Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel is an immediate recommendation. With the opening seconds, I was hooked. Is this Diablo for the Switch 2? It’s been a while since I’d looked this up, so I’d forgotten what kind of game it was (besides the Norse mythology), so I was elated to find out it’s another Vampire Survivors example.
However, in a sea full of clones, wannabees and even AI-generated entries, Games Farm and ARTillery’s rogue-like is the best I’ve played on the Nintendo rectangle, and one of the best I’ve played full stop. I get that it’s hard to stand out when there are so many titles like this, but if you like the model, you’ll already going to love this.
To begin with, Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel presents you with two starter heroes: a berserker and a seeress. In fear of being overly predictable, I ditched the tank for some distance attacks. I didn’t regret it. Each class of hero has their own style of play, though predominantly melee or ranged. While you can unlock a healthy number of playable characters through completing the various stages – even being able to play Conan via some DLC- they all follow the same principles, yet are quite different.
What differentiates each hero, aside from their cosmetics, is their special skill. Tied to a countdown, these can sometimes be game-changing, shredding through enemies, while others are more of a consistent boost to your playstyle. As a knucklehead, I prefer the more instant damage to cull the numbers, which can get troublesome, and for that reason, you will undoubtedly have your favourites. Coincidentally, mine was the starting seeress.
However, they do share common ground in that all heroes in Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel can call upon the gods for help. Like any Survivors-like game, kills create gems, gems increase your level, and with each level up, you can select from at least one of three – sometimes five – skills. Stacking them makes the god’s power more potent or reduces its cooldown. These boosts can improve progress, such as increasing health or increasing the radius for collecting gems, while others will add more projectiles, chains, and other fancy tricks.
Because this is a Norse theme, the gods include Thor, Loki, Freya and Odin among others. Naturally, Thor offers shock damage (which is amazing), while Freya may opt more for healing properties or divine range attacks. So, if you’re locked into one hero or continually experimenting with who your go-to is, you can always rely on the gods to have your back. You can upgrade them, too!
Forgive me for not touching upon actual gameplay, though I’m sure you can fill in the gaps. Each skirmish is a raid where you have to complete timed objectives such as fetch horns, kills x number of enemies within an area, or beat some jarls. The eventual end goal is to complete a ritual and summon a Jotunn (read: big bastard enemy) to defeat and thus complete the stage. Your reward in doing so not only unlocks more heroes and potential for permanent upgrades, but also difficulty levels and endless modes which are absolutely brilliant.
The gem drops in Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel only increase your level for the run and will, of course, reset on the next run. With gold drops, however, you can invest in multiple skill trees for the heroes as well as the gods. This puts emphasis on the game-changing aspects of the gods’ power, and because you never know what god you will get, it encourages you to experiment with stats to balance things out. Best of all? You’re not locked into points and can reset at any time, allowing you to invest solely in a hero, one god, or spread out.
My only beef with the game, other than the sheer level of addictiveness, is that you can end a stage prematurely if placed in the wrong position. After completing the ritual, you can inadvertently stand near another structure that takes you back to the menu. It can be avoided once you’re aware, but as you don’t lose any coins on death, it seems a bit redundant to add this get-out-of-jail card. But that’s about it on the negative side.
Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel has almost instantly become my favourite game to play on the Switch 2 right now. It very much reminds me of Grind Survivors, which I equally love and continue to play on the PS5 whenever I have any rare downtime. In this case, I wholeheartedly recommend this for folk who love the repetitive nature of a Survivors-like or Dynasty Warriors type game whilst remaining thoroughly engaging, offering lots of variety, and, as touched upon, addictive as Hel.
