Wreak havoc on countless foes with mighty weapons and deadly spells! Enhance your skills and face even greater dangers! Army of Ruin is an auto-shooter where you become the Bullet Hell.
The game differentiates itself from other "bullet hell" titles by giving each playable character a unique active ability. Players must carefully time the use of these skills to maximize their effectiveness, adding an extra layer of strategy beyond the genre's typical automatic weapon fire. Furthermore, the weapon evolution system allows players to enhance their arsenal by combining weapons with matching elemental trinkets, unlocking powerful synergies and encouraging experimentation with different loadout combinations.
While the gameplay may initially appear simple, the game features over 500 unique challenges for players to complete. Fulfilling these objectives unlocks a steady stream of new characters, weapons, trinkets, and other upgrades, motivating players to continually improve their strategies. Reviewers praise the game's balanced difficulty curve, noting that the various "Ruin" map modifiers force players to adapt their builds to overcome the changing conditions.
The sheer volume of unlockable content contributes to the game's high replayability. With dozens of playable characters, hundreds of weapons and trinkets, and the ability to freely reset and reconfigure your loadout, players can experiment with countless different builds and playstyles. Additionally, the meta-progression system allows players to permanently upgrade key attributes like damage, health, and experience gain, further incentivizing repeated runs.
Despite the game's depth, reviewers praise its accessibility and smooth controls. The simple movement-based gameplay is easy to pick up, and the option to speed up the action caters to players who prefer a more relaxed experience. Notably, the game is reported to run extremely well, even on lower-end hardware, making it an ideal pick for platforms like the Steam Deck.