Die for Valhalla! is a 2D beat ‘em up with some RPG elements. Learn more about it in our Die for Valhalla! review!
The game offers two very different difficulty levels. Normal is where you can play the game a bit more relaxed since deahardcoreth is not permanent. On the Hardcore difficulty, which should only be attempted by experienced players, the game turns into a full-in roguelike with permadeath, and to spice things up, some healing items will have poisonous effects, and you can expect enemies to be more challenging. The game world is randomly generated so you will have a different experience with each run you do.
You play as Valkyrie, a deity from the Norse Mythology who is responsible for helping warriors achieve glory. Your valkryrie has the power to possess not only objects but also warriors, and you can literally bring them back from the dead by possessing one of the gravestones. As long as you remain in possession of a warrior then you can keep fighting and resurrecting, but if you lose the body and die then it’s game over. You can attack with the Square button or use the Triangle button for heavy attacks. Every time you defeat an enemy you earn glory, which looks more or less like snowflakes. Glory is pretty important since it is used for upgrades in your skill tree, so the more you have the more upgrades you can unlock. You will meed to become stronger to be able to keep up with your enemies since the overall difficulty increases at a steady pace, so be sure to collect all the glory that enemies drop!
Also worth noting is that collecting glory also makes warriors stronger as they are blessed with helms, the fancier the helms, the stronger they become. There is, however, a caveat when you die: you can repossess the same warrior, but he’ll be as weak as he was when you started to play, so you will need to collect more glory to make him as strong as he was before. There are many clans to choose from, which are Iron, Wolf, Bear, Deer, Crow, Fox, Eagle and Dragon. Whichever clan you decide to belong to will spawn the graves of three classes. Each class has different skill sets and abilities, so there is some room to experiment and see what you like and which best suits your playing style.
The great looking hand-drawn graphics really shine on PS4, as do the wonderful animations, with a ton of gore and body dismemberment in a cartoony fashion. The variety in environments is also impressive for a 2D beat ‘em up. The music perfectly fits the theme, with a soundtrack that does evoke that “living in a Norse mythology setting.”
Die for Valhalla! is a game that is easy to recommend on PlayStation 4. The way the game looks and feels is great, the gameplay mechanics are fun and the difficulty options allow players new to the genre or those with some considerable experience to dive into a great adventure. Which class will you select for your journey?
Disclaimer
This Die for Valhalla! review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by Monster Couch Games.
