Odinfall is a cyberpunk-Viking shooter set in a post-Ragnarök apocalypse. With incredible music, great pixel art, and the vibe of old arcade shooters, this game is ready to impress even in its Early Access state. That being said, players may find the difficulty and progression in the game’s current Early Access launch to be in need of some improvements.
Odinfall has managed to do something I thought was impossible: revitalize my interest in the Viking setting, a genre or aesthetic that I often feel is overused. The Viking or Norse aesthetic has become commonly used in video games, including countless survival-craft style games—some of which I have reviewed here at TryHardGuides. It’s a setting that I’ve personally grown a bit bored with, as very few games or media use the admittedly vibrant and interesting lore and looks of Norse mythology as it is, while making minor changes to it. This leads to many games having that same-y feel, afraid to deviate from the genre that has proven successful in other media. Odinfall subverts my fatigue with this genre by presenting an incredibly fresh take on the familiar concepts, one that incorporates a lot of familiar Norse mythology while giving it a fun twist, namely through the use of cyberpunk elements.
In Odinfall, you play as one of several frozen warriors hidden deep in an underground prison. This cybernetic lab is also the home of the imprisoned head of Loki, who acts as a sort of mentor as you fight through a dystopian, post-apocalyptic Viking future against the machinations of Odin, responsible for your imprisonment. By making use of the Bifrost, you send clones of yourself out into the wasteland in the hopes of defeating Odin and ending your imprisonment, as well as discovering the secrets to why you were imprisoned in the first place. In the process, you will weaponize modern and ancient technology while fighting through the hordes of Ragnarok’s twisted survivors, spread throughout a number of thematic and interesting procedurally generated levels.
Odinfall‘s roguelike levels come in the form of many interesting post-apocalyptic landscapes, from sun-scorched deserts to ancient ice caves and decimated modern cities. You’ll battle a combination of Norse mythological beings, twisted mutants, and bandits just trying to survive in the post-Ragnarök world. Similar to the setting’s mix of post-apocalyptic sci-fi and Norse mythology, you will wield a mixed arsenal of axes, javelins, and knives, as well as advanced and deadly lasers or twisted, poorly put together machine guns found laying across the wasteland and crudely modified into dangerous killing machines.
Where other roguelike games will offer you buffs or power-ups to increase your chances of surviving your run, Odinfall instead throws a series of strange yet unique weapons at you, which can then be further modified with up to three mechanical mods that greatly change the way the weapons function. From mods that add a homing feature to your bullets to greater range and burst modifications, there are a ton of ways to mutate your weapons and make them far deadlier. These extensions are not exclusive to weapon types; you can, in fact, put a burst fire modification on a knife or a homing extension on a rocket launcher, giving you an incredible amount of freedom for mayhem.
Beyond just the weapon modification system, Odinfall‘s gameplay manages to really engage and scratch an itch I didn’t know I needed scratching. It heavily reminds me of old arcade cabinet shooters, specifically a top-down version of Metal Slug. The game’s fast pace and bullet-hell-like mechanics can also remind you of the Hotline Miami series, and it can feel as similarly unforgiving as that series at times, with bosses particularly capable of wiping you out quickly if you aren’t careful.
If anything, I might say that the game, in its current early access state, is a bit too difficult. Often, with how small your health bar is and how quickly enemies can attack, the game can feel a little cheap and even unforgiving with certain enemy types. This can at times cheapen the experience, such as when the best strategy for defeating a large and visually interesting boss would be hiding off-screen and using ranged attacks to whittle the boss down outside of their attack range. It’s effective, but kind of ruins how great the enemy design is because you spend very little time admiring what they look like, cowering in a corner, trying to blast them before they can get you.
This is not helped by the game’s progression system, which can feel a little underwhelming for a roguelike title. Many of the buffs you gain from leveling up, such as greater pickup speed, reduced cooldown to abilities, or increased health from pickups, are certainly interesting, but not as immediately helpful as, say, permanent stat increases. This can mean that after multiple runs, you aren’t necessarily becoming stronger, which sort of underplays the roguelike gameplay loop.
Odinfall‘s characters are as unique, interesting, and deadly as the other aspects of the game. From an incredible chill moose to a berserker with a robotic arm, the game has a penchant for creating interesting characters that will quickly steal your attention. Even the severed head of Loki, who acts as your guide/base manager, is an incredibly well-written and interesting character. You’ll find yourself speaking to him after each run as you unlock more and more lines of dialogue with the imprisoned god.
Pros:
- Incredible, unique setting
- Great combat mechanics, making use of a weapon-mutation system
- Bullet-hell and arcade-like level design mixed with roguelike generation
Cons:
- A high difficulty curve that can lead to some cheap deaths
- A lack of meaningful progression, which can undermine the roguelike side of things
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