Niffelheim

Niflheim in Scandinavian mythology is one of the nine worlds, a place where ice giants live. These powerful creatures descend from Ymir himself, the first living being, from whose flesh our earth was created. True, the glory of their ancestors the ice giants have somewhat lost, locked themselves in their Niflheim and do not leave it.

Niflheim is also a land of fog. Nobody knows what dangers are lurking here, not a single person has appeared here before. Therefore, how exactly to survive among the powerful ice giants and rootless soil is not very clear.

But you still have to do it in Niffelheim.

There, behind the fogs ...

Niffelheim at first unobtrusively resembles Scandinavian mythology. The greatest achievement in the life of any Viking was a heroic death. If a man is lucky enough to fall on the battlefield, in a bloody trance from the drunken broth of fly agarics and the heard song of the Valkyries, then his soul goes directly to Valhalla - the Scandinavian analogue of paradise. There, surrounded by the same fighters and the god Odin himself, the Viking will feast and drink beer forever.

Well, like "forever". Until Ragnarok comes.

The protagonist of Niffelheim fulfilled his destiny as a Viking and died heroically in battle. Moreover, he was also "buried" in accordance with all the rules - the body was sent to float freely on a set fire to a drakkar. But the insidious Scandinavian demons slightly changed the direction of the drift of this ship, and it washed ashore not Valhalla, but Niflheim.

However, all is not lost for the hero. He can finally get to Valhalla and drink plenty of beer with Odin there, if he collects a portal to the "palaces of paradise". The fragments of this "door" are scattered throughout Niflheim, so the search will take a very long time. And the land on which the Viking landed is by no means friendly - there are all sorts of monsters, skeletons and other inhabitants of Scandinavian myths everywhere, and the character himself also needs to eat periodically.

So it's time to arm yourself with a sword, pickaxe and crafting skills; build a house, start gathering resources and prepare to descend into the dungeons of Niflheim.

Niffelheim Dungeon Travel

In terms of gameplay, Niffelheim is trying to sit on four chairs at the same time - to combine action, survival, role-playing component and pixel 2D graphics. How much it turns out is up to the player to decide. However, Niffelheim took a piece from each direction.

So, a sense of satiety is of paramount importance for survival. Hunger is the Viking's worst enemy, so you have to constantly craft your own food. The lands of Niflheim are not particularly fertile, forging swords into plowshares and gardening will not work, so you have to take weapons and try to get meat from local animals (if, of course, it deserves to be called that word).

Taking enough food with you, you can go to the dungeons. And even necessary - the game ends in two cases: if you managed to collect the portal, and if the protagonist died prematurely. There are many dungeons and they are all very densely populated with skeletons of various forms of armor. In addition to them, the number of opponents includes bears, wolves, spiders and mice. Giants appear extremely rarely and mainly in cut scenes. However, if you want to fight some major enemy, here is a huge armored skeleton.

You can also build a fortified house. Chop up more trees and transform them into a two-story palisade dwelling in one spectacular animation. However, the house here is mainly a place for relaxation and preservation, so you shouldn't bother too much with architectural excesses.

The combat system in Niffelheim is simple, like Loki's jokes at Odin's banquet. You approach the enemy and start clicking on it with all your might. You can also use special techniques - then after defeating opponents, they will receive maximum experience and pumped along with the Viking himself.

Niffelheim Multiplayer

There is also a multiplayer mode in Niffelheim - it seems that the demons raged so much that they deployed not one drakkar, but several at once. And in multiplayer, by the way, you still need to build the most fortified "cozy nest".

In Niffelheim, in addition to the co-op, there is also PvP multiplayer. There are up to four players on the map, and each of them can choose one of two sides. And thus it will be either an honest division into teams of 2 by 2, or not so honest attempts to survive in the face of numerous raids due to three raiders at once.

Co-op makes the passage a little easier. The bosses remain about as strong, but there are already two Vikings - so you will be able to deal with some particularly annoying ice troll a couple of times faster. Collecting resources works the same way. Working together is not only more productive, but also less boring.