DLCXbox · PC · PlayStation

Halls of Torment: The Boglands

Chasing Carrots · RPG, Action, Indie

Overview

Descend into the Boglands—an eerie new stage crawling with drowned spirits, walking trees, and creeping decay. Unlock two new heroes, dozens of quests, new items, abilities, artifacts, and mechanics like Earth and Decay in this grim expansion to Halls of Torment.

Beyond the cursed Halls lie the Boglands—a sunken realm of creeping roots, drowned spirits, and creatures that never quite died properly. This large expansion for Halls of Torment opens a festering new frontier, introducing fresh heroes, mechanics, and additional challenges for those who believe they've tamed the torment.

What Awaits in the Boglands:

A New Stage:

Trudge through a murky swamp teeming with insects, spirits, and ancient walking trees. Time is not your enemy here—survival is. Victory lies not in the grains of sand in the hourglass, but in the piles of slain foes.

The Crone summons twisted plant life to ensnare enemies and spread Decay, a creeping affliction that weakens defense and shatters block chance.

The Alchemist hurls volatile mixtures imbued with elemental powers—customizable for fire, ice, lightning, or earth. He thrives in chaos, and favors builds that harness multiple elements at once.

50+ New Quests:

Earn rewards by experimenting with new mechanics, braving the Boglands, and mastering your tools.

New Abilities & Gear:

Unlock three new abilities and a dozen new items—each designed to synergize with the Crone's control and the Alchemist's raw elemental creativity.

Decay Mechanic & Earth Element:

Unleash the new Earth element and apply Decay—a long-lasting, armor-cracking curse that softens even the toughest foes.

6 New Artifacts:

Customize your runs with powerful stage modifiers. Risk meets reward as these ancient objects twist the rules to your favor—or demise.

More Traits. More Blessings. More Ways to Die.

Expand your build potential with potion-focused blessings and new traits waiting to be uncovered.

From the game's Steam store page.

THE GAMEQ VERDICT111 reviews analyzed

What players are actually saying

1. Summary

The Boglands is a cheap add-on for a game its reviewers love, and the reviews split close to even, with a slim positive majority. Its fans want more Halls of Torment and get it: a new swamp map, two new heroes (the Crone and the Alchemist), new gear, quests and music, at a price most reviewers who mention it call fair or better. Launch week was warm, with 81% of its 48 reviews positive. Of the 63 reviews written after launch week, 41% recommend it.

Crashes come up more than any other problem, in 22% of all reviews. Several of those players say the base game never crashed for them, and crash reports kept arriving months after release even as others said patches had fixed it. Other reviews name bugs in traits, quests and level-up menus, new Growth traits that long-time players call bloat, and a requirement to finish Agony mode and collect plants across the old maps before the new map opens at all. The new heroes and the map itself divide people. Some love the hostile, zoning enemies and the Crone's decay builds; others find the heroes random and slow and the brown-and-green map hard to read. Reviewers on both sides tend to praise the base game, and they disagree about whether this DLC adds to it.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

More of a game they already loveHigh

Several positive reviews are short notes from fans: this is extra Halls of Torment, and that is enough. "same Halls you know and love, just more of it," one wrote, and another put it as "It's more of the same, it's simple as that." A few say they bought it mainly to support the developers, and some ask for more DLC. Some negative reviews also open by praising the base game ("Love the game, hate the locking of new map behind a collecting"). Fans themselves point out the catch: it pays off mostly for players who have already worked through the base game and want an endgame challenge.

A low price for what it addsMedium

Among the 26% of reviews that talk about price or value, most say it is worth it: "It's a crime this game and its expansion being so cheap," and "Good dlc at a reasonable price." A long positive review notes that the DLC only looks expensive next to a very cheap base game. A smaller group disagrees, calling one stage and two classes thin for the money ("this is a dlc u would get for 0.99$ or 1.99$ at best") or saying the content is disappointing next to the base game.

New quests, gear and musicLow

Players who enjoy completion praise the batch of new quests and gear ("Quests 10/10" in one scorecard), and a few single out the soundtrack ("Absolutely amazing music accompanied by the tried and true gameplay"). One reviewer who finished the new quests felt the extra ways to power up had reduced the tension of the original.

Where players are split

The Crone and the AlchemistMedium

Critics of the new heroes say both rely on random or summoned main attacks that take control away: "Neither of the new characters are fun to play due to extremely random or uncontrollable main attacks," and "I am not a fan of RNG auto attack characters in roguelikes." A long negative review argues that the Crone's low speed and slowing curse, plus weak summons, make the new heroes a poor fit for the Boglands map they ship with. Others enjoy them, especially the Crone: "Crone feels overpowered," one wrote, and another explains that decay-focused builds make it "extremely strong." Opinions in between vary. One reviewer likes the Crone but not the Alchemist, one calls both classes "interesting," and another says they aren't.

