ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?! Y’know, like that reference from the 2000 movie Gladiator? Do readers even know that – ANYYYYWAYS gladiatorial combat is the name of this game. We Who Are About to Die is the technical name, but that tells me next to nothing about the game outside of its grisly nature. But yeah I’m here to tell you that it’s half warrior management sim, half heavy precision physics-based combat. Despite the top-down almost third person camera, I was reminded of the combat systems of Chivalry or Mordhau, combined with the limbic control of QWOP (yeah I know, weiiiird right?). Outside of your bouts, it’s figuring out how to maximize your gold and influence to prepare for fights with bigger payouts. You can train to specialize in weapons or to increase your stats, buy new armor or weapons to take into combat, and unlock perks using lumpsums of your resources. This is also a roguelike, so all of these bonuses only apply for the run. You can technically invest resources from your current run into pump up a future one, but outside of a few perks at the end of your game, there is very little meta progression to power yourself up between rounds. Overall, I think the combat system is novel, but at times slow and clunky, feeling like every 5 seconds you’re backing off when you feel like you should be pressing your advantage. The business sim aspect is easy enough to learn, and I think it does a good job of not overshadowing, but rather complementing the focus of the game, which is clearly mastering the combat.

Let’s tackle the management side first, since it’s easier to explain. There’s a good amount of ways to control what items and abilities you may want to tilt your odds towards in terms of a grander build path. Most of the time, influence is used to increase your options, while gold is used to… well, buy things like weapons and other ways to power spike. It’s difficult to outright win the game with the sum of your upgrades, as most of your success will rely on your mastery of the combat mechanics first and foremost. There are a few winners such as increased healing potency, or ways to increase your sturdiness in battle. Overall, I think there’s just enough progression systems to feel a sense of growth while seemingly doing its best not to minimize the importance of mastering the combat.

The combat itself is meaty… but also can feel a tad sluggish. I do enjoy the twist of making it so the motion of your mouse movements dictate your swings on paper…. I used to be a proponent for motion control stuff once the Wii started getting better, but I do think I can see people getting frustrated by how it never truly felt one-to-one. And with how the stamina system works, there was this really boring cycle of do 2-3 swings, stall and back off for like 5 seconds, rinse and repeat. I think lining up your hits to find a weak angle they aren’t guarding, as well as aligning your own blocks can be satisfying. But all in all, I did feel like I never quite knew when I was landing critical blows besides when their armor or their head gets chopped off. It leads to this feeling that nothing is happening and then suddenly it’s over. I feel like I should understand more clearly the pace and how I’m contributing to the fight. Now granted, the game does tell you when you deal damage and shows when you get headshots and whatnot. But if it weren’t for those logs specifically, I’d really have no idea what the fuck was happening majority of the time. When it works, you do feel clever and like there’s a methodical nature to how you try to move into your hits to give them weight. But more often than not, the combat ended up feeling slow and stagnant with moments of outplays and excitement.

EDIT: There is a new update that adds a brand new control scheme and third person camera to the game! I think it helps give a lot more options in terms of accessibility to customize what works best for you. I still think the game is still ultimately niche, but now more than ever I think the game is more approachable than ever before.

We who are about to Die is definitely a flavorful entry to the realistic gladiatorial combat sim that’s extremely impressive once you realize it’s spearheaded by a single developer. What a fucking mad lad. I can tell that the dev has a very defined vision for the game, and while I never interacted with the community on Discord, it does seem like they found an audience. I wish everyone the best of luck, I think despite my policy that I tend not to give the seal if I personally didn’t love it, I think there’s enough potential and polish here to recommend. I think it’s pretty niche and may not reach mass audiences, but as the developer mentions on the launch screen, the game isn’t called We Who are About to LIVE…

We Who Are About To Die is developed by Jordan Lakiere

Available on Steam for $21.99

Provided free review copy via Dev.

Hellfirebam has awarded We Who Are About to Die the Indie Gamer Seal of Approval