Odinfall Early Access Impressions
Roguelike vs. roguelite. We could probably talk about this for hours, but here is my take: roguelikes follow their namesake, Rogue, and have qualities like permadeath, and are, generally speaking, a bit more challenging simply for the fact that you start completely over when you die. Roguelites, on the other hand, are what most games we see in the genre now, and exhibit far more accessibility like meta progression. Yes, you die, but you improve just enough to get a bit further before dying again. “One more run” becomes more of a thing when you can actually see the improvement on screen. This is not a blanket proclamation that roguelites are easy/easier (have you tried a 5 boss cells Dead Cells run?) but they are definitely more forgiving and welcoming. You just have to find the right balance that speaks to you as a gamer.
Developed by Ember Paw Games, Odinfall is a “Vikings-themed, rogue-lite, twin-stick shooter (Steam).” This is most definitely a roguelite but at times, it feels roguelike, but roguelike/lite is a mouthful. Ultimately, this is a highly addictive game that fans of the genre will welcome with open arms. Loki, true to his namesake as the god of mischief, is up to no good BUT it is not his fault…allegedly. Balder has caused Ragnarok and Loki, or at least his decapitated head has been imprisoned by Odin as punishment. Oh, did I not mention all the Norse gods are robots. This may be “Viking-themed” but it is not just crude axes and bow and arrow this time around.
You begin the game as Britta, the cyberzerker, who has a metal arm that “hits with the power of a commercial freight train” and a metal leg that “allows her to make lightning fast dashes that would give a regular human whiplash.” Through regular gameplay, you will unlock additional characters including a moose and a gnome. Each character has a unique ability (for example, Britta can smash through walls and Leifi, the moose, can shield himself from all damage) and their own, unique skill trees. What the characters do share are guns and lots of them.
Pulling a page from the Borderlands series, there are not only an insane amount of weapons to find, the weapons can all be outfitted with just as many modifications. Weapons fall into six categories: melee, bullets, shells, bolts, explosives, and energy. Melee weapons range from daggers and axes to flyswatters (seriously) and chainsaws. Melee weapons also do not require ammo, making them attractive as they only stop doing damage when you are dead. For guns, bullets cover handguns, SMGs, and rifles; shells are shotguns, shotguns, and more shotguns; bolts include crossbows, nailguns, or just a bucket of nails; explosives are self-explanatory and you can kill yourself with them; and energy weapons are your lasers, plasma guns, and microwave-based (things melt, ok?). Every weapon, melee or gun, can be modded to do unimaginable things. Revolvers that fire off three homing bullets? Sure. Crossbows with flaming AND acidic arrows? No problem. Unfortunately, the entire process of modding the weapons is incredibly clumsy. First off, there is no menu to see what you have equipped. If there is a mod on the ground, standing near it will show you the mods currently equipped. Hopefully, you are a visual learner and can remember the various icons for different mods. Secondly, to replace any mod but the last one added requires you to drop all mods equipped after you equipped that mod. If you manage to get a weapon with 5 slots and want to replace the very first mod you found, you have to drop the 4 you want to keep first. The entire process fells unnecessarily cumbersome. Luckily, each area has a finite number of enemies so once cleared, you can take your sweet time figuring out how to gear up before advancing.
Speaking of advancing, how you do so is relatively simple. You begin every run on a large map, but only have one node you can enter. Each node contains 3 sections that have you finding a key to open the hatch to the next area. You could technically grab the key and run but you would miss out on all the gold, weapons, and mods that are stashed away. The third area has a mini-boss that drops an additional set of stashes for you to loot before moving on. There is a shop that sells weapons, mods, and upgrades to your character, like increases to health or ammo capacity, and additional dash charges. After clearing the first node, you have a choice of where to go. You will also notice that it is starting to get a bit frosty. Welcome to Fimbulwinter! For those unfamiliar, Fimbulwinter is the prelude to Ragnarok (end of days, blah blah). Anyway, nodes that fall under Fimbulwinter will have a swirling iceblock around them and add additional challenges but with extra rewards. Eventually, you will reach the final node containing a world boss. Defeating said boss opens up a new world (of which there are 3) and the ability to start a game in any unlocked world. After both successful and unsuccessful runs, you can return to the homebase where you can spend skill points, swap characters, listen to Loki go on rants, or view databases of enemies and weapons encountered.
Odinfall can be a chaotic but extremely enjoyable roguelite, twin-stick shooter. Odinfall can be a chaotic but extremely frustrating roguelite, twin-stick shooter. In the early goings, it feels more roguelike than it does roguelite with the opportunity to fail almost immediately. This is not even just a challenge aspect but more of the way the procedural generation works. A bad first weapon spawn or even a bad first spawn location can ruin the run before it is even begun. Hell, I am a glutton for punishment in similar games and I even said aloud, “really?” Dying before getting a replacement for the starter pistol really makes you visualize smashing a controller, especially when it happens multiple times. Casual fans of the genre may be turned off because the meta progression does not provide that leg up (until much later) that can provide that feeling of getting better over time. Again, I love the challenge but the spikiness in difficulty seems too erratic at times. Of note this is an Early Access title. Normally, I would lead with this fact but interestingly, Odinfall is a complete title in terms of content. “We've been working on Odinfall for a good amount of time already to get it ready for release, so the version that launches into Early Access will be content complete, with all of the content (ie. levels, worlds, modes & weapons) that we plan to include in the game's full 1.0 release.” Early Access owners can provide feedback and report bugs via the in-game option or by joining the Discord. I had a few bug reports and there were immediate responses to them. Odinfall has been full recommendation but it is only fair to advise those who read this of the difficulty it can present and the state of the Early Access. As always, put the game on your wishlist if you are not ready to go all techno-viking on hordes of enemies.
