No More Room In Hell 2 [Review]
When Hell becomes overcrowded, what happens to the deceased on Earth? In “No More Room in Hell,” the undead flood the streets, making travel impossible without encountering hordes of zombies. You can play in closed or open lobbies alone or with up to eight players. Given the game’s increasing difficulty, I highly recommend playing with others.
As a zombie enthusiast, I appreciate the game’s adherence to traditional zombie lore. While many recent zombie stories experiment with mutations and new abilities, “No More Room in Hell” offers a refreshing return to form. The bulk of the zombies are your classic slow moving undead, lacking any abilities that an average human wouldn’t possess. They’re stealthy and can easily sneak up on you, appearing around corners or behind you at any moment. When you get too close, they lunge and latch onto you like rabid animals. Some zombies even emit an aura of decay, surrounded by flies and disease that can infect your character if they get too close.
The game is incredibly challenging, with each difficulty level increasing the absurd and seemingly endless number of zombies in a level. What sets it apart is its death policy, which is extremely harsh. When you die, you must choose a new character from the main menu, selecting from three randomly generated options. You can customize their appearance, including outfit, hair, voice, and skin color, but their name is fixed. As you progress through the game, you level up each character and unlock perks at certain milestones. However, losing a character who has reached level 30 or higher on a run is particularly painful.
There are ways to save your character. You can buy a special item that acts as a beacon. If you die in a level, the character will be rescued and saved after the end of the run. During the game, you have your standard health packs to heal injuries and pills to recover from infections. Your teammates can also help you if they’re close enough. It’s beneficial to have everyone stick together, or if you have a whole team of eight, you can split them into two teams. The goal of the game is similar to how extraction shooters work. You’re dropped into a level, but you’ll be separated from your teammates. You’ll usually meet up, explore, and collect weapons before heading from point A to point B. Along the way, you’ll repair generators, radio out, or complete other tasks before calling an extraction and escaping. If you’re having trouble or have lost some teammates, you can extract early by finding the early extra hatch on the map.
I encountered some technical issues while playing the game for the first time. I paused the game, but the pause menu UI remained permanently displayed on the screen, even though the game didn’t recognize it as paused. I could still move and interact with the world and zombies, but I couldn’t pause the game because the UI was still active. This blocked me from seeing anything or navigating menus like my weapon wheel or map. However, I could still progress and even die. Fortunately, we were able to test rejoining. After turning the game on and off, it asked if we wanted to rejoin the game we were dropped from. I personally still had issues in that instance, as my entire character seemed to be glitched because of that run. We also tested that even the host could drop in and out. The host leaving or dropping wouldn’t drop the game, which was helpful to learn early on. I’m happy to say that the glitch never recurred, and I had no other issues. However, after talking to a beta playtester, I learned that this specific glitch was also happening in the beta.
As a zombie enthusiast, I must say that this game handles the genre exceptionally well. While it may not be the scariest, it certainly stands out as one of the most gory. The game’s attention to detail in depicting blood and guts makes killing the zombies that attack you all the more satisfying. It’s not just about the gore; the game delves into the psychological aspect as well. When you’re infected, your mind starts to deteriorate, and you begin hearing voices and sounds that other players can’t hear. These voices try to convince you that you’re better off dead and constantly urge you to kill yourself. There’s even an option to fulfill that request by turning your gun on yourself. The characters in the game react and plead with you to reconsider, making it an intense and thought provoking experience. It’s a challenging topic to discuss, but I’ve never seen such a concept executed so effectively. The first time I heard a whispered “you should kill yourself,” I was taken aback, and then learning that there’s actually a way to do that within the game further deepened my understanding of the zombie virus’s biology. It’s so desperate to kill its host and transform you into a zombie that it infects your mind, regardless of how you die.
No More Room in Hell 2 offers an excellent cooperative experience, especially for zombie fans. While it’s a $30 game, it may be a bit challenging for a group to afford, but I believe it’s worth the investment given the amount of hours you can enjoy. No More Room in Hell 2 is currently available on Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, and PC for $30.
No More Room In Hell 2
No More Room in Hell 2 offers an excellent cooperative experience, especially for zombie fans