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0 Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel is a roguelite horde survival game by Games Farm (Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms) and ARTillery (Catie in Meowmeowland). It is available now in Early Access with publishing by Grindstone (Preserve, Die by the Blade). You can pick it up for PC on either Steam or Epic for about £8.50.
Raise Hell against the Hordes of Hel in Jotunnslayer
A driving factor for me these days when looking at games on Steam is “Can I play it on my Steam Deck?” Having a portable library of quality PC games has definitely been a boon. Among those games, Vampire Survivors, Halls of Torment, and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor reign supreme. Looking at the trailer for Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel it got me thinking that this could be another addition to that set. I will tell you right now that I’m not disappointed. Check out more details my early access preview below.
Gameplay
Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel is a horde survivor/bullet-hell roguelite with a Norse mythology flavour. Similar to others in the genre, gameplay primarily consists of independent level runs (“raids” here) wherein you gather experience and power-ups. In Jotunnslayer, you take on the task with your chosen class and weapon skill while picking up class skills as well as skills from the gods as you level up in the raid. These skills can be active auto cast abilities or passive ones. Gold that you collect during the raid can then be put toward enhancing various different skills and stats for your characters. Completing a run also awards crystals to purchase different weapon skills.
My favourite part of Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel, is the different classes that you can play. There are four different classes during this stage of early access. But even between the three that I’ve unlocked and played around with, the difference between each really impresses me. Each class plays distinctly from one another. The class and weapon skills are unique to the class you are playing, rather than just simply being a version of a skill you can use as anyone. Playing as the ranger, for example, plays much different than playing as the seeress, despite both being range-based classes.
I didn’t quite understand the levelling-up progression in Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel. Mostly because in other games in the genre, you see different varieties of experience gems or crystals start to drop as the difficulty of the level increases. I didn’t see any difference in crystals and rarely made it past level 25. This may be by design, however, as there are different difficulty levels to choose from that increase both your time in the raid and the rewards you can gain. You can also unlock modifier runes to change different aspects of the raid.
Graphics & Audio
Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel is only available on the PC, but I did spend most of my time with it on the Steam Deck. Overall the gameplay performance was smooth with only a few stutters here and there with the default settings. On the PC though the graphics of this isometric game really treat the eyes. The developers have gone full tilt with the Norse mythos by bringing a rough, dark aesthetic to the player that is reflected in all aspects of character and level design.
The soundtrack for Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel pushes you deeper into the setting still. The music provides an aura befitting of what comes to mind when you think of the cultures invested in Norse mythology. Battle drums being a major part of those. I didn’t notice anything off about other sound effects or other aspects of the audio track. A great place to be in for Early Access.
Longevity
Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel is one of those games you can pick up, lose a few hours, then put down again easily. Or maybe not so easily if those hours are longer than you expect. For me the ability to play it on the Steam Deck gives it extra value. The game has several different levels, difficulties, and modifiers. Add the different skill tree unlocks and the potential for additional classes to master later and I’d say the longevity for the game, even at its current state in early access, is looking pretty good.
Final Thoughts
As I mention above, Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel is a valuable addition to my Steam library. The game’s Norse mythology setting and gameplay allows it to stand apart from its fellows in the genre. If you’re looking for something new in that realm I encourage you to check it out. Just keep in mind that they currently do plan to have a wipe of gameplay before 1.0 release. So maybe not put too many hours into it before then.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this preview.
If you like this review, check out my other reviews here.
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