Asgard’s Fall — Viking Survivors: Hands-On Review After Two Hours
A Norse survivor-like where one good build can turn you from a struggling Viking into an unstoppable god.
Asgard’s Fall — Viking Survivors is a Norse-themed survivors-like roguelite developed by Soulpotion and published by Assemble Entertainment and Sidekick Publishing.
After spending around two hours with the 1.0 version, I came away wanting to play considerably more.
If you’ve played games such as Vampire Survivors, the basic concept will immediately feel familiar. Enemies flood the screen, experience lets you continually improve your build, abilities begin stacking on top of one another, and eventually the screen becomes complete chaos.
But Asgard’s Fall has enough of its own ideas underneath that familiar formula to make it much more than simply another Vampire Survivors clone.
Disclosure: A review key for Asgard’s Fall — Viking Survivors was provided by PR Hound. This did not influence the opinions expressed in this article.
Starting Out
My first few runs were rough.
The game is easy enough to control. I played using a controller, with movement on one stick and directional attacks on the other, but understanding how all of its progression systems interact takes a little longer.
You begin relatively weak, collect experience from defeated enemies, and gradually select abilities and upgrades as you level.
My first Warrior run quickly turned into a mixture of fire attacks, summoned icicles, lightning serpents, spears, increased critical damage and anything else that looked powerful.
It worked.
Until it didn’t.
As the enemy density increased, I found myself desperately searching the map for health pickups while trying to dodge increasingly large groups of enemies. Eventually, the run collapsed.
That is where Asgard’s Fall starts getting interesting.
Failure isn’t simply starting again from zero. Each attempt helps open more permanent upgrades, abilities, characters and systems that give you more options on the next run.
Experimenting With Builds
There are a lot of abilities to experiment with.
During my session I tried lightning serpents, giant spears, Frost Stomp, flaming auras, spinning hammers, great swords, molten traps, ice abilities and several different elemental effects.
Some immediately became favourites.
The spinning hammers were excellent at clearing enemies around me, while Frost Stomp could wipe out an entire nearby group when things became crowded.
Others didn’t impress me quite as much.
The rolling snowball ability, for example, didn’t feel particularly useful during the short time I experimented with it. It may become significantly stronger when properly upgraded, but compared with some of the alternatives it didn’t immediately grab me.
That difference between abilities is part of the fun, though.
Each run becomes an experiment in discovering which combinations work together.
And sometimes you accidentally create something ridiculous.
The Run Where Everything Clicked
My best run came after I started properly understanding the Web of Wyrd.
Rather than simply placing upgrades wherever there was an available slot, I realised that positioning mattered.
Nodes can interact with nearby upgrades and eventually activate additional bonuses.
Suddenly, the system made much more sense.
I began connecting nodes deliberately, improving my abilities and building around lightning.
Then I discovered Tether.
Tether creates electrical connections that damage enemies passing through them.
One tether was useful.
Several were devastating.
By continuing to improve it throughout the run, the screen eventually became covered in electrical lines while enemies were being destroyed almost as quickly as they appeared.
The build became completely absurd.
After several failed attempts earlier in the stream, I finally defeated the boss that had been stopping me.
I thought I’d beaten the level.
I hadn’t.
Instead, the game threw even more enemies at me.
What followed was probably my favourite part of the entire session.
Huge groups started filling the screen and the build I’d created just kept cutting through them.
I went from carefully dodging enemies and desperately searching for health to joking that I’d activated “god mode.”
Eventually, after around 25 minutes, the game had one more surprise waiting for me.
A huge boss suddenly appeared, filling much of the screen and turning what had felt like an unstoppable run into a genuine fight for survival.
I came surprisingly close, but it finally brought my longest run to an end.
Different Characters Actually Feel Different
I also unlocked and experimented with another character during the session.
Moving away from the Warrior to the Seer immediately changed how I approached the game.
The Warrior felt straightforward and powerful in close combat, while the Seer relied much more heavily on magical abilities and ranged attacks.
Initially, I really struggled with him.
His standard attacks felt noticeably weaker than the Warrior’s, and my first attempt ended extremely quickly.
On another run, however, I started focusing more heavily on abilities such as molten traps, lightning and Frost Stomp.
Once those abilities began improving, the character became much more effective.
By the end of the session, I had also unlocked the Huntress, giving me another character and playstyle to return to later.
This variety should provide plenty of replay value, especially once you start creating builds around each character’s strengths.
