Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel

Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel was provided by Grindstone for review. Thank you!

Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel joins a long list of "survivor-like" games released over the past couple of years, but this one switches up the formula a bit to make things more interesting.

At face value, Jotunnslayer is like any other survivor-like; you are placed into a medium-sized arena, with a top-down perspective, gradually gaining experience as you fight larger and larger waves of enemies to unlock new skills and attacks that are automatically cast until you face the final boss.

But then, Jotunnslayer deviates. As opposed to just waiting out the timer to beat the level, the timer is actually a time limit. You have objectives that you must complete each level, whether defeating a certain number of enemies in a specific area, solving a basic puzzle, or surviving an intense fight for 60 seconds. These objectives must be beaten, and the final boss summoned before the time limit is up.

This makes it feel more involved than your average survivor-like; you are checking the map to see where you need to be, plus you get a choice of objectives to tackle, some easier than others, but the harder ones offering bigger rewards. In a game genre that's often quite "hands-off", it adds another element to keep us engaged and offers them an additional risk vs. reward choice. I'm a big fan of it, as instead of just wandering the map trying to stay alive, you have the added concern of getting to the objective and completing it in a reasonable amount of time.

There's a large variety of progression skills to unlock, both permanent ones from the in-game shop and temporary ones you unlock during a run, with different characters and gods to choose from. Class skills are defined by your character/class, which is then backed up by various gods you can unlock and are available to every class.

The mixing and matching classes and gods adds another layer to finding the ideal strategy. You don't get enough levels to maximize the effect of all the gods and your class in each run, so you must decide which will best synergize with your build. I loved Thor's "chain lightning" attacks, as it's really good crowd control from a distance, but it isn't necessarily the best damage dealer.

Opting for skills that improve your movement speed, combined with skills that give the "slow" effect, can also be really effective at keeping yourself safe.

Visually, Jotunnslayer stands above its brethren in the genre; it's very pretty, with nice textures and lighting effects, something not too common in the genre. However, we do lose some of that prettiness when we run it on the Steam Deck. The sounds are satisfying, although it does become a bit of an audio jungle later on in a run when there are dozens of enemies and multiple attacks on screen at once. There is not much we can do about that, though!

There is no real storyline here, aside from a very brief opening cutscene setting the stage for you being chosen to be tested by the gods as to whether or not you can become the "Jotunnslayer". In Norse mythology, Jotunn are various creatures opposed to the Norse gods.

Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel - Steam Deck Performance

Jotunnslayer has great support for controllers, and I'd recommend playing on a controller even on a desktop PC. It also supports the Steam Deck's native 1280x800 resolution, meaning there are no black borders.

As you might imagine, with a "survivor-like" game, it does get pretty busy as you reach the end of stages, so it's quite intensive on the Steam Deck.

I recommend lowering the settings. I personally lowered Shadows and Ambient Occlusion to "Low," removed Anti-Aliasing, but kept Texture Quality on "High," and used the in-game frame limiter to lock the game to 45 FPS. Early on, it's possible to run at around 60 FPS with Medium settings, but it soon falls apart when many enemies and visual effects are on screen.

I recommend that you do not use FSR upscaling; it genuinely looks quite horrible when in motion in this game.

With these settings, the game holds 45 FPS in the early stages. I experienced the occasional stutter, and the game will drop into the 30s during intense scenes near the end of a run, especially boss fights with lots of additional mobs, but by and large, the game does remain pleasant to play and stays above 30 FPS, which is enough for a game of this type.

Even on the bare minimum settings, the frame rate will drop below 45, so we may as well enjoy some Shadows and Ambient Occlusion; hence, I leave them on Low and not Off.

The power draw is often around the 12W-16W range, with some spikes up to 18W, so you can expect the Steam Deck OLED's battery to last around 3.5 hours, and the Steam Deck LCD to last around 2-2.5 hours. Temperatures were around 60 - 70 °C.

Accessibility:

Jotunnslayer has a few accessibility options. You can adjust the size of the map and map icons. The game also aims and fires all attacks automatically by default, though you can switch this to manually aiming and attacking for some attacks.

It also has rebindable controls, the ability to change font type, reduce screen shaking, and increase transparency of visual effects if they make it difficult to see.

Conclusion:

Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel is a survivor-like game that adds some extra layers to the genre. By mixing and matching classes with gods and adding objectives to complete within the time limit, it increases the amount of strategy at play and gives the player something to do other than just "survive," which is a welcome addition in my book. For the inexpensive price, it's a good few hours of fun.

As for Steam Deck performance, Jotunnslayer is perfectly playable. We have to turn visual settings down, but the game still looks good, it controls great, and performance stays at or above 30 FPS throughout play.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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