Warhammer Survivors Review - Bringing A Tank To The Mad Forest

Published Nov 10, 2026, 5:00 AM EST James Lucas is the Lead Photo Editor at TheGamer and has worked in professional journalism since 2018. A Newcastle University graduate with a degree in Journalism, Media, and Culture, they have written hundreds of guides, news stories, and original reports, with bylines in IGN, NME, GaymingMag, and VG247, sourcing interviews with studio heads, legendary industry figures, prominent actors, and more. You can reach them at James.t@thegamer.com I spent hours carving through termagants with a chainsword and watching their sprites explode into a viscera of gems before Warhammer Survivors finally clicked. It wasn’t until I unlocked the tank and started rolling through the Ork Stronghold, turning pixels into paste beneath the running gear, that I finally got it: this isn’t just a Vampire Survivors reskin. It’s a Warhammer power fantasy that lets you unleash an orbital bombardment on the poor denizens of the Imperial Bastion, doling out the Emperor’s duty while you rummage through chests to turn garlic—ahem, Shield of Faith—into the Emperor’s Wrath. Warhammer Survivors almost reminds me of those old ‘00s crossover games, like Peggle Extreme, where child-friendly unicorns are coupled by Half-Life headcrabs as blood drips from their horns. It’s unashamedly Vampire Survivors underneath the prettier UI, boltguns, and fusil-cannons, but once you push through and begin to unlock the more experimental Warhammer weapons, it becomes its own beast. If you’ve played Vampire Survivors or its myriad clones, you’ll know the core gameplay loop: kill enemies, collect gems, acquire weapons, kill more enemies. Warhammer Survivors is familiar but a little more sluggish, with its hulking brutes clad in Space Marine armor. But even as someone who isn’t embroiled in the tabletop side—with passing knowledge thanks to Dawn of War and Boltgun—it just felt cooler. The whip was always a bit flimsy. Serviceable, but you toss it aside the second you get something better. Turn that whip into a chainsword, and suddenly I can’t let go of the thing. How Warhammer Survivors Eeks Out Its Own Identity Warhammer Survivors is split into two campaigns with their own progression systems, so it’s not just 40K on offer. Age of Sigmar is more familiar, with its high-fantasy tropes that throw you straight into a stage brimming with rats and other vermin. But this was another concept I just wasn’t sold on, as passing through the realmgate from one universe to the other was a bit of a slog at first. The two campaigns share so much DNA in their starting weapons, and both have the exact same passives, that it took a while to appreciate what each had to offer as I was forced to retrace my steps. Again, once I got past the first few hours, the two began to diverge with truly unique weapons and stages that felt every bit as rewarding to experiment with—it’s just a shame you have to push through to truly appreciate it. So much of Warhammer Survivors pays homage to Games Workshop’s miniature wargame, such as paint buckets that unlock new characters and a bit box menu to view all your weapons in. But one of the most inventive ways that it captures the feeling of placing tiny figurines onto a board is how unlocking new weapons works. Not every character can use every item, so you’ll gradually build a squad with their own unique arsenal. There are mages brandishing the shield of faith, grenadiers lobbing grenades, Space Marines carving with the chainsword, and a tank. Just a tank. Can you imagine having a tank in the Mad Forest? That’s what this game is. The Squad Mechanic Is Novel, But Does It Work? It’s a crucial part of what makes Warhammer Survivors feel less like a reskin and more like its own distinct entry into the Survivors genre canon, but I’m not sure it lands. Using weapons like the shield of faith, which is Auroch Digital’s answer to garlic, is a lot less satisfying when it’s permanently off-center or lagging behind as your troops get separated by the horde. It turns the satisfying gameplay loop of becoming an unstoppable powerhouse into a fiddlier game of wrangle-the-squad. It doesn’t matter so much when evolutions are brought into the fold, and suddenly you have five unstoppable heretics deleting everything in sight, but it’s another hurdle that slows the pace and makes the early moments of a game less rewarding. And while Warhammer Survivors does eventually diverge and become its own experience, the early game is so similar to Vampire Survivors, with blatant reskins of weapons and passives, that I was even able to use Vampire Survivors guides to figure out evolutions. So much of the initial crawl is carried by the sheer cool factor of Warhammer’s aesthetic. It’s a bit of a shame that the early game is tantamount to a texture pack, imagining what Vampire Survivors weapons would look like in Warhammer, rather than imagining what Warhammer weapons would look like in a survivor game. Especially given how much better the game gets when Auroch Digital finally starts taking more ambitious swings. With that being said, the pixel art, thematic UI, and retro synthwave fantasy music are all a step above Vampire Survivors. Hearing the war drums clang as I marched along the rivers of molten realmstone in the Bloodwind Spoil, hurling poison knives and tempest axes, had me completely enthralled by the Age of Sigmar universe. As much as it owes to Vampire Survivors, it feels rooted in Warhammer, right down to the Orks launching a Waaagh! that summons massive, enraged hordes, to the end-of-stage boss encounters like the enormous Norn Emissary tyranid in place of the Grim Reaper. Warhammer Survivors takes a while to sound the horn, and spends so much of its early hours awkwardly stuck between itself and the Vampire Survivors foundation. Some of its ideas fall flat, and it doesn’t always reach the heights of its inspirations, but once it sheds its roots and embraces the outlandish theocratic tyranny of tanks rolling on Poxwalkers, it becomes a moreish sandbox where smashing together miniatures just to see what happens is endlessly entertaining—and thankfully, it won’t get you kicked out of the hobby shop. Released November 10, 2026 ESRB Everyone 10+ / Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood Developer(s) Auroch Digital Publisher(s) Auroch Digital Franchise Warhammer, Warhammer 40K Pros & Cons The Warhammer aesthetic is a perfect match for the Survivor genre, and the weapons are satisfying to experiment with?from the chainsword to the tank. Pays homage to the tabletop roots brilliantly, with paint buckets, bit boxes, and miniature squads. Beautiful pixel art and enthralling retro music are every bit as moreish as evolving the poison knives and unleashing a rain of toxic hell on the vermintide. Each universe has its own distinctive progression system that captures 40K and Age of Sigmar brilliantly, branching off to become rewarding in their own right. The squad system falls flat and makes using certain weapons more of a headache. Warhammer Survivors takes a while to step out of Vampire Survivors? shadow, and spends too long meandering with weapon reskins. Both universes start off too similar, which can make jumping from one to the other more of a slog as you retrace your steps and start all over again.