No More Room in Hell 2 arrives on PlayStation 5 with a much harsher interpretation of cooperative zombie survival than the genre’s more action-oriented heavyweights. Published and developed by Torn Banner Studios, the sequel puts players in the shoes of Responders trying to survive missions across a zombie-ravaged United States, but the premise is less concerned with telling an elaborate scripted story than creating individual tales of survival. Missions become stories in themselves as players scavenge for equipment, search for other survivors, complete objectives and desperately attempt to reach extraction. The fact that Responders can be permanently lost gives these otherwise familiar zombie-apocalypse scenarios considerably more weight, especially when a character has survived enough missions to build up valuable perks and equipment.
The structure is built around cooperative play for up to eight players, although No More Room in Hell 2 does something interesting by not necessarily putting everyone together from the start. Players can begin scattered across the map, making the early stages feel surprisingly lonely as they search dark environments for supplies and hopefully encounter fellow Responders. Proximity voice chat helps turn these meetings into a more organic part of the experience, and once a group comes together, the game becomes much stronger. Resources are scarce enough that sharing ammunition, medical supplies and useful equipment feels genuinely important, while the larger maps regularly force teams to improvise as objectives send them in different directions. When everyone communicates and works towards the same goal, the resulting tension can be excellent. When they don’t, however, long missions can quickly descend into confusion as players become separated and struggle to regroup.
The objective-based missions are generally the heart of the experience, combining exploration and scavenging with straightforward tasks such as restoring power, activating equipment, finding items or rescuing survivors. None of these individual objectives are particularly complicated, but that is arguably the point: connecting a wire or finding a fuse becomes much more stressful when ammunition is running low and the undead are closing in. Large and intricate maps offer alternate routes and plenty of places to search, while the variety of possible objectives and changing circumstances helps prevent every run from feeling exactly the same. There is also a wave-based Survival mode that provides a shorter and more direct alternative, though Objective mode is where the game’s blend of exploration, cooperation and extraction mechanics feels most distinctive. Repetition can still creep in over longer sessions, however, particularly once the basic structure of the objectives becomes familiar.
Combat reinforces the game’s survival-first philosophy. Ammunition is limited, firearms create noise and attracting more zombies is rarely a good idea, so players constantly have to decide when to shoot, when to conserve resources and when to risk getting close with a melee weapon. Infection and permadeath make those decisions even more meaningful. A single mistake can have consequences far beyond the immediate encounter, and becoming infected introduces an additional race against time to find treatment or reach safety. We particularly like how this prevents No More Room in Hell 2 from turning players into unstoppable zombie-killing machines. Even a relatively small group of undead can become dangerous when a team is poorly equipped or already wounded, and the prospect of losing a developed Responder makes a successful extraction feel like a genuine achievement.
Unfortunately, the PlayStation 5 version also has some rough edges where controls and usability are concerned. Gunplay is generally the most immediately familiar part of the control scheme, but melee combat can feel heavy and awkward, particularly when several zombies are nearby. Attacks can be slow to execute, and being caught in enemy animations or struggling to judge the reach of an incoming attack can be especially frustrating when a single hit may contribute towards infection. The interface is another weak point on PS5, with menus and inventory management often feeling more cumbersome than they should with a controller. Selecting, dropping or switching items during tense situations can require too much thought, while the game does not always do enough to explain its many systems clearly. More extensive controller configuration options would have helped as well.
There is nevertheless plenty of depth in the progression and equipment systems for players willing to learn them. Successful Responders gain experience and unlock perks, equipment and new ways to specialise, while different weapons, explosives, medical items and utility tools encourage teams to coordinate their loadouts. The tension comes from knowing that this investment is tied to an individual character who can still be lost permanently. That risk-reward balance is one of the game’s best ideas, because it creates a genuine dilemma whenever a teammate needs help or a dangerous area might contain valuable supplies. Solo play and tutorials can help newcomers become familiar with the maps and mechanics, but the learning curve remains steeper than in many comparable cooperative shooters.
Visually, No More Room in Hell 2 delivers a suitably bleak zombie apocalypse on PlayStation 5. The abandoned locations, darkness, environmental clutter and lighting all work together effectively to create an uneasy atmosphere, and the maps generally feel large enough to support the game’s emphasis on exploration. The undead themselves can look suitably gruesome, while the effects of damage help give combat some welcome physical impact. The overall graphical quality is less consistently impressive, though, with somewhat average visuals, unconvincing interaction animations and occasional graphical oddities. Technical issues include floating objects, awkward enemy behaviour and other small glitches occasionally breaking the immersion. Performance on PS5 is generally solid, however, so these problems feel more like rough edges than constant obstacles.
Audio does a great deal to support the tension. The sounds of zombies, gunfire and the environments themselves make darker areas feel appropriately threatening, and hearing the undead nearby can often be more unsettling than actually seeing them. The soundtrack and sound effects complement the survival-horror atmosphere well, while the proximity communication system is naturally at its most valuable when a team is actually coordinating its efforts. It is another area where the game benefits enormously from playing with the right group, because a desperate warning over voice chat or the sound of a teammate fighting somewhere in the darkness can add considerably to the experience.
No More Room in Hell 2 is therefore not the easiest cooperative zombie game to recommend to everyone, but it has developed into a compelling survival experience for players willing to accept its demands. Its combination of scarce resources, infection, permanent character death, large maps and eight-player cooperation creates tension that many more action-focused zombie games simply don’t attempt. At its best, a mission can produce exactly the kind of desperate chaos the concept promises, with a team improvising its way through a collapsing situation and barely making it to extraction alive. At its worst, clumsy melee combat, an awkward PS5 interface, limited objective variety and a poorly coordinated team can make that same chaos feel frustrating instead. We think the core experience is strong enough to overcome those shortcomings, particularly for groups willing to communicate and learn the game’s systems together, but No More Room in Hell 2 remains a survival game with some distinctly rough edges rather than a completely polished evolution of the genre.
Score: 7.4/10