Niffelheim Preview
We can all agree that one of the most frustrating parts of any video game is an undeserved death. Watching your character plummet to the floor, usually accompanied by a bloodied face, while you get smacked with that irreconcilably annoyed moment where you try to remember your last save point and how much progress you just lost. So it’s oddly refreshing with Ellada Games latest title Niffelheim (with two F’s and an extra E) that death is a frequent, common, and often times necessary part of the game. In fact, the only downside to death is going back to the start of the area and losing a handful of coins.
Players take control of a nameless Viking warrior who fell in combat. He is set upon his burning boat and pushed out to sea for his final journey into the afterlife, only for demons from Niffelheim to resurrect him for their own nefarious plot. As a 2D side scroller, I can’t say I went into this expecting more than a simple reimagining of the classic side scrolling style, but I was greatly mistaken and I could not be more impressed. Niffelheim isn’t just about finding a way to defeat the demons; it is painstakingly set in a very real survival mode. Need some wood to fortify your home? Equip the axe and go cut down some trees. What about replenishing your health? Hunt down wild animals or pick various fruits for small HP restoration.
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“As a 2D side scroller, I can’t say I went into this expecting more than a simple reimagining of the classic side scrolling style, but I was greatly mistaken and I could not be more impressed.”
Inside your stronghold, all those resources you gathered in the wild will get put to good use as you build your own cooking station, alchemy table, forge, and more. The cooking station lets you turn raw fruit and meat into high-HP restoring warm meals, the forge gives you access to more advanced building materials and gear. Run out of wood? Better get back out there and cut down more trees. Niffelheim has this curious beauty about it. At once it is both marvelously detailed and yet so simplistically animated as the Viking and other creatures only seem to move at the major joints. It feels like being inside an interactive painting. It even took me a while to realize almost every tree, stone, and shrub I walked passed could be chopped down, chipped away, or foraged for more items.
Combat was a bit touch-and-go for me. The time it takes for the Viking to raise his shield, and the fact it only had a chance to deflect damage rather than actually protecting me, made it feel flimsy at best. It’s a shame because combat is only a small aspect of the game as a whole but all it takes is a few enemies to flank you to make you kiss the dirt. As I said before, death really is only the beginning. You won’t lose any progress when you are defeated – even damage dealt to enemies will remain when you return. The lack of solid defense and significant healing items before you can craft anything of merit, however, means you have to be ready to face death a handful of times while you get the hang of it.
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“Niffelheim has some seriously intelligent design and is definitely the kind of game that will pay off for a gamer looking to get invested in the long haul.”
That being said, I easily plugged away several hours into Niffelheim without even realizing it. Hunting down resources, defending your new home from enemy attacks, and building your home from nothing into a fortress is exceptionally rewarding. Niffelheim has some seriously intelligent design and is definitely the kind of game that will pay off for a gamer looking to get invested in the long haul. Here’s hoping that the big burly Viking learns to raise his shield just a little faster and gamers can rest a little easier knowing they don’t have to prepare for death every other encounter.
***A preview code was provided by the publisher***
