Jotunnslayer: Hodes of Hell is a Norse mythology-themed Vampire Survivors horde-based roguelike with blessings from the gods. Released in collaboration between ARTillery, Games Farm, and Grindstone, this Early Access title comes with five characters, four maps, and a bunch of gifts bestowed from the gods!

Blessings from the All-Father

In Jotunnslayer, the player plays as one of five damned warriors, carving their way through monsters to be accepted into Valhalla. From a hatchet-wielding marauder, to a sinister witch, to a bowman and his soul-linked wolf spirit, each of the characters are fleshed out with class-specific abilities and strengths to balance them out. 

To aid them on their quest, Jotunnslayer has an almost Hades-like God system. Every level up offers a chance for a God-given upgrade that either offers new attacks or buffs to existing stats. These extra attacks include throwing Mjölnir at people, having Odin’s ravens encircle spots, and summoning a ghost Viking ship to plow through enemies. These attacks are flashy and oh so satisfying to disintegrate entire hordes with. 

The Hel-ish Horde

So, what do you use these tools at your arsenal against? Jotunnslayer has a number of different types of horde enemies. Most other Vampire Survivors inspired roguelikes (and the source game to a degree) tend to skimp on having true enemy variety, but not here. It’s subtle, at first, with some enemies just having more health or exploding, but then the game introduces mini bosses. 

Suddenly, enemies begin to do more than just deal contact damage or lob projectiles in a straight line. Larger enemies begin to throw homing fireball shots. Cannons rain shots from above until they are taken out. They start to leave trails of acid on the ground to prevent movement pathing. In later levels and higher difficulties, Jotunnslayer becomes a lot more hectic. Very rarely will the enemies actually allow you to stand still, and this isn’t even including the titular Jötunn bosses themselves. 

On a Quest, or Several

Of course, enemies aren’t the only aspect keeping the player on their toes. Jotunnslayer breaks up the monotony of killing hordes of enemies by having the player go on small quests per raid attempt. These quests range from standing in an area for a certain amount of time to collecting mead around the map. There is a surprising variety of these short missions as well. Part of the game’s four difficulty options (easy, medium, hard, and insane) include how many objectives you must complete before fighting the Jötunn. Speaking of which…

Giant Killer

As expected in a title literally called Jotunnslayer, the player’s goal is to slay some Jötunn – which in Norse myth are essentially primordial giants rivaling the Gods. Each round of the game builds up to fighting them through the level up system, and the game does a fantastic job of doing so. 

The Jötnar are proper boss fights, more than one might expect for a Vampire Survivors-like game. While the giants for the first two levels of Jotunnslayer are essentially like the big bosses you fight, just slightly more tankier, the ones in the later stages have multiple phases. A shoutout has to be given to the Storm Jötunn, who provided quite a fun challenge due to his speed and flunky-summoning nature. 

Long-Term Upgrades

Like many roguelikes, Jotunnslayer offers a gold-obtaining system to spend on permanent upgrades. These upgrades range from stats increasing to giving the already flashy attacks to something even more spectacular, whether it is increasing the amount on screen or having a big fish flop along the ground for even longer. 

The gold coin system is a bit of a grind. You earn the coins and then convert them into point upgrades. The amount of gold needed increases in price each time. It is admittedly a slog, but the good news is that you can move around and transfer the points freely, which is especially useful when switching characters. 

Norse Narrative?

I made a comparison between Jotunnslayer and Hades earlier. It is kind of hard to avoid, since the games are both revolving around Gods bestowing a chosen warrior. Now, I’m not trying to compare the two games as that would be unfair for many reasons, but it does tie into something I would like to see from this game – a story, a narrative. 

I want to clarify that the game is more than fine as is. I’ve spent several hours recording as well as streaming since the game is packaged with Twitch integration that allows chat members to vote on choices. The gameplay experience of Jotunnslayer is fun and fully recommended, but I wish I could give it even higher marks with more character, like more flavor text for the trophies, or voiced lines from the Gods. Just that little more could make an already good game to something greater! 

Final Thoughts

As said, Jotunnslayer is a really well-made game. With a variety of attacks and upgrades to choose from, the game toes the line of balance and fun-to-use perfectly. The different types of enemies elevate it from most of its peers. A lot of the issues I have are relatively small, such as having a nicer looking UI, especially given all the accessibility features for colorblindness. I wish there was just a little more to really elevate it even higher, but Jotunnslayer is a must-try horde survival roguelike. 

Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel released in Early Access on January 21st, 2025. The game retails for $9.99. A review key was graciously provided to NeverMore Niche. While it is currently on PC only, it was announced on July 10 that the game is coming to PS5 and Xbox X|S, and a full release on PC on September 3, 2025.