Just when I was beginning to get over my hard-fought battle with Vampire Survivors addiction, Soulpotion hit me with Asgard’s Fall. Showing us that you don’t need realistic graphics to ensure a fun time, this title has all of the ingredients of another viral title.
After managing to peel myself away for an unforeseeable amount of time, I thought I would share my experience before the call inevitably pulls me back into the abyss of video game addiction.
Why Asgard’s Fall Tops Vampire Survivors
While Vampire Survivors wasn’t the first game of it’s ilk, it was the core inspiration that opened up the floodgates to a torrent of “bullet heaven” games, so I’ll be using it as a comparative example for this article.
Asgard’s Fall takes everything that was great about Vampire Survivors and injects new mechanics to open the game up to a more strategic approach. Where in the earlier title the strategy focused heavily on your choice of weapons, Asgard’s Fall throws boosters and multipliers into the mix in the form of “Knots of Power”.
On levelling-up you are given the options to choose from either an abilities page (Yggdrasil’s Gift) or a Knot of Power under the Web of Wyrd. These two pools of power-ups alternate each time you level up, giving you ample opportunity to perfectly tailor your arsenal and power-ups to work alongside each other in perfect unison.
The Web of Wyrd
The Web of Wyrd is the cherry atop the proverbial cake of Asgard’s Fall and where a strategic mind can make or break a game. Here you can purchase power-ups like max health boosts, armor boosts, chance to ignite and buffers on elemental powers such as lightning and fire damage. Alongside these, you’re offered modifiers that boost adjacent perks on the skill tree by a given percentile.
While weaponry from Yggdrasil’s Gift can turn your player into a force to be reckoned with by adorning your character with a whole host of cool magical powers and weapons, the key to success relies heavily on The Web of Wyrd. A great example of this would be when I was struggling to beat the first end-of-level boss due to an attack that was near impossible to dodge using the starting dodge stats, so I concentrated on boosting my movement speed and dodge stats during the stage. While the boss remains unbeaten (watch this space), I managed to deal a lot more damage during my last battle and the impossible is now looking very probable.
Ten Minutes to Prepare
Asgard’s Fall gives you exactly ten minutes to prepare for the final boss fight. During the first ten minutes, you’re tasked with fighting off hordes of enemies that drop XP as they die. This stage of the levels are an opportunity to level-up ready for the final boss and the better you do here the more chance you will have of emerging victorious as you “conquer” the stage – unlike this humble scribe.
System Requirements
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel i5-7200U @ 2.50GHz or equivalent
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GTX 770 / Radeon 8950 HD
- Storage: 150 MB available space
Summary
Asgard’s Fall is an absolute gem of a game that’s nigh-on impossible to stop once you start playing. With a plethora of different weapons and modifiers to choose from, no two games need to play out the same way. Exploring different combinations offers a diverse range of play styles, so every player will be able to mold their character to their own way of playing.
Asgard’s Fall is available now on Steam as an early access release.