The original No More Room In Hell debuted in 2011 as a Half-Life 2 mod in the grand tradition of Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead. Where NMRIH differed from Valve’s zombie shooter was in its eight-player cap, as opposed to the tightly curated gang of four. Also setting it apart was the fact that you faced conventional zombies rather than special types. The modders cited George A. Romero’s classic zombie flick Night of the Living Dead as an inspiration, giving you an idea of the shamblers you’ll face.
No More Room In Hell 2, from Toronto-based Torn Banner Studios, has been in early access on PC since 2024. Wisely, the developers have opted to add cross-play, so you’re never going to be waiting long for a game. This takes advantage of the established and obviously loyal PC user base, though I have yet to encounter another PS5 player. This is a bit of a departure for Torn Banner, as they previously worked on the medieval-based Chivalry series.
If you’ve ever played the original PC mod, you’ll know what to expect from this sequel, as the mechanics are fundamentally the same here. If, like me, you’ve gone in blind, I’ll try to explain.
Set in 2028, the backstory is that a virulent plague titled Kulon, aka 732-ZH, has swept across the globe. Every map here, however, is set in Pennsylvania just like the 1968 film that inspires it. It’s down to you as a member of the Civil Recovery Corps to carry out a variety of objectives across the six maps. Three survival maps also feature, seeing you protect speakers that attract waves of zombies. Matchmaking has you play both modes, but I must admit the objective maps are my preference, even though getting lost is a very real issue on a couple of them, due to their vastness.
You’ll spawn on your own, initially away from the other responders, with your base weapons (unless you invest in better starting gear) being a .22 pistol and a mallet. No growing a mullet and going mad with it in Millets though, as it’s generally going to be your main weapon for dispatching zombies, at least until you find more pistol ammo. Charged melee attacks and do a bit more damage at the outset, often interrupting charging enemies. In the event you get the timing wrong, you’ll take damage. If you’re as inept as I was in the early stages, maybe even attracting multiple zombies and dying before meeting up with other players. Or more likely getting infected with the virus and slowly but surely succumbing to it.
You can mitigate the effects of infection with Phalanx pills, but without them, you’ll slowly start to turn. This isn’t a problem on beginner difficulty, as if you die, you’ll respawn fairly quickly unless you’re in the final phase of the level. Even on normal difficulty, if you’re unlucky enough to get infected, you can turn startlingly quickly, which can feel harsh. You can choose to chamber your pistol if you have a round available and kill yourself before you return to trouble your teammates, but often ammo will be depleted by the time that happens.
Like any co-op-based game, matches are only going to be as good as your teammates. This is fine on normal difficulty, as most players will be up to speed on the mechanics and are likely to help you out by healing and reviving should you be downed, but on beginner difficulty, players are generally learning the game, and you’ll often be out of luck. Thankfully, the respawns mitigate that a bit, but on normal difficulty you’ll be stuck waiting until teammates complete a main objective before respawning.
The more you survive with a responder, the stronger they get in terms of abilities that you can unlock as you level up, with Trophies/Achievements that unlock on reaching levels fifty and one hundred. By this point you’re gently encouraged to try a higher difficulty level, though I’ve only been brave enough to venture onto hard or nightmare a couple of times, preferring to boost my character up via normal rather than resorting to training wheels on beginner.
Normal presents a decent challenge on its own, and at least you’re more likely to have teammates who know what they’re doing. Though on one survival map I played, the other players seemed to have no idea whatsoever and we failed the first wave almost immediately.
There’s a decent spread of melee weapons, and refreshingly, they don’t have durability to worry about, so you can go full ham with a meat cleaver (my preferred choice) as a couple of well-placed slashes are good enough to take enemy limbs off and dispatch a zombie quickly. You can also equip two-handed melee weapons, although these aren’t so great in darker areas as they exclude use of your torch.
There’s a wide range of firearms to defend yourself with, including pistols, SMGs, shotguns and heavy rifles. All require ammo, and while it might be tempting to grab everything you can, you’re best to offload it on teammates who actually have a need for that calibre. See, you’re very much encouraged to help your teammates out by dispensing weapons and bandages, but as I found out, getting help is by no means a certainty, particularly if you’re unlucky enough to be infected, as pills or the gene-splicing treatment are your only hope.
Coming out of early access and launching on consoles, I’d have hoped the lengthy gestation period would’ve ironed out the kinks, but sadly a few problems persist. Trophies that have cumulative counts for melee kills, firearms kills and picking up items simply aren’t tracking and despite two patches so far post-launch, they still aren’t. I don’t doubt I’ve exceeded their requirements in my over thirty hours with No More Room In Hell 2, so it’s a bit annoying that they haven’t unlocked. It’d be nice if you had in-game totals showing your cumulative kill counts, but for now, there’s nothing. Also, some matches won’t connect, resulting in a timeout.
Other than that, it’s fair to say that despite these issues, this is a compelling co-op shooter, and the proof is in the sheer number of times I’ve played it over the past couple of weeks. It’s only the fact I’m writing this review now that is stopping me from playing more of it. Once the kinks are fully ironed out, it can only become greater still.
Torn Banner Studios, Green Man Gaming and Paragon Interactive’s No More Room In Hell 2 is out now on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X.