JOTUNNSLAYER: HORDES OF HEL

Hubert Spala
Sep 15
5 min read

JOTUNNSLAYER: HORDES OF HEL is one of those games that makes an immediate impression. You boot it up, and suddenly you’re knee-deep in snow, your character swinging axes or hurling frost bolts while the northern lights blaze overhead and waves of undead baddies lurch out of the darkness. If nothing else, it absolutely nails the Viking Valhalla vibe. The visuals are honestly fantastic for this genre - usually these horde survival roguelites don’t aim for “splendid atmosphere,” but here you can practically smell the pine trees and feel the sting of ice on your face. When a giant draugr explodes in a shower of glowing particles, you think, “Yes, this is exactly how Odin would want me to spend my Saturday night.”

And in those first few hours, JOTUNNSLAYER: HORDES OF HEL is a lot of fun. It takes the Vampire Survivors formula - wander around, collect upgrades, get swarmed by hundreds of enemies - and coats it in mead, runes, and myth. The systems are clear and transparent, which is no small thing in this genre. So many of these games make you feel like you need a math degree to figure out if “+12% projectile frequency” is actually worth more than “+5 crit damage when facing north on a Thursday.” JOTUNNSLAYER: HORDES OF HEL keeps things tidy. Abilities tell you exactly what they do, passives are explained cleanly, and upgrades feel like decisions rather than stabs in the dark. It’s the rare horde-survival game where you never have to Google for a wiki to explain to you why you're missing damage due to some peculiar interactions or missing evolutions that happen in very particular situations.

Another clever touch is the Norse gods system. Each deity you earn powers from also comes with a modest meta-progression path, letting you nudge abilities and passives in directions that suit your playstyle. Maybe you want Thor’s raw lightning damage to fit into your reckless brawler vibe, or maybe you’re more of a Loki trickster type, stacking evasion and movement speed. It’s not revolutionary, but it makes the early runs more engaging, because you’re not just rerolling the same upgrades - you’re personalizing your relationship with the pantheon. Honestly, I half expected Odin to text me by run five, asking how I liked the new spear buff.

The selection of characters might not look staggering, but they are quite different from each other, making their archetypes feel unique and fun.

There’s also a surprisingly solid amount of content at first glance. Six classes, a decent selection of unlockables, weapons, and abilities that evolve into more powerful forms, as well as a roster of gods to pull talents from. You’ll see new toys pretty quickly, and that helps keep the opening stretch exciting. The quests system deserves a nod as well: little challenges that ask you to do specific tasks mid-run, giving some shape to what would otherwise be pure chaos. It’s an elegant idea, because it makes time pass faster - suddenly you’re not just kiting circles around endless undead, you’re actively chasing “kill fifty enemies around a totem” or “survive the slowing blizzard for a while.” It’s the sort of small design trick that makes you think, “Oh, neat, I actually accomplished something besides running around like a sweaty reindeer.”

So far, so good, right? Gorgeous visuals, clear systems, a variety of gods and classes, quests to spice up the runs - it’s all very decent, and at times genuinely good fun. But here’s where the mead barrel runs dry: JOTUNNSLAYER: HORDES OF HEL doesn’t have the staying power that makes the best of this genre so ridiculously addictive. The longer you play, the more the cracks begin to show, and unfortunately, once you notice them, they’re hard to ignore.

One of the pure joys of games like VAMPIRE SURVIVORS is discovering that if you combine Garlic with an evolved Bible and some passive buffs, you’ve basically invented a personal apocalypse machine. JOTUNNSLAYER: HORDES OF HEL is far stingier with that kind of chaos. Runs tend to feel more curated and controlled, which at first sounds good - no wasted upgrades, no dead ends - but it comes at the cost of those “holy crap, I just broke the game” moments. With only a handful of abilities per run and most upgrades boiling down to incremental stat bumps, you rarely feel like you’re building a god-slayer. More often, you’re just fine-tuning the speed of your slightly above-average Viking.

It's way less chaotic than it seems! The transparency of your attacks, enemy smashes, and projectiles, the experience gemstones - it all works very well to keep you grounded in the moment.

The quest system, initially refreshing, also starts to wear thin on repeated runs. What once felt like fun little tasks eventually morphed into a to-do list. “Kill enemies in this way, gather that many of those” - it’s a bit like being nagged by your own game. At first, it’s energizing, then it starts to feel like chores. And nobody wants chores in Valhalla; Odin didn’t hand the Valkyries mops and ask them to tidy up after Ragnarok.

Enemy variety is another place where the magic fades. Bosses can be entertaining, with fun attack patterns and the occasional unexpected move, but the basic hordes are bare-bones - literally and figuratively. They rush you, they slap you, they die. That’s about it. After a while, mowing them down feels less like “surviving the armies of Hel” and more like shoveling snow off a driveway. Functional, sure, but not exactly thrilling.

What all this adds up to is a game that is well crafted and absolutely worth a spin if you’re already into this genre, but it doesn’t inspire the kind of long-term obsession its best peers do. When VAMPIRE SURVIVOR was at its peak, people would lose entire weekends to the promise of one more unlock, one more evolution, one more hidden thing buried in the code. JOTUNNSLAYER: HORDES OF HEL, by contrast, doesn’t quite instill that same drive. You don’t feel like there’s always another mountain to climb or another secret to dig up. You feel like you’ve reached the ceiling a little too quickly.

And that’s the paradox of this game: it’s simultaneously a polished, enjoyable game and one that fizzles out sooner than it should. You’ll love the visuals, you’ll appreciate the clarity, you’ll get a kick out of the Norse gods system and the quests, and for a solid stretch of hours, you’ll be happy to swing your axe into endless hordes. But sooner or later, you’ll realize you’re repeating yourself, chasing small numbers, and not having those wild, laugh-out-loud moments of overpowered destruction that make this genre special.

So the verdict? JOTUNNSLAYER: HORDES OF HEL is a perfectly decent romp through Viking purgatory, a fine thing for fans of the horde-survival genre who want a fresh coat of Norse paint and some lovely visuals. It’s good fun while it lasts. It just won’t last forever. Like a hearty mug of mead, it goes down smooth, makes you smile, and leaves you warm - but before long, the mug is empty, and you’re left wondering whether to pour another or call it a night.