Warhammer Survivors Review: A Shameless Clone Worth Every Euro

What it is

Warhammer Survivors launched on 10 November 2026, developed and published by Auroch Digital in partnership with poncle, the studio behind Vampire Survivors. It is out on PC (Steam and GOG), PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Switch 2, iOS and Android. On Steam it costs EUR 7.49, with a 10 percent launch discount to EUR 6.74 until 17 November.

Let me be clear about the basis for this verdict: it is launch-week judgement built on the store listing, the first wave of critic reviews and early player reception, not a hundred-hour completion log.

How it plays

If you have touched Vampire Survivors, you already know the game. You move, your weapons fire on their own, the screen fills with enemies, you pick upgrades, and with the right combination a basic weapon evolves into something absurd. The pixel look, the interface and the gold-based meta-progression are so close to poncle's original that calling it a reskin is not unfair.

The twist is that this is effectively two games behind one menu. Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar are separate tracks with their own stages, champions, weapons and enemies, and champions do not cross over. The Steam page promises more than 40 playable champions and over 75 weapons. Followers join you carrying weapons your own champion cannot use, and some stages end with Extremis bosses that have proper health bars and attack patterns.

The highs

- The loop is as moreish as ever, and boltguns and chainswords fit it suspiciously well. - An Objectives list that keeps handing out weapons, stages and upgrades. Launch reviewers report tens of hours without seeing everything. - Bosses with real patterns are a genuine step up from the genre template. - Deck Verified, with launch tests reporting stable performance on Steam Deck. - The price. For under eight euros this is a lot of game.

The lows

- Extremis bosses can only be hurt with a specific evolved weapon. Arrive at the end of a run without it and the game simply throws you out of the stage. That is a design rule that punishes you for not reading a wiki. - Some objectives are pure grind. One reviewer flagged goals demanding 100,000 kills with a single weapon. - Stages repeat, and critics agree the maps are less varied than the Vampire Survivors add-ons. - Story is close to non-existent, and followers firing from their own position rather than yours takes getting used to. - No co-op is listed on Steam; this is a single-player game.

Reception so far

OpenCritic sits at a 76 average from 17 critics, and Steam user reviews are Mostly Positive at 73 percent after the first day. The complaint is the same everywhere: it does little that its inspiration did not do first.

Verdict

I do not hand out points for originality that is not there, and Warhammer Survivors has almost none. But a well-made copy of one of the best loops of the decade, with two Warhammer settings, a long unlock list and a price below a cinema ticket, is still a very easy recommendation. If you are burnt out on survivors-likes, nothing here changes your mind. Everyone else gets a lot of game for very little money.

Score: 8/10

Image: David Poe / US Air Force / Public domain, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wh40k_painting_miniature.jpg