Asgard's Fall | A Promising Norse Bullet Heaven Still Finding Its Power
A Norse-inspired bullet heaven brimming with potential!
Developer: Soulpotion
Publisher: Assemble Entertainment, INSTINCT3
Asgard’s Fall is a Nordic-themed survivors-like/bullet heaven currently in Early Access. While it’s a little rough around the edges, it’s to be expected from an Early Access game, and it promises to be a competent addition to the genre.
To Valhalla! Or, To Its Fall?
Asgard’s Fall follows the simple and tried-and-true formula of many survivors-like games. You jump into a level, pick off some enemies, level up and get stronger and start mowing down waves of enemies, kill the big bad to beat the level, and use the rewards to progress through the meta-progression tree. Rinse and repeat.
It’s a familiar loop that after playing many games of this type I’ve come to love, so fans of the genre are likely to enjoy.
What sets Asgard’s Fall apart from other survivors-like are these key features:
Warpaint (Equipment System): A couple of survivors-like have experimented with the concept wearing equipment to influence your stats, not just through meta-progression. In Asgard’s Fall, these items function like equipment, giving you stat bonuses. What’s also fun is that you have a limited amount of space, and each item takes a specific amount of space. Play Tetris and try to get the best amount of stats to optimize your stats, without the pressure, of course.
Difficulty Modifiers: If you ever played Hades, it’s very similar to the heat system. At the Blood Sacrifice altar, you’re able to modify the enemy’s health, speed, damage, and so on. By doing so, you will reap better rewards.
Levels and Length: Each run in Asgard’s Fall is 20 minutes long, making it a good game to get that quick fix. The special enemies in each level vary, meaning that not every level will be filled only with grunts that ram their face into you, or shoot a projectile. Take the lava level for example—it has a slime that emits a shockwave every time it moves, and you have to dodge lines of untargetable enemies flying at you. Better learn to time your dodges.
Web of Wyrd: Every other time you level up, you will be given three random nodes that you can pick one from and add it to your web. These nodes can be:
Knots of Power: They increase stats, such as movement speed, critical chance, and damage. Each Knot of Power has a value from 1 to 3.
Knots of Echo: These nodes will multiply a node that it highlights.
Knots of Fate: These nodes activate once you connected them to enough Knots of Power. These are usually strong, such as increasing your attack speed per each enemy afflicted by a status effect.
Bosses: Half-way through each level, you will fight a mini boss, which are more dynamic and require the player to dodge, hide behind cover, and are a fun break from the endless horde. The end bosses are also exciting, often changing the level’s landscape or encasing you.
Who’s Causing The Fall?
Everything is standard to what you’d expect from the bullet heaven genre. Currently, there are three classes available, the melee warrior, the ranged archer, and the ranged mage, each with their own talent tree accessed through the Stone of Seidr
Warrior: The tankiest of the bunch. His talent tree makes him tankier, meaning more health, more armor, and also allows him to gain thorns when he dashes. He’s also able to increase his basic attack’s range, and more.
Huntress: Want a helping hand? Her talent tree allows her to gain companions that will aid her in battle, place traps on the field, add poison to her arrows, and more.
Seer: A magic man. His talent tree allows him to place down totems that emit damaging waves, emit burst of plagues around himself, and more.
But even with all this, the game felt like it was missing something, as I could feel it go stale the more I played it.
It’s Standard Around These Parts.
As previously said, everything in this game feels standard, and you don’t get that power trip quickly or satisfyingly, which is why most of these games are known for.
None of the characters I mentioned truly stand out. While these are important archetypes, and their weapon and talent differentiates them from one another, you end up basically playing the same way. This is similar to most of the other games in the genre, but why set them apart as such, with different talent trees, if it ends up being the same?
It would’ve been fun to have more creative patterns for your warpaint, not just increasing shock chance, physical damage, and so forth. Although, this could be because the talent tree has those modifiers.
The game starts very slow, although I am glad that they patched it to gain experience quicker, leveling up feels more like a grind than a power-fantasy. This could be because the abilities in the talent tree aren’t as rewarding.
Did Asgard Fall?
With just 4 out of 9 planned worlds currently available, and with the small team’s constant communication and updates, I have no doubt that this game will be fleshed out and better before the year ends.
The visual and mechanical improvements over the last few months speak for themselves. While it feels like it’s on track to become a competent addition to the genre—which is not a bad thing, it’s possible that with the new worlds and a few adjustments, the game could become a must play for fans of bullet heaven.
It was fun dodging the bosses’ spinning vines, timing my dash through the slimes and lines of enemies, and seeing my companions mow down my enemies! I’m a sucker for companions.
Asgard Fell But We Rise!
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