It’s always Loki, isn’t it? As soon as something even slightly mischievous occurs within in Norse mythology, chances are that Loki was behind it in some way. Such is the case in Eitr.
Loki has infected the world tree, Yggdrasil, with the eponymous eitr, causing it to spew out into the nine realms. Although all life is supposed to have come from this liquid, it is also poisonous to things that are already alive, transforming everyone it comes into contact with, except for our as yet nameless Shield Maiden. Her quest is to try and discover why exactly it is that she is immune to its effects.
The first thought upon seeing the game is that it will harken back to the Dark Souls series in its play style, but the seeds for this game were sown much further back by the first two Diablo games. The principle intention was to expand upon Diablo’s action RPG gameplay with a system much better attuned to a console controller. So you have direct control over the character, rather than issuing commands, and can attack, kick, block, parry and dodge in a fluid fashion.
Of course, what comes out of this resembles Dark Souls in a number of ways, and the first instinct upon seeing the shield maiden’s sword and shield, is to creep forward cautiously and methodically, looking for an opportunity to strike. That works to a certain extent, but I needed to take a much more proactive and more decisive approach in order to succeed. Being able to lock onto an enemy helps, but I had much more success trying to hit the opponents first, rather than trying to block and then strike back.
There’s always the option for a much more attack oriented approach across the board, by equipping two blades together. Doing so means that rather than having a three hit combo, you now have a five hit combo, and when these weapons have been upgraded by adding a magical gem to imbue them with electricity, this can be particularly deadly.
Further nuances make the dodge a particularly useful tool in your arsenal, though. There’s a Street Fighter-esque ability to cancel frames from an animation, for one thing, as well becoming immune to damage during a dash move. Effectively, for those who can spot the incoming attack and react quickly enough, they can get out of trouble and avoid damage.
Of course, damage is an inevitability, and knowing when to back off to heal up will be important. If you die, you face a randomly chosen debuff, which could damage your armour until such a time as you can return to town and have it fixed or apply a stat debuff for a period of time.
Further to this, your inventory will be stocked with randomised items that you find. Even potions that enemies drop are randomised, so that you might find a rare health potion that’s more potent than the ones you already have.
You’ll also lose favour through death, which will lower your stats more permanently. Rather than an XP system, you earn favour for defeating bosses – and as you can imagine, these will be brutally difficult – finding hidden caches and so on, and it improves your abilities during combat. Favour is fleeting, but can be traded in and used to permanently level up your shield maiden. The downside is that favour is more potent than levelling, so that the strongest character would have 99 favour and still be level 1, in a dangerous game of risk and reward.
Though it will, of course, be a bone of contention for many, Eitr features a quite lovely pixel art style and plenty of life to the smooth but snappy character animations. The isometric view lends itself well to the action, and there’s some pleasing touches in the world as well, from the glimmer and glow of lights to the motion of trees and leaving a trail behind you if you walk through water.
It will all depend on the gameplay though, and it’s gratifying to see that, although the influences of Diablo and Dark Souls will be a draw for many, Eitr manages to find its own blend of combat, mythology and an interesting visual style.