We Who Are About To Die is a gladiatorial roguelite. It’s also the work of an incredibly small team, with most of the duties handled by developer Jordy Lakiere, who also self-published it. Considering the team size, it’s mighty impressive, with a fun focus on physics-based combat and a visceral look at the arena of old.
Although We Who Are About To Die has technically been available since 2022, it regularly receives updates, with the exciting new Blood & Sand update — just launched back on the 18th of June — bringing updates to the physics, animations and more.
At the beginning of every fight you get to stroll into your arena (with your comrades if you have any) which gives you a little time to prepare for the fight before the carnage begins, with the portcullis raising in front of you, it’s actually really impressive how into this I was due to this build up.
The environments are varied with lots of different arenas based on everything from the slums of a Roman town all the way up to the most grand and gold cladded marble halls. Each of these has varied traps, equipment and moving platforms to help add some extra flair to your fights and give an opportunity to knock enemies into things like rotating batons or a fixed ballista emplacement.
The combat mechanics of We Who Are About To Die are not too dissimilar to that of the Mount and Blade series, however, the twist is that you can effectively pull your punches by choosing how hard you hit as well as which angle you want to attack from. This leaves combat entirely in your hands and allows you to focus on specific targets more accurately as well as manage stamina better.
I have found that sometimes the directional combat doesn’t always relay what type of attack you will be doing, a good example would be that for some spears pulling down to attack would sometimes hold the spear sideways and attack with a kind of side-on bash which never really seemed effective and led me to favour more bladed weapons.
I also found that using short ranged weapons do give you an advantage because most weapons seem to have a sweet spot to hit, inflicting the best damage possible with most larger weapons requiring a lot more timing or skill to land effectively. This by no means makes the larger weapons unusable but requires a bit more learning before you just pick it up and start swinging.
The combat itself is broken into all sorts of different arena-based bouts with anything from a full-on faction war, with both sides donning matching armour sets and a few different weapons, to one-on-one fights to the death against elite enemies. Each match earns you gold and favour as well as standing with one of four different arena owners which increases based on where you choose to fight.
There is a large amount of rare items, I believe there’s around 300 individual items meaning you can create all manner of gladiator to fit your own personal playstyle — be that a hulking behemoth with heavy armour and a bi weapon, or a nippy featherweight with a small dagger and shield who nimbly dodging between targets. It’s entirely up to you.
The armour system in We Who Are About To Die is also quite interesting, with different slots for armour, weapons and a shield. Each different item has its own durability and stats leading to all manner of combined equipment being bought and used through your journey to glory. It’s nice to see that each of these pieces can also be affected in combat, for instance if you repeatedly bash someone’s arm then that piece of armour will eventually degrade and break and the same is said for you.
It gets deeper still as it features a lot of different systems outside of the arena with a doctor, blacksmith as well as various ways to earn gold/favour through bribery or promotion. You can also train your skills individually outside of combat through a menu, letting you get the edge over your opponents with a bit of investment.
Overall, We Who Are About to Die is a great arena-based gladiatorial roguelike, allowing you to step into the shoes of a gladiator and your way to glory one foe at a time.
You can find We Who Are About to Die on PC below.
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