I feel like I’m writing a review almost every day! Anyway, on to the boring stuff. Helheim Hassle releases August 18th on several different platforms. I received an Xbox code for free from the publisher with the expectation that I would write a review of some kind. I only spent a few hours playing, which was enough to complete one area after the tutorial and the first puzzle of the following area. I am mostly blind, so some things I have trouble with may not affect your experience.
Now for the fun stuff! Helheim Hassle is a puzzle platformer with metroidvania elements where you play Bjorn, a viking that didn’t want to go to Valhalla but did due to a technicality. Many years later, you are resurrected by a skeleton named Pesto that needs your help entering Helheim. You use your newfound power to detach your limbs to solve puzzles on the way to meet Hel, so you can ask to stay.
The artstyle is bright and well defined, making things easy to see most of the time. The characters are fully voiced, allowing you to not need to read subtitles although they are pretty easy to see anyway, especially if you increase their size. The puzzle difficulty increases slowly, though I feel I got stuck earlier than I should have.
You can enable hints, but I never noticed them during game play. The story and characters have depth to keep them interesting. The humor is awesome, so much so that I repeated some lines of dialog to hear it again! There even some cool musical numbers thrown in too!
The puzzle system is great. You can detach and reassemble your limbs in different ways to solve the puzzles. Each limb has its own use, either on its own or combined with others. Discovering these uses is a lot of fun, prompting you to think about each puzzle differently when you discover a new one.
The puzzles themselves are broken up into themed areas that provide good break points and an increase in difficulty. They are fun and engaging, not feeling particularly easy, and providing a good sense of accomplishment when you complete them.
Overall, it’s an excellent blend of puzzles, platforming, story, and metroidvania. I hope I can continue playing after release if I can get help from a friend or guide online. Because I am stuck relatively early in the game, I’m almost certain it’s because I don’t see something I should to complete the puzzle. If you like Norse mythology, a thinky puzzle game, or a humorous story, then this is the game for you! Sorry that it’s a shorter review, but I did get stuck and wanted to get this out as close to the release as possible.
