Featured prominently at both ID@Xbox and Indie Media Connect during GDC, Hela is a game I had no idea about but now will definitely keep a watchful eye on as it continues development.
Hela is a third-person adventure game that tells the story about a witch and her familiars, a bunch of mice, who are now out to find a cure for her sickness.
The demo featured at ID@Xbox put me right in the action, and the first thing I noticed was just how beautiful the game is. Since you use a mouse, you can expect vibes of The Borrowers, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, or Grounded as you venture into houses or out in the open world. For what it is, though, Hela‘s use of Unreal 5 just looks way more realistic which is just a credit to the fantastic team they have over at Windup Games.
The mouse players take control of is quite maneuverable. Not only are they masters of parkour, but there’s a real Spider-Man feel to the game. Whether you’re in or outside, you have a bunch of nearly limitless yarn in your pack that you can use to swing all around the environment outside. Not only that, but the yarn can be used to lasso up branches to give your mouse a place to climb. The mouse even had a pouch filled with air which can be used to glide like Spidey does with his web wings. To add on to the traversal, we even came across a rabbit who gave us a ride around meadows to get around faster. It brought back that nostalgic feeling of watching Peter Rabbit or Little Bear back in the day.
While much of the game mechanics obviously pay homage to other games, there are definitely some more creative aspects as well. One thing I learned from the studio head as I fell down while trying to scale a tree for the umpteenth is this shadow system. With the press of a button, you can leave a silhouette of your familiar from wherever you are, so if you fall down or need to get back to that specific spot, you can tap on the button and end up back there. It’s kind of scumming a save state.
This duplication system is definitely an interesting wrinkle.
It’s more than just to cheese difficult situations though, activating these shadows will also be essential for solving the many puzzles in the game. For example, you’ll come across many a door flap that can only be held open by your yarn, so in order to actually enter, you’ll have to pull the door open and then use your shadow ability to keep it held so you can make your way in (like in the screenshot above). There were a handful of puzzles and mysteries to uncover with the build, but of course, it’s early on and it did suffer from some issues.
My main issue was with how the build handled guided exploration. If at any point you’re lost in the game, or don’t know where to go next, the press of a button will show a little strand of wherever it is you’re supposed to be heading. This didn’t work correctly most of the time I used it, and it was mostly because I was out in the field surrounded be vegetation, which really prevented the little line from pointing me anywhere useful. Still, without any sense of direction, especially in a world as big as Hela‘s, it did prove difficult and I hope this is something the team prioritizes on their polish list. If there was a map, for example, it’s not something I knew I had.
One of the coolest details is the fact that the mouse’s energy is represented by the spiral on its backpack.
One thing that we didn’t get to try was the game’s multiplayer mode. Hela is set to support both split-screen and online multiplayer modes for cooperative fun. Hazelight definitely needs some competition, and I think Hela’s whimsical feel could be a step in the right direction. An open world variation of It Takes Two could potentially be a huge winner in this space.
There’s currently no target release plans for Hela, and I’d be shocked if it made it this year. Still, this is definitely one to follow as more information and opportunities to play the game come out. At the very least, when it does, considering we played it at ID@Xbox and the Indie Media Connect events, we expect it to launch on the Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Featured prominently at both ID@Xbox and Indie Media Connect during GDC, Hela is a game I had no idea about but now will definitely keep a watchful eye on as it continues development. Hela is a third-person adventure game that…
Featured prominently at both ID@Xbox and Indie Media Connect during GDC, Hela is a game I had no idea about but now will definitely keep a watchful eye on as it continues development.
Hela is a third-person adventure game that tells the story about a witch and her familiars, a bunch of mice, who are now out to find a cure for her sickness.
The demo featured at ID@Xbox put me right in the action, and the first thing I noticed was just how beautiful the game is. Since you use a mouse, you can expect vibes of The Borrowers, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, or Grounded as you venture into houses or out in the open world. For what it is, though, Hela‘s use of Unreal 5 just looks way more realistic which is just a credit to the fantastic team they have over at Windup Games.
The mouse players take control of is quite maneuverable. Not only are they masters of parkour, but there’s a real Spider-Man feel to the game. Whether you’re in or outside, you have a bunch of nearly limitless yarn in your pack that you can use to swing all around the environment outside. Not only that, but the yarn can be used to lasso up branches to give your mouse a place to climb. The mouse even had a pouch filled with air which can be used to glide like Spidey does with his web wings. To add on to the traversal, we even came across a rabbit who gave us a ride around meadows to get around faster. It brought back that nostalgic feeling of watching Peter Rabbit or Little Bear back in the day.
While much of the game mechanics obviously pay homage to other games, there are definitely some more creative aspects as well. One thing I learned from the studio head as I fell down while trying to scale a tree for the umpteenth is this shadow system. With the press of a button, you can leave a silhouette of your familiar from wherever you are, so if you fall down or need to get back to that specific spot, you can tap on the button and end up back there. It’s kind of scumming a save state.
This duplication system is definitely an interesting wrinkle.
It’s more than just to cheese difficult situations though, activating these shadows will also be essential for solving the many puzzles in the game. For example, you’ll come across many a door flap that can only be held open by your yarn, so in order to actually enter, you’ll have to pull the door open and then use your shadow ability to keep it held so you can make your way in (like in the screenshot above). There were a handful of puzzles and mysteries to uncover with the build, but of course, it’s early on and it did suffer from some issues.
My main issue was with how the build handled guided exploration. If at any point you’re lost in the game, or don’t know where to go next, the press of a button will show a little strand of wherever it is you’re supposed to be heading. This didn’t work correctly most of the time I used it, and it was mostly because I was out in the field surrounded be vegetation, which really prevented the little line from pointing me anywhere useful. Still, without any sense of direction, especially in a world as big as Hela‘s, it did prove difficult and I hope this is something the team prioritizes on their polish list. If there was a map, for example, it’s not something I knew I had.
One of the coolest details is the fact that the mouse’s energy is represented by the spiral on its backpack.
One thing that we didn’t get to try was the game’s multiplayer mode. Hela is set to support both split-screen and online multiplayer modes for cooperative fun. Hazelight definitely needs some competition, and I think Hela’s whimsical feel could be a step in the right direction. An open world variation of It Takes Two could potentially be a huge winner in this space.
There’s currently no target release plans for Hela, and I’d be shocked if it made it this year. Still, this is definitely one to follow as more information and opportunities to play the game come out. At the very least, when it does, considering we played it at ID@Xbox and the Indie Media Connect events, we expect it to launch on the Xbox Series X/S and PC.
by Danreb Victorio
