33 Immortals

33 Immortals launched on Steam on June 10, 2026 from Thunder Lotus, the Canadian studio behind Spiritfarer and Jotun, at a budget-friendly $14.89. Its pitch is genuinely unusual: a co-op action-roguelike that drops up to 33 strangers into the same hellish, Hades-inspired arena at once, fighting hordes and colossal bosses together in real time rather than the small-party structure that defines most of the genre. Months into its life, reviewers broadly agree the hook works, at least for a while, but a repetitive core loop and a visibly shrinking population have left the game's longer-term prospects in real doubt.

A hook that genuinely nobody else has pulled off

The single most consistent praise across this review base is for the specific, novel thing 33 Immortals actually does: put dozens of anonymous strangers into one arena and make them cooperate, in real time, to take down bosses that would be impossible solo. Multiple reviewers independently call it "multiplayer Hades that Hades never quite figured out," and several specifically praise the co-strike and combined-power mechanics that reward reading what strangers around you are doing rather than communicating through voice or text. One reviewer, admitting bias as a trailer editor for the game, captures a sentiment echoed by many others without that bias: traditional MMOs feel like too much scheduling and commitment, while 33 Immortals delivers a similar sense of collective, large-scale cooperation in a single accessible session with no roster, no raid lead, and, notably, no way to send hostile chat messages to other players at all.

The loop that doesn't hold up past the first few hours

Set against that novelty is a complaint that shows up in a large share of critical reviews: once the initial thrill of coordinating with strangers wears off, the actual moment-to-moment gameplay is repetitive and shallow. One detailed review breaks the loop down plainly, run around a map collecting resources from chests and urns, fight the same enemy types, face a boss, repeat, and argues that none of Thunder Lotus's clear artistic strengths translate into mechanical depth to match. Others echo the same arc: genuinely excited in the first couple of hours, then increasingly aware there isn't much more beneath the surface. That's a specific, recurring structural criticism rather than a general complaint about difficulty or balance, and it's worth taking seriously for anyone considering the game as a long-term time sink rather than a short, novel experience.

A grindy meta-progression system players didn't ask for

The game's damage-scaling meta-progression draws some of the sharpest, most specific criticism in the review base. To meaningfully increase overall damage output, players are pushed to use every class and weapon extensively rather than settling into a preferred playstyle, a design choice more than one reviewer describes in almost identical terms: forced breadth over player choice. One reviewer states it bluntly, disliking being made to grind classes they don't enjoy just to stay competitive in later content, a complaint that cuts against the game's otherwise accessible, low-commitment pitch. It's a design tension worth flagging specifically: the game sells itself on requiring no scheduling or specialization, yet its own progression system quietly demands a breadth of play many casual players won't want to put in.

Disconnections, regional servers, and a thinning population

Several of the review base's harshest complaints are about infrastructure rather than design. Disconnecting mid-session, even briefly, reportedly locks a player out of rejoining their group entirely, with no partial rewards or progress credit for the time already invested, a frustration multiple reviewers call out as one of the game's most punishing rough edges. Regional server coverage draws its own specific complaint, with an Australian reviewer noting only three servers remain active months after launch, leaving high-ping connections as the only option for some regions. Underlying both issues is a broader, repeatedly stated concern: the player population has visibly thinned since launch, making it harder to fill lobbies for the game's higher-difficulty maps, and several reviewers report the developer has signaled no major further content updates are currently planned, a discouraging signal for a game whose entire premise depends on a critical mass of other players showing up.

A price and demo that lower the stakes of trying it

Thunder Lotus deserves credit for how it's priced and positioned 33 Immortals relative to the risk it's asking players to take on a genuinely unusual multiplayer format. At $14.89, it undercuts most premium co-op games by a wide margin, and a free demo lets undecided buyers try the core loop, including a taste of the mass-coordination hook, before committing any money at all. Several reviewers specifically credit this combination, a low price plus a real demo, for making 33 Immortals an easy recommendation even for players who ultimately bounce off the repetitive loop after a few hours; the ask is small enough that the novelty alone justifies the purchase for most reviewers, in a way it likely wouldn't at a standard $30-40 price point for a game with this much repetition in its endgame content.

Where Thunder Lotus's strengths as a studio do and don't carry over

Thunder Lotus built its reputation on narrative-driven, emotionally resonant games like Spiritfarer and Jotun, and it's worth noting explicitly how differently that reputation translates here. The studio's visual and atmospheric strengths carry over cleanly, reviewers across the board single out the art direction as a highlight regardless of their feelings on the gameplay, but 33 Immortals is a real departure into live-service multiplayer territory the studio hadn't previously worked in, and its weakest points, thin meta-progression, harsh disconnect handling, uncertain long-term content support, are exactly the areas where live-service specialists typically have more institutional experience than a narrative-focused indie studio making its first major multiplayer game. That context doesn't excuse the rough edges, but it does help explain them, and it's worth watching whether the studio's post-launch support closes that specific gap over time.

Verdict

33 Immortals delivers on a genuinely novel premise, few other games have made mass-scale stranger cooperation feel this immediate and rewarding, wrapped in Thunder Lotus's typically striking visual art direction. But a repetitive core loop, a grindy progression system that undercuts the game's own low-commitment pitch, harsh disconnection handling, and a visibly shrinking population raise real doubts about how well it will hold up. At $14.89, it's an easy recommendation for the novelty alone, best experienced sooner rather than later while lobbies are still easy to fill, with expectations set accordingly for the long term.