The Boglands map and its tougher enemiesMedium

Fans of the map like that it plays differently: you must kill rather than just survive, enemies zone and block you, and boggy ground slows you down. "It feels like it was designed by someone who hates you as a player," wrote one reviewer who recommends it, meaning it largely as praise and calling the DLC an optional endgame challenge. Another described it as an ecosystem "trying to purge the antigen that is the player." Detractors find the same features unfair. The exploding enemies "leave behind an AOE that is really hard to avoid," slow terrain feels wrong in a game built on speed, some attacks lack the warning circles the old halls used, and a few short reviews simply call the stage "terribly imbalanced."

What frustrates players

Crashes that the base game never hadHigh

Crashes come up in 22% of reviews, more than any other complaint. The usual story is that the base game ran fine and the DLC brought crashes, often at the end of a run, after a boss, or as loot dropped. "Game crashed after my first 40-minute run in Boglands," one wrote, and another: "I had a crash during the final boss fight... never had the game crash previously." Players disagree on whether it was fixed. Some reviews from the first weeks and from March say updates cleared it up ("btw it doesnt crash anymore"), yet new crash reports kept arriving in April, May, August and September, including "Oh no, the DLC makes the game crash constantly!" Some positive reviews mention crashes too; one notes that they all hit as a run ended and progress was kept.

Bugs in traits, quests and menusMedium

Players list specific broken systems: level-up menus showing every class's traits, quests completing or unlocking at random, Crone plant types not spawning until a reload, effect opacity not applying to new abilities, wrong trait descriptions, and items such as the regen version of the twisted chaplet "not actually improving regen." One long review says the crash risk made them "afraid to experiment with equipment." Another points out that some base game bugs were never fixed either, and two reviewers say they will change their review once the bugs are patched.

Balance, and Growth traits that veterans call bloatMedium

Long-time players object that the DLC changes the base game as well as adding to it. One negative review says "You will be flooded with the new Growth traits" with weak scaling, too few potions to discard them, and no way to switch them off short of disabling the DLC or finding a rare artifact. Others complain of "poor balancing of new additions," note growth trait descriptions are wrong, or say new items are so strong they remove the tension. The players raising this write as long-time players of the game, and one of them notes newcomers probably won't notice.

The new map is locked behind a grindMedium

Buyers who expected to jump straight into the swamp were surprised to find the map locked. "Instead I had to google how to unlock it," one wrote. A detailed review explains that a first visit requires unlocking Agony mode and gathering plants across the five base levels, which it estimates takes most players over 10 hours. Others call it "pointless fetch quests in old areas" and say "Don't quite understand the decision to release paid DLC to then lock it behind in game requirements." One player with over 100 hours in the game still had not reached it a month after buying.

No new Steam achievementsLow

A small gripe, raised mostly in positive reviews: the DLC adds in-game challenges but no Steam achievements. "Only thing missing for me would be new steam achievements but thats miniscule," wrote one; a completionist with every base game achievement said it left them no reason to finish the DLC.

Brown and green on brown and greenLow

A few reviews, positive and negative, complain that the map, enemies, projectiles and the Crone's summons share the same muddy palette, so threats are hard to see once effects fill the screen. "Brown and green on brown and green," as one put it. One reviewer calls it a minor issue you can get used to, while another says you will fail runs because you can't see what is going on.

3. The player conversation

Launch week was mostly short, enthusiastic notes from fans who bought on day one ("INSTA BUY," "Great addition to the base game!"), and 81% of them recommended it. From week two on, the reviews turned more critical, written by players who had hit crashes, bugs, the unlock requirement or the Growth traits, and the share of positives after launch week fell to 41%. Reviews then trickled in through the following year at a few a month, still split, with crash reports and reports that the crashes were fixed alternating.

Long-time players raise the balance and trait-bloat complaints and the missing-achievements gripe. The unlock complaints come from players who expected to play the new map right away. Crash reports come from every kind of player. Few reviews say anything against Halls of Torment itself, and the tone is more disappointed than angry; two of the negative reviewers say they will change their review once the bugs are gone.

4. What the developers could do

Stamp out the end-of-run and boss crashes for good. Crashes come up more than any other complaint and were still being reported months after some reviewers said patches had fixed them, often by people whose base game had never crashed.
Fix the listed trait, quest and menu bugs. Reviewers name specific broken items, mis-unlocking quests and wrong level-up menus, and two say they will change their review once these are patched.
Let buyers into the Boglands sooner, or explain the unlock in game. Players who paid expected to play the new map and instead had to search online for an Agony mode and plant-gathering requirement that one reviewer put at 10+ hours.
Make Growth traits optional or easier to manage. One negative review asks for them to be off by default with a way to turn them on, and complains that too few potions were added to discard them.
Give the Crone and Alchemist more control and better summons. Critics of both heroes point to random main attacks, weak summons and the Crone's slowness, which they say suits the Boglands map poorly.
Improve readability on the swamp map. Players ask for more color contrast between ground, enemies and projectiles and for effect opacity settings that cover the new abilities.
Add warnings to the new enemies' attacks. Detractors of the map single out exploding enemies' lingering damage and launches with no telegraph, unlike the old halls.
Add Steam achievements for the DLC content. A few fans said this was the one thing missing.