Lethal Honor – Order of the Apocalypse is a gritty hack‑and‑slash roguelite that pairs fast, melee-focused combat with a dark, hand-drawn graphic‑novel aesthetic. On PlayStation 5 it feels immediate and intense, built around short but punishing runs that reveal story fragments as you die and try again. The game rewards patience and pattern recognition more than frantic button-mashing, and its visuals and presentation make a strong first impression even when some design choices hold it back.
The game drops you into Wolf Island as an agent of a shadowy order battling eldritch horrors, and its storytelling is woven directly into the run loop through comic panels that punctuate combat and boss encounters. That integration gives the narrative a lived-in quality and keeps curiosity burning between runs, while the tone – mature, bleak, conspiratorial – fits the harshness of the gameplay. At its best the story moments deepen the sense of peril and mystery; at its weakest, character differentiation blurs over time, leaving many later agents feeling interchangeable and reducing emotional investment in what initially promises to be a more personal, harrowing tale.
Combat is the game’s core strength: attacks land with satisfying weight, enemy tells are generally readable, and encounters reward a disciplined blend of offense and defense. The systems encourage learning enemy patterns and refining timing rather than brute force, which makes successful runs genuinely gratifying. However, the roguelite progression tends to favor steady numerical improvements and small passives rather than game-changing artefacts or far-reaching synergies, so builds rarely feel radically different from one another. Difficulty spikes in a handful of boss fights can feel punitive rather than intentionally challenging, and the relatively muted payoff from some big moments reduces the sense of continual discovery during repeated playthroughs.
The PlayStation 5 build benefits from responsive mapping to the DualSense, where dodges, special attacks and dashes feel intuitive and crisp. The controller’s immediacy underscores the combat rhythm and makes close-quarters exchanges engaging. That immediacy clashes with a steep difficulty curve after the opening sections, which will appeal to players who enjoy uncompromising challenge but frustrate those seeking a gentler learning arc. Some of the build-defining feedback that heightens empowerment in other roguelites – explosive visual flairs, dramatic audio cues for powerful combos, or markedly transformative item effects – are intentionally restrained here, which keeps the game grounded and gritty but less operatically satisfying when you string together a perfect run.
The hand-drawn graphic-novel art and comic-panel storytelling are the game’s most distinctive flourish, creating a cohesive, grim aesthetic that elevates routine encounters into cinematic beats. The contrast between two-dimensional artwork and 3D arenas gives the title a unique visual identity and consistently sells mood and atmosphere. Occasionally scenes can feel visually dense at default settings, impacting clarity during hectic fights, and the audio usually supports the tone without ever quite delivering a full, thunderous impact on big hits and triumphs. Overall, presentation carries the experience and makes the world memorable even when some mechanical or progression choices feel conservative.
Lethal Honor – Order of the Apocalypse is a confident entry in the melee roguelite space that rewards players who enjoy precision combat and a moody, stylized presentation. Its narrative integration and striking visuals distinguish it from peers, and the core combat loop is tight and satisfying. Yet the progression design plays it safe, and the difficulty can spike in ways that feel more like roadblocks than meaningful tests, which may narrow its appeal to a dedicated subset of players. For those who relish unforgiving action wrapped in comic-book darkness, it’s a compelling and characterful experience; for players chasing radical run-to-run variety or a softer onboarding, it may feel a bit restrained.
Score: 7.4/10
Press Play Media 