No More Room in Hell 2, the sequel to the cult hit No More Room in Hell, is currently in Early Access on Steam. With many features yet to be unlocked and a “Mostly Negative” review status on Steam, it’s safe to say No More Room in Hell 2 has a fair bit of work to be done before its full launch. However, having given it some playtime myself, I don’t think it’s quite the lost cause some other players seem to think.

Before we get into it, I want to say that I have no recollection of ever playing the original No More Room in Hell. While I’ve heard good things, I can’t make accurate comparisons between the original and its sequel, so I won’t.

No More Room in Hell 2 is an eight-player online extraction shooter/objective game with permadeath and character progression.

The easiest and most obvious comparison, at least for me, is Hunt: Showdown. Just like Hunt, No More Room in Hell 2 gives you a choice between three randomly generated survivors (CRC Responders, if I recall correctly), which all begin at level 1. You then take these characters into a huge map, spawning in different areas each time, and working towards a greater objective in the center. Little side quests appear along the way, allowing you to gather better loot and supplies to extract with for a better score. Your inventory is persistent, and your character is lost should you die.

Unlike Hunt: Showdown, No More Room in Hell 2 appears to be completely cooperative. While you can enter alone or with a premade party, everyone you meet in-game is your ally. When you bump into another player, instead of a desperate firefight to protect your loot, you’re prompted to invite them to your team, and from then on, you continue the objective together.

This is good because the zombies are exceptionally strong. While I’ve yet to run into any “special infected,” the standard zombies (and their running variants) are formidable foes that will shrug off an unusually large number of sizeable holes blown through their bodies. Your characters are also restricted by their stamina, making sprinting and melee fighting dangerous.

As far as the positives go, No More Room in Hell 2 has a pretty solid gameplay loop. While I’ve yet to see other maps, the game can easily expand during Early Access to include several and make for a truly timelessly replayable experience.

That, and the game also looks really good. I especially commend the gore system, something I would argue is inherently important for a zombie game. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as pulling out my revolver and blasting a giant hole through the center of a zombie’s torso or swinging a pipe to see its skull crack open and exposed brain hang out.

Unfortunately, No More Room In Hell 2 currently suffers from some issues in its Early Access state, the most serious of which would be the lag.

Try as I might, I couldn’t seem to connect to a game without serious latency issues. I’m no game developer, so I couldn’t tell you if this has something to do with a lack of servers or a matchmaking issue (it would be terrible to find out No More Room in Hell 2 was using peer-to-peer matchmaking). Still, it’s an issue I’ve seen others complain about, so I know I wasn’t alone.

Nobody likes lag in their online games, but No More Room in Hell 2 particularly suffers from high latency in many ways.

It can be as obvious as a zombie spawning when it shouldn’t, an issue I faced several times. During one match, when I was soloing the Church mission, a zombie almost killed me, only for it to teleport away and come back with full health. Later in that same mission, I dropped a circuit breaker, which then completely respawned. At that point, I gave up on that mission, chalking it up to a latency defeat and moving on.

It can also manifest as less noticeable issues, albeit ones that severely impact the feel of the game. For example, trying to cycle through your tools or inventory with a latency spike can feel really sluggish, as can using your weapons. Delayed input can make the entire gunplay feel off. Not only that, but I frequently had moments where it felt like my shots simply weren’t registering, making the already-bad-feeling, latency-ridden gunplay feel even worse.

No More Room in Hell 2 has potential. I think you only need to play one match to see it. A cooperative zombie-based extraction shooter is a fun idea, and the gore system makes it satisfying to tear through hordes of the undead. However, the game really needs to work on its latency issues and fill in an understandable yet very present lack of content before it’s ready to leave Early Access.

Pros:

• A fun base gameplay loop, combining the extraction shooter genre with a decidedly cooperative twist
• Good gore system that makes zombie killing exciting

Cons:

• Serious latency issues that negatively impact every aspect of the game
• A lack of content, assumedly to be improved upon as the game works through its Early Access phase