After Vampire Slayers helped give birth to a whole new genre, the idea of auto-shooters (have we finally agreed that’s what they are?) has only grown. Now, there are heaps of them out there and Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel is the latest, entering the fray after a lengthy Early Access period on Steam. But while it’s a very solid, and often visually very strong, entry in the genre, it also plays it safe.
The visuals immediately make Jotunnslayer stand out, a grim fantasy vibe using an isometric camera and a more realistic style compared to the likes of Vampire Survivors. There’s a sense that Jotunnslayer is trying to make itself stand out as the triple-A title of the genre, at least in terms of the visuals. But as much as it wants to look more Diablo than Brotato, the shiny aesthetics are overlaid on a pretty simple game that doesn’t move the genre forward in any way.
Available On: Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5, PC
Reviewed On: PS5
Developed By: Games Farm, ARTillery
Published By: GrindstoneReview code supplied by the publisher!
Jotunnslayer took one look at Hades and decided it wanted a piece of that God action, so it brought in the Norse pantheon. At its core, the loop is simple and familiar: pick a hero, drop into an arena, and carve your way through an onslaught of enemies that quickly goes from being a small party to fucking spring break in terms of size, while hoovering up XP. Levelling is rapid-fire — 20 or more upgrades in a single 15–20 minute run isn’t unusual — and each level-up hands you a random choice of class skills or divine blessings from the Gods. Maybe you’ll chuck Thor’s hammer, maybe you’ll have Nidhogg scare the bejesus out of everything by giving you a creepy aura, maybe you’ll just stack passive buffs until you resemble a one-person apocalypse. The aim isn’t to win the war — the tide never stops coming, a never-ending flesh parade — but to dance on its edge, dodging, strafing, and cutting gaps through the horde just long enough to summon a boss and survive the onslaught.
As the bodycount rises, the game can get pretty intense because you’re always on the edge of the tide becoming too much and drowning you. Sometimes that can make it hard to figure out exactly where it all went wrong, but that’s fine because you just fire up another run. It’s so easy to get caught up in all the particle effects, abilities going off and the sheer number of on-screen enemies.
To its credit, Jotunnslayer throws in a little more agency than its peers. You’ve got a dodge button, a single weapon skill, and even the option to manually aim when you need to carve an escape route. Every other ability – from falling angels slamming into the ground to Freya’s magic swords – is fired off automatically. It’s hardly revolutionary, but in a genre where most games reduce you to a WASD meat blender, those two buttons are a dash of seasoning rather than a recipe rewrite. They are a little bit of control in a world of chaos.
Whether you fall to the masses or kick the Jotunn’s arse, you’ll leave with some coins in your pocket that can be spent on permanent upgrades that carry over. Each of the six choosable adventurers have new powers that can be unlocked and added to the in-game pool, and stat boosts to buy as well. Then you’ve got the Gods, where you can again choose to add new powers that might pop up during a run or unlock the ultimate versions of existing ones. But the Gods also offer stat boosts that affect all characters, making them the main method of progressing through the game. If you want to make it through the handful of locations and defeat the lady of Helheim, you’ll need to invest.
Interestingly, the game does let you take back invested points at no cost. On the one hand, this means choosing what to upgrade isn’t a difficult choice because you can respec everything at will, taking away the potential for those difficult moments where you’re busting out a notepad and trying to figure out what the best upgrade path is. On the other hand, it means you aren’t locked down and can jump from character to character.
Speaking of which, the roster of 6 main characters is decent. You’ve got the berserker and his love of smacking shit with an axe, a ranger who summons up ghost wolves and even a fallen angel who can get more powerful upon reviving. No matter who you choose, though, the game still plays largely the same – backpedal like crazy. It’s only the first half of each run that really feels different because ranged characters can actually stand still and gun down enemies, but the enemy numbers quickly become so numerous that ranged attacks are basically just melee anyway because the skeletons have decided personal space is optional.
The trouble with Jotunnslayer is what happens around that, admittedly very satisfying, main gameplay loop — or rather, what doesn’t. The arenas are mostly bland open fields with the occasional weak gimmick (hello, annoying cannons), the enemies are a handful of visual variations that either walk at you or lob something in your face, and the objectives needed to be completed before summoning the big boss boil down to standing in circles until the big bad wakes up or a meter fills. After a few hours, you’ve seen the lot: six characters, a sprinkling of Gods to unlock, and a grind toward harder difficulties. Repetition isn’t just present here; it’s the co-op partner.
There’s still fun to be had, especially if you enjoy tinkering with builds. Each run offers plenty of combinations of Godly and class powers, even if the synergy between them is more lukewarm than lightning strike. It often felt like I was choosing powers in a vacuum rather than picking ones that complement each other. I know I use Hades as a benchmark a lot, but in that game the best runs were the ones where the powers seemed to be working in tandem with each other. Jotunnslayer never reaches that same peak.
I also wish the game allowed more freedom: two class ability slots and three God power slots feel restrictive, forcing you to lean on both systems whether you want to or not. Sure, you can technically choose to give the Gods the coldshouldere, or focus purely on deities, but it comes at a massive cost. I would have loved it if I could rock 5 God powers, or only choose class skills.
What I’m getting at here, is that Jotunnslayer can start to feel pretty mindless rather quickly. Again, not wholly unusual for this genre, but compared to something like Vampire Survivors, I felt like it ran out of steam and began chugging along much sooner. Some extra excitement in stage design or the objectives and the enemies could really help elevate this game to the next level.
Finally, I cannot currently recommend the PlayStation version of the game, which I tested. While this was the final release 1.0 build, it liked to crash more than my grandma after she drove home from a rave. It was normal to be hit by at least 1 crash per hour, but also not uncommon to experience two. The only good thing I can say is that the rest of the performance was acceptable. Hopefully, the dev’s will be able to get it patched ASAP.
In Conclusion…
Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel is a solid entry in a genre that’s fast becoming as crowded as its arenas, and it certainly dresses the part with its Norse gods and moody, almost triple-A presentation. But beneath the gleam lies a familiar, relatively safe loop that rarely strays from the beaten path carved by Vampire Survivors and its ilk. There’s fun to be had in the chaos — dodging through a blizzard of skeletons while Thor’s hammer spins off into the distance never gets old — but the repetition and lack of meaningful variety make this more of a hearty snack than a full feast worthy of Odin’s table.