Nidhogg 2 review for Xbox One

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Advance, stab and kill your enemy before they do the same to you.

In Nidhogg 2 the only goal is to move forward and kill your enemy; the game has no story, just this goal. The last thing you’ll want is to understand the story; you’ll want to advance as fast as possible without retreating.

GAMEPLAY

In this game, you face another opponent and each of you has a side of the screen you’re running toward. There are several different screens you must pass through in order to reach the last screen, to be eaten by Nidhogg (a kind of giant serpent). To defeat your opponent and continue on your way, you must beat them somehow, or they will follow you. While in Nidhogg 1 you had only a sword, now you have access to many more bladed weapons, such as dagger, sword and a long-range bow. With each weapon you can switch between a high, middle and low stance to try to gain an advantage over your opponent. Learning to use them at the right time is key to gaining the upper hand.

You can’t choose your weapon; instead it rotates with each death you suffer. Some are better than others, with the bow in particular seeming a little unfair at times because of its long range. However, you can deflect arrows back at the attacker, making them kill themselves (and even earning you a trophy). With swords or daggers you can also throw them to try to kill your opponent, but at the risk of no longer having a weapon to defend yourself if they deflect it. You can pick up weapons from the ground and use them, discarding the current one.

The game’s challenge centers on the duel: a simple duel, where a mistake is almost always fatal, and you’ll have to go back a few screens and face the enemy again to be able to advance. Enemies spawn with random weapons, so you always have to change your style with each new duel, until you reach the end of the map. In total there are 10 stages.

GRAPHICS

Now you can customize your characters right at the start of the game: choose color, hair, shape. With better graphics than the first and a more elaborate color palette, the game is less tiring to watch.

The environments are well made, and quite different from each other, such as a volcano, a forest or a rainbow road in the clouds. There is as much violence as in the first, as the characters bleed a lot, or turn into several pieces after you kill them. Practically a bloodbath, but nothing too heavy.

The game’s sound doesn’t draw attention, but it’s pleasant. It’s not something annoying that will make you lower the volume, but it’s not something to be appreciated either.

CONCLUSION

Nidhogg 2 is prettier and bigger than its first version; adding multiplayer and the new weapons helps give the game more variety in how you deal with your enemy. The fact that it’s prettier and without the pixelated graphics of the first helps add some charm to the game. It’s fun, but wears thin little by little. I’d say it’s good to play while you wait for your friends to play something bigger, or just for a few minutes.

The version provided was for Xbox One

Narrative: 3
Audiovisual: 6
Gameplay: 6