Conan Turns Jotunnslayer Into a Bloody Meat Grinder

Let’s place Norse mythology on a hold for a second. We’re in the desert now, and we brought a barbarian.

Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel was already doing a solid job cracking skulls in the crowded auto-shooter arena. To us, it was, and still is, one of the best Vampire Survivor inspired games. It had the Diablo/ heavy metal aesthetic down cold. Now? They’ve tossed Conan into the meat grinder. It’s a bizarre crossover on paper. Cimmerian muscle meeting a Norse apocalyptic roguelite.

The DLC, however, sings.

Braving the sandstorm

You pick Conan, and immediately realize this isn’t just a reskin. He actually feels heavy. Momentum is important. You’re not just passively dodging around hordes of enemies waiting for your cooldowns to pop. You’re actively pushing back. The new Ram ability is your panic button. Getting swarmed? Just drop your shoulder and bulldoze through the horde like a pissed-off linebacker.

It feels great. We can’t have enough of it.

Three stances change the math. The heavy sword offers wide crowd control. Shield brawling lets you actively block—a rarity in this genre. Then there are the dual blades. Pure, focused DPS for melting bosses.

Then there’s the Fate system.

It’s essentially a slot machine shoved right into the middle of a bloodbath. You roll for symbols—an Arrow, a Fist, a Goblet, or a Skull. Match them up, get a buff. It completely breaks the pacing of the combat for a few seconds. Do we like stopping the murder spree to play Yahtzee? Not really. But that hit when you roll matching Skulls right before a boss fight is undeniably awesome.

You’ll drag yourself through Stygia. Surface sandstorms blind you, forcing you underground just to see. It ends with a massive Undead Jötunn. A giant skeleton spamming magic and trash mobs. It gets messy. Fast. but, it’s always fun.

Hey, did you know that:

Prior to this, Games Farm built mid-budget action RPGs like Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms.

Using fully 3D models over 2D sprites gives it significantly higher minimum PC requirements than genre peers.

The Conan expansion dropped alongside a major free update adding local co-op.

The Final Toll

Conan doesn’t drastically change the gameplay. He just gives you lovely new tool to bring chaos to a familiar world. This is a wildly fun distraction that gives a solid indie game a violent, much-needed shot in the arm.

ID Card

  • Developer: Games Farm, ARTillery
  • Publisher: Grindstone
  • Engine: Unity
  • Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
  • Genre: Action Roguelite / Horde Survival