Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel is a neat game when it comes to Survivors-like games. A game that was closer to Halls of Torment in terms of allowing button presses to perform actions alongside the auto attacks, it had a truly distinct visual style and narrative that helped set it apart from others in the genre. Still, as with many Survivors-like games, a title like this grows with expansions and DLC and Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel received an interesting one.
The first big expansion for Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel adds a new playable option in the form of Robert E. Howard’s legendary character Conan the Barbarian, along with the new playable map of Stygia, straight from the Conan stories. Conan is a melee-based sword user and so uses short and mid-ranged attacks for his standard attacks. He also has a number of interesting abilities that help him stand out, such as his shout, spinning blades and shield bounce. Conan uses triumphs for his passive abilities and these will stack if you meet certain conditions, and each triumph that is added turns Conan into more and more of a Tank, though I am not sure how well a Tank fits the character per se.
As noted, a new level was added as well with Stygia the land of sorcerers and snakes. This new map has two zones that can be played, one being the desert surface and the other being the tomb beneath. It is not a bad level, and has a few nods to the stories, but I was let down by the boss fight at the end as I felt it could have been more suited to something from the Conan mythos. It was fun enough, but just could have been a bit better and not felt like just another boss fight.
Conan was not the only addition to Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel, as a new god has been added to provide their blessing during level ups. The god of Fate will assign new passive upgrades that can benefit you one way, but possibly cost you in another. It is a nice addition to the upgrade options, and I hope to see more like it soon.
Lastly, is an addition players have requested for a while, local co-op. It works well here as each player can select a character to play, but the number of active skills has been reduced per character as a tradeoff. In addition, each player levels up in alternating order, and this is all to reduce the time players have to choose new skills and keep the pacing identical to the single-player run
The Conan DLC may not be the best new addition, as it could have had a bit more to it, but the other additions that were brought as free DLC do make for a great addition. As it stands, this is a good start to DLC and expansions for Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel, and the developers have multiple directions to go in for the next DLC. I would love to see more crossover content and original content, and I cannot wait to see what comes next.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided