"Welsh horde horror that punishes going in short-handed"
About
Sker Ritual is a co-op horde shooter from Wales Interactive, playable solo or with up to four players, set on a fog-bound Welsh island. You hold off endless waves of supernatural enemies while working through map-specific puzzle chains, the sort of hidden objective sequences Call of Duty's Zombies mode calls easter eggs. Between waves you buy perks, upgrade weapons and unlock Miracle powers, then push toward scripted boss encounters. The template is openly borrowed from Treyarch's Zombies, down to the round-based structure and secret ritual objectives, dressed in the folk-horror world of the studio's earlier Maid of Sker.
Verdict
There's a competent horde shooter here, with real personality in its fog and its named horrors, and a wave loop that clicks when four people run it together. The trouble is that co-op is the whole point, and the netcode fails it: non-hosts fire into enemies that don't register the hit, runs end to disconnects, and matchmaking rarely finds anyone. Solo play is stable but tuned for a full team, so it swings from tense to unfair. Wait for the stability fixes, or bring your own squad and lower your expectations on how many maps deserve a second visit.
You'll like it if …
- +you have three reliable friends to fill a full squad
- +you enjoy digging out hidden ritual objectives on a map you've learned by heart
- +the Zombies formula is comfort food and a Welsh reskin sounds fresh
You'll dislike it if …
- −you play mostly solo or in random matchmaking
- −bullet-sponge enemies and tight wave timers wear you out
- −you expect the map count and arsenal to match a full Zombies suite
Breakdown
- +The round-based shooting loop lands its basics: killing feels punchy and the puzzle objectives give each map a goal beyond survival
- +Miracle powers and weapon upgrades give a run a sense of building momentum
- −Enemies turn into bullet sponges as waves climb, so late rounds grind rather than escalate
- −Cramped arenas paired with short wave timers punish learning a map instead of rewarding it
- −Difficulty balloons without a full squad, leaving solo and duo players overwhelmed by design tuned for four
- +Each map hides a full easter-egg objective chain that rewards players who dig into its ritual logic
- −Only a handful of maps feel worth returning to; the rest are a slog to get through
- −Thin arsenal and enemy roster mean repeat runs blur together fast
- −Sparse collectibles and repetitive objectives compared to the Zombies modes it draws from
- +The Welsh folk-horror framing and named enemies like Abraham and Isaac give the island a genuine identity of its own
- −Story is minimal and unevenly stitched into the maps, so the atmosphere carries more weight than the writing does
- +Art direction leans hard into its Welsh setting and stands apart from the American military-horror crowd it competes with
- −Forced mouse acceleration with no toggle fights precise aiming
- −Performance falls apart on Steam Deck, and hit feedback stutters because of netcode display problems
- −No Chinese localization frustrates part of the audience
- +Single-player runs smoothly and cleanly, free of the online mode's technical mess
- −Hit registration is broken for anyone who isn't the host, so shots that should land simply don't
- −Random disconnects boot players to the menu and force a full restart mid-run
- −Some players only stop the crashes by manually disabling Nvidia app settings, with no fix from the developer
- −Matchmaking sits empty, which strands a co-op game that punishes short-handed squads
score
