DISCLOSURE: This game was reviewed on the following platform: PC – Check out our Review Policy page for more information.
The Roguelike video game Nordic Ashes: Survivors of Ragnarok takes its inspiration from Norse mythology, and the objective of the game is to stay alive against the onslaught of hordes of monsters. You will be fighting a wide variety of monstrous foes, from simple animals to epic monsters each of which has its own distinct playstyle.
In this review, we shall be going over everything that you need to know about this Early Access Nordic Ashes Rougelite game. We shall split the review into Pros and Cons so you can better understand what’s good and bad about it. Let’s get started.
Is It The Killer Of Vampire Survivors? – Nordic Ashes Review
A Norse-like Rougelite game that will be testing your nerves and just how good of a gamer you are when it comes to dealing with multiple enemies at once time from every direction.
Pros
We shall start off on the right foot for this review and show you the good sides of Nordic Ashes First.
Gameplay
The gameplay overall is very fun and will give you that Vampire Survivors thrill that you might be seeking. It is a Norse-inspired Roguelite game and it functions very well as one. You will be getting the casual monsters running your way and the way of how you can deal with them is done is very fun and interesting.
The challenge is real with this one though. If you are not up for a challenge and a way of you focusing your brains on totally coming out as the victor, you might not like Nordic Ashes so much. The movement feels smooth for a Roguelike game and it actually runs very well.
You’ll be getting a variety of enemies as well as the occasional boss that you can deal with. Upgrades are available and you can use multiple weapons as well that can be customized giving you an element of replayability, but it is still very much lacking in this sense and needs a lot of work to be added on to it.
Visuals
The visuals and art style of Nordic Ashes is done very beautifully and will make the whole game and its overall feeling of it much better. The characters are detailed and drawn to be fun and alive which will keep on changing as you go through more of the monsters.
The environments are also drawn to be very interesting and the details that you can spot are done good too. It is a nice take for a Rougelite game and it suits it just perfectly.
Cons
Uh oh, here come the bad things about Nordic Ashes!
Balance
Nordic Ashes is a very hard game. It is still in Early Access and with time this will definitely be worked on, but as it is right now if you are a newcomer to Roguelite games you will be having an extremely hard time. Heck, even if you are a veteran you’ll be dying over and over again!
Some monsters are created to be much more powerful than others and even if you do not have that one item that will give you just a 0.0001% better stat, you will keep on dying over and over again.
This is the biggest issue that gamers are having for Nordic Ashes at the very moment. You’ll be feeling as though you are powerless in some situations and it needs to be definitely reworked.
Repetitive
The devs have said that instead of unlocking numerous weapons and talents, you should focus on getting one weapon to its maximum level first, then moving on to the next step. Because of this, you are required to follow the same path throughout each and every game, which rapidly becomes tedious.
We can only hope that this will change in the future and then being able to fully customize your play style every game would result in you being actually successful.
Variety Of Gaming Options
There isn’t a lot of variety when it comes to playing and replaying Nordic Ashes at the very moment. It is still an early–access game which means there are plenty of things to be added, but as it is right now it feels like it needs much more work to be done.
First of all, you’ll notice the very lack of maps. You will be doing the same actions in the same background for pretty much all of your playing of Nordic Ashes. There are some changes in the second map but still, that’s all that there is to it.
The customization and the upgrade system are pretty much locked to 3 weapons and that’s it. And plus, based on how the game is built to function to be following the same build that works to be able to survive, it tends to get very repetitive and very fast too.
Nordic Ashes
Summary
Nordic Ashes is a fun Rougelite Early Access game that needs more work to be done on it. It is extremely hard as it is and the balance issue is real. There are certain playstyles that you’ll need to follow to be able to survive and if you decide to experiment on your own, you’ll most likely be killed over and over again. Other than that, it is a fun experience that will hopefully get much better in the future.
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