After a disastrous start, No More Room in Hell 2 is finally starting to turn things around, picking up some positive reviews thanks to a free weekend and patches
No More Room in Hell 2 just got Reanimated, but is it really alive yet? New player sounds promising.
Some games that had a rough start managed to bounce back over time. No More Room in Hell 2 looks like it had a bit of a rocky launch too, but after a free weekend and some solid patches, it’s finally picking up some good reviews.
Same name, new game. Why NMRIH 2 is so different
The original No More Room in Hell, which launched in 2013, was a real hit for a free Source mod. It built up a solid fanbase, racking up over 2.9 million Steam owners and earning a “Very Positive” rating from more than 72,000 reviews. Even now, it’s got a steady player base with around 900 concurrent people playing. Pretty impressive for a game that’s been out that long.
Source: No More Room In Hell 2; Developer: Torn Banner Studios
In contrast, No More Room in Hell 2 hit Early Access on October 22, 2024, and things didn’t go quite as smoothly. It started strong with close to 15,000 players on launch day, but that didn’t last. Steam reviews came in hot (and not in a good way) with a “Mostly Negative” rating and only about 45% of 7,000+ reviews being positive. Here’s what players were saying:
Instead of sticking to the original’s co-op, campaign-based survival style, they turned it into an extraction shooter with, so far, only one map. The zombies are barely a threat since you can just walk past them, and the melee combat feels clunky.
I would classify the game as unplayable in its current state. I don't quite understand the positive reviews. At best, this is a concept of a plan of a game that people are asking you to whack out 30 bucks for.
- Silence
Bugs like being unable to use your inventory, broken ADS that zooms in your view but doesn't give you iron sight, and don't even get me started on getting smacked around by zombies who are 2 ft. away from me facing the opposite direction.
The thing is, No More Room in Hell 2 ended up being made by a different studio mainly because the original dev team, Chivalry 2. A bunch of the original devs did stick around, though, and they kept working on the sequel under Torn Banner’s roof. The game also made a big engine switch, moving from Source to Unreal Engine 5, which was a major change in direction. That shift, plus a new team setup, probably explains why NMRIH 2 is totally different from the original.
From buggy mess to work-in-progress
Torn Banner Studios acknowledged these problems and pushed out a bunch of fixes. With April’s Reanimation update they introduced:
- Two new maps
- Revamped combat system
- New zombie types
- Stability improvements and various technical fixes
Source: Steam
This update coincided with the game’s first Free Weekend event, which pulled in over 11,000 players. Since then, the game’s recent reviews have shifted to a “Mixed” status. Here’s what players are saying now:
It still has flaws and is still quite buggy, but the newest update is a step in the right direction.
- Crango
This game started in rough shape. After six months you can see the Devs have put some serious work into the game. it does a real good job as an extraction based zombie shooter.
I enjoy the permadeath feature as it makes every game count yet it doesn’t matter if your character is freshly created or experienced with perks. The defining factor is teamwork to complete objectives and survive your playthroughs.
- Yeti
Sure, there’s still some negativity around No More Room in Hell 2 (things like bad optimization and balancing issues) but it does look like the devs are really putting in the work. The free weekend definitely gave the game a boost, bringing in more players and, more importantly, a ton of . That said, the road to a full comeback might still be a long one.
Most people get that NMRIH 2 is in Early Access, but the amount of game-breaking bugs early on was just a bit too much. On the bright side, it’s slowly starting to pull in more positive reviews than negative ones each day – which is more than we can say for new patches, the reviews are still mostly tanking.
