Needless to go around it so much, nowadays there are more and more fans of Nordic and Viking culture. If we talk about the most famous Vikings or the avenger Thor with his brother Loki, anyone now has a minimum of basic knowledge of Norse mythology, and also Helheim Hassle aims to tell us, in its own way, a little-known part of Viking culture. The reign of Whole, one of the nine worlds of Scandinavian mythology, is considered the abode of the dead, the home of cowards and cheaters; ending up in Hell has always been seen as a dishonor for the entire family of the deceased and this video game laughs and jokes on that side of the tradition. The small Bjorn, ended up in the Underworld, he will have to help his adventure companion Pesto to enter the Hel. From this peculiar idea a platform puzzle game fun and challenging that will transport you to a magical and bizarre world, struggling with a very special Hell.
A game that doesn't take itself seriously
Helheim Hassle, as previously mentioned, tells the adventure of Bjorn, a young pacifist Viking who died in a fight. The boy fled to try to save his life - while his peers sacrificed themselves to reach the Valhalla -, will be revived by the Pesto skull (dead nowadays). Due to a malfunction of the "shred of life" used by the boy to bring Bjorn back to life, the young man can however use the various pieces of your body to overcome all the puzzles that he will encounter along his path, where strange jokes and conversations with many different characters will make the adventure as enjoyable as it is fun.
The singularity of the title contributes to making it very difficult to describe and tell. Mainly, it is enough to know that the kingdom of Hel is losing "visitors" and to make it more attractive it has been decided to renovate it. Driven by Baldr, a Viking divinity daughter of Odin in a rocker key, the goblins will work hard to carry out puzzles and brain teasers all along your path. The goal of the two adventurers will be to overcome all the obstacles that will stand before them while Odin - become a FPS video game enthusiast - will try to take Bjorn to Valhalla to end a game lost to him.
A different puzzle game than usual
One of the most intriguing peculiarities of the adventure will be that of being able to combine the various parts of Bjorn's body, so as to overcome every obstacle that will block your path. Starting from the head (which can roll and pass into the tightest holes), going forward with the story the player will be able to "unlock" different possibilities. Each piece can be joined with other limbs, until your body returns to its original form, and it will be up to the player to guess and use the right combination to be able to overcome the various puzzles. We are talking about a playful mode that for many may seem unoriginal, but the difficulty of the various levels will still make the adventure perfect for anyone who wants to test themselves.
After testing Helheim Hassle for a few hours, however, we would like to recommend the use of a gamepad, although it is also available for computers, many will usually play with the mouse and keyboard combination; unfortunately it turns out very difficult play in that mode. In fact, it seems that the game has not been sufficiently optimized for the classic PC control system, while the controls for the joypad turned out to be simple and intuitive. Obviously, as mentioned above, starting from the simplest playful bases, a series of fairly complex riddles will then be presented, which will allow you to devote yourself totally to history and gameplay.
Simple but functional
Despite being a low budget video game, developed and produced by the independent company Perfectly Paranormal, Helheim Hassle has nothing to envy to many triple A titles. The extremely accurate audio sector counts more than 24 voice actors, who together worked to give voice to many characters. Maybe too many, since in every single scene we will find some NPC ready to interact with us, to the point of becoming unnerving and annoying. After all, it is clear that if petulant characters created mainly to make fun of the player are added to an already complex puzzle game, the result can only be more and more stressful. Even the design style, while being very simple, goes perfectly with the mood brought to light by the production, all accompanied by various historical characters - but transposed in an at least bizarre key - who always know how to show themselves with the right charisma.
In conclusion, we can define Helheim Hassle like a game simple, wacky e relatively complex, perfect both for fans of platform experiences in which there is a need to use logic and reasoning, and for those who want a quiet and fun adventure. One of the few flaws that we can find is summed up in the lack of dubbing and subtitles in Spanish. Despite in-game we will have to deal with fairly simple dialogues and accompanied by various puns that would not render in our language, subtitles in order to better follow the story would not have hurt. A final note of merit is the presence of the game on most platforms; in particular, we can find it on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Linux, MacOS.