There Is More Progression Than I Expected
One of the biggest surprises was just how many systems started appearing after making meaningful progress.
Completing my best run opened up additional features including War Paints and Ability Fates.
War Paints can be placed into their own grid to provide bonuses and help create specialised builds, with rarer War Paints offering stronger effects.
Ability Fates add another layer by changing how abilities behave.
Combined with character progression, permanent upgrades, the Web of Wyrd and the abilities available during each run, there appears to be much more build crafting here than I initially expected.
After two hours, I felt like I had only started scratching the surface.
Twitch Integration Is A Great Idea
Asgard’s Fall also includes Twitch integration, which is particularly interesting if you’re a streamer.
Viewers can participate in votes that affect what happens during a run.
During my stream, viewers were able to trigger events including a treasure chest appearing while I was desperately trying to survive.
It’s a genuinely fun addition because it lets the audience influence the game rather than simply watching.
There is one area I would like to see improved, though.
As the person actually playing, it wasn’t always obvious what my viewers were being asked to vote for.
They could see the available choices through Twitch, but I couldn’t always clearly tell what was happening from inside the game.
The integration itself has plenty of potential, especially with an active chat, but making that interaction slightly clearer from the streamer’s side would make it even better.
Not Every Run Feels Equally Fair
My biggest frustration during the session involved health.
Some runs provided enough health pickups that I could recover from mistakes and keep building momentum.
During another attempt, I spent a considerable amount of time desperately searching the map while sitting on almost no health and simply couldn’t find anything.
That can make certain runs feel considerably harsher than others.
There are upgrades for health regeneration, maximum health and improving health pickups, so this may become less noticeable as more permanent progression is unlocked.
There are also clear differences in effectiveness between abilities.
Some attacks immediately felt powerful, while others seemed considerably weaker unless heavily upgraded.
For a game built around experimenting with combinations, some imbalance isn’t necessarily a problem.
Finding those unusually powerful combinations is arguably part of the appeal.
My lightning tether build certainly proved that.
Presentation And Performance
The Norse setting works nicely with the genre.
Enemies, abilities and character designs have plenty of personality, and when dozens of enemies, elemental effects, hammers, lightning attacks and explosions begin filling the screen, the game becomes satisfyingly chaotic.
Most importantly, I didn’t find that chaos difficult to read.
Even during the busiest moments of my longest run, I could generally tell where my character was, where enemies were approaching from and which areas I needed to avoid.
Controls were similarly straightforward.
I was able to jump in with a controller and understand the basic combat almost immediately.
Is Asgard’s Fall Worth Playing?
After around two hours, my answer is yes — especially if you already enjoy survivors-like games.
The first few attempts can feel difficult while you’re learning the systems, and some mechanics aren’t immediately obvious.
I initially misunderstood parts of the Web of Wyrd completely before eventually realising how its connected nodes worked.
But learning those systems is also where the game becomes much more interesting.
The moment my build finally clicked and I went from repeatedly dying to tearing through huge groups of enemies was genuinely satisfying.
There’s already enough here to make me want to return: several characters, different build possibilities, permanent progression, War Paints, Ability Fates and plenty of abilities I still haven’t properly explored.
And at around £8.99 on Steam when I played it, there is a lot of game here for the money.
Final Impressions
Asgard’s Fall — Viking Survivors takes a familiar survivors-like foundation and layers a surprisingly deep collection of progression and build-crafting systems on top.
It is simple to pick up, increasingly chaotic, and capable of producing those fantastic roguelite moments where a build suddenly goes from “this might work” to “I think I’ve broken the game.”
The Web of Wyrd initially takes some understanding, health availability occasionally made runs feel inconsistent, and certain abilities appeared considerably stronger than others during my limited playtime.
But none of that stopped me wanting another run.
My planned one-hour first look became more than two hours, and by the end I had unlocked new characters and systems while already thinking about what build I wanted to try next.
For me, that’s one of the strongest compliments you can give a game like this.
If you enjoy Vampire Survivors and other survivors-like roguelites, Asgard’s Fall is well worth having on your radar.
Played: Approximately 2 hours
Version: PC – Steam, Version 1.0
Developer: Soulpotion
Publisher: Assemble Entertainment / Sidekick Publishing
Genre: Survivor-like Roguelite / Action
Review Key: Provided by PR Hound
Score: The Pixel Hangout does not use numerical review scores.
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