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Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel
- Developed by
- Games Farm, ARTillery
- Published by
- Grindstone
$8.99
Hordes of Hel is a gripping roguelike horde-survivor game set in the dark realms of Norse Mythology. Fight waves of enemies to earn divine blessings of ancient Viking Deities, explore hostile worlds and face powerful bosses. Become a god-like warrior in this ultimate showdown.
Consensus
B71.2/100
Steam players82.5% positiveVery Positive7,796 reviews
Metacritic ↗79/100Users: 6.7/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈340K copies · ≈$2.9M gross
What creators say
What players say
An isometric Norse-mythology horde-survivor roguelite (Games Farm / ARTillery, published by Grindstone) where you pick a class plus up to three gods for boons, clear map objectives and bosses, and grind meta-progression trees.
Players rate it Very Positive on Steam (about 82.5% of roughly 7,800 reviews), and critics are lukewarm-to-favourable (Metacritic PC 79 from 8 critics; Switch 2 76 from 12). It is seen as a polished, good-looking, solid survivor-like that does not reinvent the genre. Praise centres on the art, class and god variety, and boss and map design; criticism centres on shallow content, weak late-game scaling, and a few dominant skills. It launched in Early Access on Jan 21, 2025 and hit 1.0 on Sep 3, 2025. It has kept getting updates since, including an endless mode, balance changes, a Conan DLC, a post-1.0 roadmap (Nov 2025) and console and Switch 2 ports. Console ports drew some technical complaints.
Players love
- Strong presentation: dark, Diablo-like isometric art, detailed environments and enemy designs, and a powerful soundtrack that stands above typical pixel-art survivor-likes
- Six classes each with a signature gimmick plus subclasses unlocked about ten levels into a run, giving more variety than generic +damage/+area/+crit picks
- Hades-style god system: choose up to three Norse gods whose boons have real interactions rather than plain stat sticks
- Distinct maps with objectives and missions that reduce aimless circling, and cool boss fights
- Short 10-20 minute runs suit quick sessions, and meta-progression gives that 'numbers go up' satisfaction
- Local/split-screen co-op, full controller support, and ongoing developer support with balance patches
- Per-character meta-progression resets and higher difficulty tiers give optional challenge (praised by Rogueliker)
- Many players call it a cheap, addictive 'brain-off' game with a long tail (one reviewer has 70+ hours and keeps returning)
Common complaints
- Low run-to-run variety: many reviewers say runs feel the same and basic attacks feel as good as skills
- Limited content at full price: few maps and enemies, and many players say they got their fill in 10-15 hours
- A few dominant skills (Frost Ring is named) and god powers crowd out class abilities, so builds converge
- Combat lacks impact: weak hit feedback, 'invisible' damage, skills that feel unsatisfying
- Skill trees and meta-progression can be maxed quickly and lack depth, so progression ends early
- Performance: FPS drops in long sessions or on busy maps, large install size, and Steam Deck complaints despite Verified status
- Balance swings: some builds are impossible while others are a 'screensaver', and higher difficulties have been called too easy
- Endless mode runs out of skill choices around level 60, which pushes all-in no-healing builds
Can feel tedious
- Grinding skill trees and stones for 100% gets repetitive after about 10 hours
- Repetitive music and samey runs in long sessions
- Early maps described as barren, open arenas that can feel sleepy or slow (some wish for a speed-up option)
- Endless mode's dry skill pool after level 60
- Enemies that teleport or catch you instantly, which makes kiting and repositioning feel ineffective
- Conan DLC seen by some as minimal and not worth the price, and DLC detection bugs reported
What's unique
- Norse setting with a Hades-like choose-your-gods structure layered on a survivor-like
- Class plus subclass system that changes the run mid-way
- Story-mode maps built by hand with objectives rather than pure open arenas, plus boss encounters
- Higher production value and art direction than most pixel-art genre peers
- Per-character meta-progression reset option and a Conan DLC crossover
- Comparisons players make: Vampire Survivors x Diablo, Hades x Vampire Survivors, or 'Death Must Die in 3D'
Players want
- More maps, enemies and bosses, plus more late-game content beyond maxing the trees
- Rebalance dominant skills and give class abilities a bigger role relative to gods (players want more class slots or stronger class flavour)
- Deeper meta-progression, such as branching trees, gear or loot to chase, and better endless-mode scaling after level 60
- Better combat feedback (damage numbers, impact) and optimisation for FPS, Steam Deck and consoles
- Fix manual-aim options, which some say do not work right, and improve translations of in-game descriptions
- Online co-op (currently local/shared-screen only) and a harder top difficulty
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
IndieAction RoguelikeRogue-liteBullet HellActionRogue-likeAction RPGSingleplayerCasualIsometric
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Tier list Part 4 (2025)
Jotunnslayer is a Diablo II-inspired survivors-like with striking visuals, where you pick god paths and character skills that produce wildly different spell effects. He finds it very satisfying and replayable, with mechanical (not percentage) upgrades, varied maps and big Diablo-style bosses. It does not revolutionize the genre, and readability and a few meta-progression annoyances hold it back. He places it in high B tier.
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