We Who Are About to Die - Short Review (Early Access)

With how popular rogue-lite games are becoming lately, as well as the consistent popularity of the Ancient Rome setting throughout the years, I’m a bit surprised that we don’t have enough Gladiator style focused games already. Saturating the market like the zombie or world war tropes we have today. That soon is about to change, as we now have We Who Are About to Die, recently released on Steam Early Access.

Ever encountered a pretty cool arena combat or gladiator mechanic in a game? and said like “Man, I wish there was a full game focused on this”? —- Well, your wish is now granted. We Who Are About to Die’s main focus is all around the life of Gladiators. This is unlike most titles where the game just shallowly dips into the concept of gladiators by way of side content arena combat, mini-games, or side questlines.

We Who Are About to Die is reminiscent of melee / sword fighting games like Mount and Blade and Kingdom Come: Deliverance when it comes to combat and its approach to your freedom of directional swings. But with a twist: You now completely control the physics and the actual movement and momentum of your attacks. You control it using mouse movements, “swinging” or sliding it across your mousepad like some sort of motion control.

This physics-based unique combat system is the make or break feature of We Who Are About to Die. One that will leave you not only fighting against the enemy, but also fighting against the controls and the camera. It can be annoying, yes. It adds an extra to the challenge and it’s a bit unforgiving, especially when combined with the rogue-lite nature. Ultimately it is a rewarding experience once you figure out the controls and come up with your very own movesets and “hand made” animations to brawl your way into victories.

Aside from the fighting, We Who Are About to Die is also a part management game. As in you are managing your character’s career: Customize your fighter, grow and upgrade his skills, customize his training regime, manage his reputation, etc. Aside from the fun combat, the career mode aspect of We Who Are About to Die is just as fun.

We Who Are About to Die itself focuses on your journey as a Gladiator. From an unknown slave to a potential Grand Champion known across all of Terantia — the game’s setting. You start with your character by randomizing from a selection of backstories with different starting traits and skills. Customize the character in-between matches via different armor slots and melee weapons to select and bring into the arena. Your wins earn you money to buy equipment and services, along with influence to perform authoritative actions like rerolling the available items in the store, giving it some action RPG and looter elements.

Despite being recently released in Early Access, We Who Are About to Die is very much playable and feels like a full game with fully fleshed out features and enough content. I highly recommend trying it out.

Full In-Depth Review coming shortly here on Taptap! Stay Tuned!

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