Survivors Mercs Review: Fast-Paced Roguelite Action

As the champion “survivors-like” reviewer over on Complete Xbox, here I enter Xbox Nation with my first review in the genre on this shiny new site. Survivors Mercs is the latest Bullet Heaven game available on the very same day as TerraTech Legion, so we are spoilt for choice. Developed by Wolpertinger Games and published by Wandering Wizard, the game is now available on Xbox Series X/S. How does it stack up against the seemingly endless amount of roguelite experiences coming weekly? Keep reading our Xbox Nation review to find out.

Surviors Mercs follows the exact same premise as the hundreds of titles out in the genre these days. Drop in, survive and level up to increase your power, speed and agility. Runs start off tame and then ramp up in difficulty as you navigate through the hordes. Choosing your power-ups after levelling up is critical on how long you stay in the game before you choose to extract, as there is air support when the timer runs out. This makes it very difficult to survive as you are dodging air strikes as well as weaving through enemies. The best method is to get in, achieve the objective whilst scouring as much loot as possible and then get out of there pronto.

Whilst the gameplay isn’t as deep as something like Vampire Survivors for instance, there is scope to build different weapon varieties and become more powerful the more runs you attempt. Between each run you invest your currency earned in game to unlock permanent upgrades, which makes your character stronger. Characters vary in their abilities and how they attack enemies and you’ll want to unlock the AI team mates as soon as possible if running solo.

What hooked me into this one was building your base between runs in order to access those all important permanent upgrades. You’ll be able to construct and upgrade different rooms in an underground base. These rooms all provide different benefits that will carry you further in future runs out in battle. What I enjoyed about this system is that it provides a real sense of progression thus extending the longevity of the game overall.

Putting time into this progression system will eventually provide new weapons, deeper character upgrades, XP boosts, better synergies and unlocks galore. You can easily pump dozens of hours into this game by smashing out all the runs and dipping in and fleshing out everything the game has to offer.

Survivors Mercs runs silky smooth on Xbox Series X with a locked 60fps. During my review time with the game, I never saw any dip in frames, even in the most chaotic moments of gameplay. Visually, the game has a clean, stylised pixel-art aesthetic that plays it safe. UI design is clean and wraps around the game well amongst the intense hordes. I found the health bars above enemies was rather helpful in navigating your way around the map and strategising your run.

Sound effects do the job with satisfying gun cracks, explosions and popping off enemies all ring through. The soundtrack does become rather repetitive over time but does suit the atmosphere of the gameplay and does add some adrenaline to the runs.

Survivors Mercs doesn’t do much differently from all the other rogueites out there. It is, however, a solid, fast-paced game that will have its hooks in you if you enjoy this kind of game. It’s a shame it doesn’t feature Xbox Play Anywhere functionality, as I’d love to have played this on my Lenovo Legion Go or gaming laptop. It is, however, also available on Steam if you want to play in multiple places. Whilst I played the entirety of the game solo, you can embark on the challenges this game throws at you in local co-op, which is a great feature that not many of the Survivors games have. If you fancy picking up a copy of the game for the reasonable price point of £8.39 yourself, you can grab it on Xbox Series X/S HERE.

Pros

• A solid entry to the bullet heaven genre with fluid and satisfying combat mechanics
• Great performance on Xbox Series X/S
• Has that addictive gameplay loop of ‘just one more run’
• Beautiful pixel-art presentation

Cons

• Map and enemy variety is lacking
• Some of the progression does seem like a serious grind if you find the gameplay repetitive
• Builds are a bit unbalanced, some feel massively weak and others a lot stronger