Undead Citadel Review: Hack & Slash Adventuring Comes To Quest

Undead Citadel is an undead hack-and-slash game first released on PC VR in 2023, and it's now available on Quest. Read on for our full review.

The game is technically story-driven, though the narrative yields little in terms of character development or actual plot. You embody Sir Anvil Capheus, a foul-mouthed mercenary who finds himself for no apparent reason stranded in the wilderness cursing the gods. Stumbling upon an old citadel, it soon becomes clear that all is not well; buildings have fallen to ruin and the town is inhabited by the undead!

From here, the game proceeds to embark upon a roughly five-hour campaign of arcade violence, spattered intermittently with low-rent spatial puzzles, some lackluster looting, and a fair bit of bad language. There is also a Horde mode consisting of three maps that offer lasting replay value once the story mode is dead and buried.

The protagonist goes from being a self-serving, vulgar mercenary who cares only about his own immediate needs to an altruistic hero risking life and limb to thwart an unknown menace without even the slightest exposition. It’s a little jarring to realize so early on how thin the storytelling is, but it is hardly crucial. Undead Citadel is an action game after all, so perhaps it's better that it just focuses on the action.

Only a Flesh Wound

Undead Citadel has found a niche within the melee-based gore-porn market. Offering physics-based combat with over 80 unlockable medieval weapons, developer Dark Curry has pitted itself boldly against VR stalwarts such as Blade & Sorcery: Nomad and Swordsman VR. Despite some fundamental similarities, Undead Citadel takes a faster-paced, more arcade-style approach to the combat which does well to differentiate the game from the competition.

The physics system used is not as deep as that used in Nomad but it functions well, delivering intense, over-the-top carnage. There is some physics-based jank present with the odd skeleton getting stuck on your sword, but for the most part, the system runs well enough. Except for any time you are required to carry a barrel - which happens more often than you’d think - or open a padlock, which are unnecessarily arduous and finicky affairs.

Actual swordplay is fairly light. Each enemy has a range of attacks that can be tricky to anticipate thanks to some clever animations. These are mostly single attacks telegraphed by some grand, twirling movement as opposed to being flurries of strikes that require precision parrying. As a result, the best defense is often a strong offense. Blindly pushing the attack will see success more often than not.

Compared to the more nuanced swordplay on offer in Swordsman VR and the more elaborate physics engine of Nomad, Undead Citadel feels far more like an arcade hack & slash adventure than a combat simulator. That is not necessarily a bad thing though, as the simpler, faster-paced combat on offer here is more accessible and, in many ways, more fun.

Come Back, I'll Bite Your Legs Off

Undead Citadel provides a good range of weapons for players to experiment with, scattering rare, hidden items throughout the campaign. Each undead nasty you face drops their weapons when felled and players are free to pick up whatever they can carry. You'll also find a decent variety between one and two-handed weapons alongside ranged options like bows and magical power-ups administered via consumable potions.  

The sense of weight applied to two-handed weapons is good; heavier weapons can’t be raised with a single hand but do tremendous damage when swung with both. You also need to switch between blunt and bladed weapons depending on the opponent type you face. Skeletons and armored foes are more easily dispatched with skull-shattering blows from blunt weapons, whereas fleshier baddies can be easily run through with a sword.

It's a great premise for combat, implying a need to vary your weapons and style on the fly. However, the implementation is slightly lacking. A sword thrust, which appears to travel straight through the fleshless body of a skeleton will still take the enemy down, which detracts from this tactical element that could have given the combat a little more depth.

Tis Only a Scratch

Unfortunately, Undead Citadel hides some serious design flaws that hamper the overall experience. There are a few basic mechanics that you would expect in a fast-paced combat game that are sorely missing, with the ability to jump or sprint being foremost among these. Few things break the immersive fantasy of being a mighty warrior more than the complete inability to step over a log.

Sprinting is probably the more egregious omission however and its absence was difficult to deal with. Sections of the campaign require significant backtracking to solve puzzles or find loot, and being forced to walk the game at the pace of someone out for a pleasant afternoon stroll was beyond frustrating. This also made navigating combat feel a little one-dimensional; there is no dash or similar mechanic whereby you can quickly reposition yourself in battle.

Additionally, climbing exists in only two or three specific sections. Bricks and beams jut in formations that just scream "climb me", yet the only thing you can actually climb is a very particular set of glowing yellow vines. It is oddly immersion breaking to haul yourself up a stone wall by some flimsy vegetation while you are forced to ignore the solid-looking handholds that surround you.

If Looks Could Kill

The PC VR version of Undead Citadel is a good looking game, so the Quest iteration has a high bar to live up to. In this case, Undead Citadel doesn't so much clip the bar as it does walk right underneath it.

Even from the calibration menu, things have an oddly low-res quality to them. The textures throughout the game feel muddy, although the more open and brightly lit areas fare considerably better than their gloomier counterparts. When compared to Nomad and Swordsman though, Undead Citadel doesn't fare too badly.

In addition to murky low-res textures, items pop in and out of existence in an incredibly distracting way. Rubble will appear as an indistinct mass and then pop into focus as you approach. Rather than just an overlay of texture, sometimes the shape of the whole object will change completely. It's jarring, unsightly and one of the worst examples of texture popping that I've experienced on Quest.

The audio design is decent but hardly triumphant. Weapons clang and clash with reasonable force and heads make a satisfying crunch while collapsing under a blow, yet the sounds lack a certain weight and resonance to make them shine.

Spatial audio is reliable, indicating where attackers are coming from well. It's actually excellent in the catacombs level; the splashing sounds of approaching enemies echo down corridors convincingly. This simple audio component contributes a lot towards making that sequence one of the best parts of the whole game.

That said, the voice acting is overdone and the undulating score that underpins the action is entirely forgettable. Much like other aspects of the game, a few inconsistent elements distract from what could otherwise be great.

Undead Citadel Review - Final Verdict

Undead Citadel is an action game redeemed only by its combat. Dark Curry's game features a raft of graphical issues on Quest, a narrative that offers little in the way of plot or progression, and a campaign mired by repetition. There's still some great moments and good fun to be had, and that'll be enough for some. If you're after a more arcade-style take on physics-based melee, this may have enough to keep you interested.

UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.