slash roguelike where players fight through each section, choosing the path forward based on the promised challenge and rewards. It’s fairly similar to other games in the genre in that regard, except story-related segments are inserted into your runs instead of your typical paths forward. In this regard, I feel like Lethal Honor: Order of the Apocalypse is significantly more story-focused than other roguelikes, and progressing the story and beating the runs are intrinsically tied together in a way you don’t often see.
The combat in Lethal Honor: Order of the Apocalypse is fast and punchy, challenging players to temper themselves into a smooth pace of aggression rather than give in to the trap of spamming their attacks. If played with the right amount of care, enemy attacks are easy to dodge, with most presenting either as an area of effect or a projectile, demanding attention to both. Of the game’s weapons, I found myself in love with the katana, finding it the best mix of speed and damage as well as the most thematically fitting for our character.
It was the inter-run progression systems in Lethal Honor: Order of the Apocalypse that disappointed me the most. Completing rooms rewards you with several forms of in-run power-ups, which take the form of a single ability (paired with a special attack, both gained early in your run), some passive abilities, and modules that are limited in capacity and provide straight statistical boosts.
Though present in many roguelike titles, I am never a fan of straight-up statistical improvements in any kind of game. This is unfortunately the main kind of progression you will find during your runs, and while there is some satisfaction in seeing your sword hit enemies harder, it’s overall a fairly uninteresting way to make your character stronger. I also found the passive abilities underwhelming for how rare they were to actually pick up, usually involving text that requires you to knock an enemy into a wall to make use of the power. Maybe I was playing wrong, but I was not knocking enemies into walls often enough for it to feel like such an important part of the game. Many others were, again, flat number increases to different elements in your kit, which I don’t find incredibly interesting.
Your special attacks on the Control and Shift keys are by far your most powerful and interesting tools, but I felt the actual effects for using these abilities, whether visual or sound, were underwhelming, especially for a game with a comic book setting. The same can be said for hit feedback for weapons. These might be considered nitpicky bits of feedback, but I think more visual flair for dealing or taking damage would really elevate the game.
With all of that in mind, I can’t say that Lethal Honor: Order of the Apocalypse isn’t a game that works. Its setting and art do a lot of heavy lifting, and its story is engaging enough that it becomes your favorite part of a run. This is good, because the power-ups and builds you put together aren’t going to catch your attention like they might in other roguelike games. What is there mechanically isn’t something I’d necessarily write home about, but it gets the job done, being engaging enough to tide you over between story progression and making boss fights feel satisfying to complete, even if your late-run build doesn’t feel much different from the start.
The Final Word
Lethal Honor: Order of the Apocalypse has a strong comic book identity, featuring amazing art, stylized graphics, and a well-paced story that will keep you interested to the end. While its roguelike and combat mechanics fall a bit short, they’re more than enough to keep you playing as you chase those awesome cutscenes and story arcs throughout.
Try Hard Guides was provided a Steam code for this PC review of Lethal Honor: Order of the Apocalypse. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Lethal Honor: Order of the Apocalypse is available on Steam, Epic Games, and Xbox.
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