Odinfall | Steam Deck Early Access Review
One look at the trailer for Ember Paw Games‘ Odinfall (published by Fireshine Games), and I was hooked. It has the trappings of some of my favorite roguelike games: twin-stick shooting mayhem, randomly-generated levels, and satisfying weapon upgrades. It even has a goofy story that combines mythology and sci-fi in a way that shouldn’t work on paper, but totally does. With all that going for it, I’m baffled that it simply isn’t clicking for me? I know what you’re thinking: this is going to be a negative review for a game that’s still only in Early Access. On the contrary. This is totally a me problem, as I think this particular flavor of the genre isn’t quite my cup of tea. At least not yet.
Not Your Father’s Loki
My personal knowledge of Norse mythology is pretty limited, but I don’t remember Loki having a disembodied robotic head trapped in an underground prison. But that pretty much sums up the setup of Odinfall‘s tongue-in-cheek narrative. You play as one of five characters tasked by Loki to help him escape his prison and take down Cyber-Odin in the process. Yes, the familiar characters from mythology are AI-generated, giving a sci-fi twist that’s actually goofy fun. The playable characters range from an armless female robot to a smiling moose. No, I’m not making this up. It’s bonkers in all the best ways.
You access each areas on an overworld map akin to Super Mario Bros. 3. You’ll navigate each procedurally-generated level looking for the exit, which requires you to find its key first. Along the way, you’ll take out baddies and collect new weapons, attachments, and currency before advancing to the next subsection of the stage. You might end up fighting a mini-boss along the way, which usually consists of some kind of mechanized mythological creature. After completing a level, you’ll have an opportunity to purchase new weapons/upgrades from three different shops. Upon your inevitable death, your character may level up, which allows permanent upgrades. The nice thing here is that you can respec your skill tree to your hearts content at no cost to you.
What sets Odinfall apart from other games like it are the weapon attachments. You’ll find random weapons along the way, but you might also come across upgrades of specific weapons in your arsenal. These drastically increase the effectiveness of you weapons, sometimes tripling your projectiles or offering homing capabilities. Another unique aspect is just how powerful and effective melee attacks can be. If you’re willing to approach your enemies head-on, you might find yourself at a distinct advantage. This allows the game to be very fast-paced with a bullrush mentality.
Mythological Chaos
All this sounds right up my alley, almost as if I’m selling myself on Odinfall the more I write about it. So why didn’t this one click for me? I want to be 100% clear again: this is a well-made game that is scratching the wrong itch for me personally. For starters, I’m finding the difficulty to ramp up entirely too quickly for me. I have no problem getting through the first stage, but as soon as I attempt the second, I’m routinely decimated within seconds.
This doesn’t normally bother me too much, because it’s part of the gig, right? I just need to level up more to make subsequent runs easier. Unfortunately, after making multiple runs, I still feel ill-equipped. Typically, I prefer a more forgiving ramp up period at the beginning so that I know early on what it means to be successful. As this game gets closer to its 1.0 launch, I would like to see permanent upgrades come a tad more often.</p>
Secondly, this game is geared a lot more towards brawler than those who prefer a ranged approached to enemies. I don’t have a lot of faith in my gamer skills when it comes to getting up close and personal with enemies. That’s especially true when a lot of enemy projectiles explode on contact, as do the various barrels scattered throughout each level. Clearly Odinfall wants you to take a much more aggressive approach to completing dungeons than I’m comfortable with. That’s all to say that I think my co-host, Chris Behrensmeyer, might really enjoy this title.
Odinfall Final Verdict
Odinfall has almost everything I want in a twin-stick shooter roguelike, but I wish the progression loop were more satisfying. With that said, don’t avoid this game just because it’s not working for me yet. I still plan to keep trying, especially after Ember Paw Games updates the game. But I’m finding more frustrations than satisfying moments in its current state, but I admit that’s a personal preference in terms of gameplay style, not quality of the game. If this seems up your alley, give it a try while it has an Early Access price tag of $12.99 (as of this writing, it’s discounted by 20%). I applaud the developers for the crisp mechanics and colorfully-detailed graphics. I hope it grabs others quicker than it did me.
To hear me talk more about Odinfall, be sure to listen to the March 19th, 2025 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast.
This review is based on a Steam Early Access copy of Odinfall provided by The 71 for coverage purposes. As of the time of this writing, it is exclusive to this platform.
