If you vibe with Vampire Survivors but prefer to look at more than three pixels, might I recommend the Steam Next Fest demo for new indie roguelike Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel?
I hope my Vampire Survivors-obsessed colleague Austin isn’t reading this, but I must confess: I could never quite get into Poncle’s roguelike bullet hell sensation. Absolutely no disrespect to creator Luca Galante, and it’s not like he needs my approval anyway, but after playing a few runs on and off when it launched on Game Pass, I finally just decided it was one of those ludicrously popular games that just wasn’t for me.
Well, I think I might’ve now identified that reason: I genuinely think it might’ve just been the rudimentary visuals that turned me off, because I can’t get enough of Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel, which is pretty much the exact same thing but shiny and new-looking and very much wrapped in a Diablo-inspired skin.
Gameplay-wise, this is just Vampire Survivors but with characters and abilities from Norse mythology. You pick a starting class; the choices in the demo being the Sorceress-like Seeress, the Barbarian equivalent Berserker, and the newly introduced Rogue alternative Revenant; and that’ll decide what weapons you start with. As you run around the map dodging enemies and clearing objectives, you’ll level up and pick new active and passive abilities until you reach the boss.
I’d be remiss not to say Vampire Survivors definitely feels more polished than the Hordes of Hel demo, but again, this is a demo. One of the main points of Steam Next Fest is for developers to get feedback from players, and I’d be surprised if the jank isn’t considerably smoothed out when the final build releases.
If you did a DNA test on Hordes of Hel, it would be 95% Vampire Survivors and 5% Diablo, as really the only thing drawing comparisons to the latter is its presentation. It looks like a Diablo game, albeit one based on Norse folklore. The abilities, sound effects, and animations are Diablo-like, and there are Imps that are this game’s equivalent to Treasure Goblins, but from my limited time with the demo, that’s about where its Diablo-isms end.
Which isn’t a bad thing! Personally, if all it took was some high-resolution gothic makeup to get me into the frighteningly popular Vampire Survivors-like genre, I’m all for it. I’d recommend it whether or not you’re a fan of the genre – you never know, you might just become one.
Alternatively, you can pick something from our expertly curated list of the best roguelikes and play that instead.
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