Have you ever wanted to be a Viking? Raiding through the realms on your quest for Valhalla? Then build your party of Dwarves in this new party-based looter RPG from AFIL Games, currently in Early Access on Steam. With a striking pixel art style and simple yet expressive gameplay, does this game stack up? And what will the future hold for it along the development roadmap the Devs have laid out?
Let’s get this out of the way first, Raiders of Valhalla is not yet a finished game. As seen on the menu in-game, there are options greyed out as they are not yet implemented including a skill tree and Adventure mode. This is a game under active development and the studio behind it has a relatively clear roadmap available to view on their Steam page. However, they aren’t promising any dates on there which frankly I believe to be a wise decision. What is available though is so far quite interesting.
You start with a single Dwarf and can set off through Raids to gain loot, usually money with a chance to get armour and weapons. Earning more money allows you to unlock more slots for your Dwarves and you can spend money to increase the rarity availability of both quests and items in the store.
Each Dwarf has a class, one armour, weapon and pet slot each, as well as two innate talents that synergise with other Dwarves. This is except your starting Dwarf who can have three talents and can also equip three Relics. These Relics are game modifiers for your whole party, ranging from enhancing healing, providing a chance for double attacks, or damage reflection.
This is what I mean by the gameplay being simple yet expressive. As an auto-battler, your main gameplay is strengthening your party composition and utilising the aforementioned stats you can start to build some crazy teams. This isn’t just some “one strategy beats all” game though, as randomised drops and stock in the shop means you may have to rethink your team depending on what’s available to you.
The Forge offers a way for you to utilize outdated weapons and armour by combining them to hopefully develop better items, thus giving use to your old gear beyond just selling it. The main aspect of the Forge however is crafting pets. During your raids, you have the chance to find eggs and elemental stones. By forging compatible eggs and stones you can craft pets that you can equip to your Dwarves to enhance them further. Being randomised drops though means you may have an abundance of them, or find next to none at all.
There is also a layer of meta-progression in the game. Once your team finally loses, you gain experience based on your progress, unlocking further classes of Dwarves, Synergies, and boosted starting equipment. The game is based on failing and improving until you succeed like many roguelikes. At the time of writing the level cap appears to be 31 as I have not been able to unlock anything past this, but I presume this will change in time as the Devs add more content.
In all, Raiders of Valhalla shows a lot of promise. What’s currently available is fun for a time though I did find myself getting a little bored towards the end of my review. I can certainly see myself coming back to it though for short bursts of a run in my downtime and when future updates launch. A distinctive art style and simple yet compelling gameplay meant that I was quickly hooked and I can’t wait to see what the finished product will look like.
Platform: Steam
Developer: AFIL Games
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