Pixel Expedition: Surviving with strategy in Demon Star fashion
Pixel Expedition: Survivor.io is a free-to-play roguelike that blends retro 8-bit visuals with modern gameplay mechanics. While fun and nostalgic, the game is currently held back by bugs and frequent ads during early access.
Hyderabad: The first review of 2026 is of a free-to-play (F2P) game that should leave many of you feeling nostalgic. Pixel Expedition: Survivor.io, with its 8-bit design aesthetic and chiptune soundtrack (a phrase used to describe the sharp, blocky sounds of early soundcards), is a roguelike game built around all the modern mechanics that define the genre.
Played in an upright portrait format, my time with the game was a lot of fun as I collected a wide variety of unique abilities to fend off unending waves of monsters. If modern games like Celeste and Dead Cells, which evoke nostalgia for early-era titles, are to your liking, then read on to find out whether you should give Pixel Expedition a try.
The best way to describe Pixel Expedition’s gameplay experience is to imagine Hades meeting a classic 8-bit DOS game like Demon Star. You play through various stages with a range of characters while fighting endless waves of monsters. Defeated enemies drop crystals, and once enough crystals are gathered, you unlock unique skills.
These skills can be upgraded and, when combined and complemented properly, can make the waves of monster beating significantly easier. This aspect of Pixel Expedition makes it very similar to Hades, as you must carefully identify skills that are not only powerful but also work well together. The right decision-making is essential here because you are not just fighting monsters, but also constantly strategising which skills to collect and upgrade.
While the combat elements of the game are automated, movement isn’t. This means that while you cannot control how you fight, you can decide whom to fight, when to engage, and in what order. It’s a great blend of idle gameplay and strategy because, at times, you are carefully farming your mercenary, much like you would farm a tank in games like Dota or League of Legends.
The game can be played at three different speeds – 1x, 1.5x, and 2x – and while one could argue for playing faster, in my experience, the game offers a good variety of monsters and rewards careful dodging of attacks and incoming waves, ultimately benefiting the slower, more deliberate player.
An overall fun experience, Pixel Expedition is let down by many, many glitches and bugs,
something to be expected considering it is in early access. Secondly, due to its F2P nature, it relies on advertisements a bit too much currently: ads for respawning, ads for additional rewards, ads for energy to keep playing, you name it. There is enough here for players to like the game, but the repeated ads can get annoying quickly.
If Rawhand Games can get these issues under control before the game’s launch, this could be a fun game to try at launch. The nostalgia it evokes is a great bonus.
