14 DAY TRIAL // 
Helvetii is a pretty standard roguelike side scroller that draws its inspiration from the Gallic Celtic mythology. After spending a couple of hours with the game, I can definitely say that its story is not why you’ll be playing Helvetii.
The only details we’re offered about what’s happening in the game are conveyed through the cutscene right before the start. You also get a few tidbits after beating the last boss, so it’s safe to say that Helvetii is pretty light on the story.
To sum it all up, a young chief of a Helvetii tribe is manipulated by a mysterious deity who offers him immense power with a single condition: to use it. Torn between his love for the country and the hate for the Roman legion that is trying to conquer the region, Divico decided to make a pact with an evil power and eventually manages to subjugate the Romans.
Unfortunately, his victory was short lived because the pack turns into a curse and starts spreading a rot the corrupts his land, along with his mind and heart. Meanwhile, monsters and cultists start roaming the region killing the innocents.
Three heroes rise to the challenge of getting rid of the monsters and putting a stop to the curse that engulfed Helvetii’s lands: druid Nammeios, half-beast Renart, and Divico himself. These are the three characters that you’ll be able to play throughout your journey. Every time you start a new run, you get to choose one of the three characters, but you can’t switch between them during a run.
The game is split into multiple acts with a boss at the end. If you die, it’s game over and you must start a new run. Since this is a roguelike, you’ll lose everything that you acquired during the previous run. The good news is you don’t get much that would make a difference in future runs. Sometimes enemies drop chests that contain gold, HP or mana, and you also might get to unlock some moves like double jump.
Gold is quite useful since it allows you to purchase items that increase your HP, attack or mana pool, but you can also buy food to replenish your health if you need it, and keys for locked chests. There are no potions in the game, so the only way to heal is through drops from enemies or buying healing from the owl merchant that moves shop throughout the levels.
There are no NPCs beside the merchant and the dialog is pretty basic, a sign that the game’s budget was pretty thin. Each act is designed as a series of arenas where you must defeat all enemies to move on. It’s a bit disappointing, but exploration isn’t encouraged at all due to how these levels are designed.
Every time you start a new run, you already know where the bosses are and how to reach them. The only thing that changes are the number and type of enemies that might attack you throughout the level. Speaking of which, each act has two or three types of new enemies, but that’s certainly enough because levels are pretty short.
Each character in the game plays very differently: Divico is the melee class, Renart focuses on parrying enemy attacks, while Nammeios is the wizard who’s supposed to throw magic at the enemy. Obviously, each hero has strengths and weaknesses, but they’re mostly there to provide players with multiple options when it comes to playstyle. I tried them all and found my favorite after several runs.
One thing that’s persistent between runs is Sigils, which can be unlocked with the currency you gain after finishing a run. There are several the upgrades that cost various amounts of “Sigils” to unlock, but they will offer your characters more health, higher attack and other improvements, at the start of each run.
These really make a difference, but you’ll have to play a lot to actually manage to unlock many of them. The problem is Helvetii is not that long to warrant so many runs, but if you’re not that good at action-adventure side scrollers, this will help you a lot.
The entire combat system of the game is based on combos. The longer you manage to sustain a combo, the higher the rating you’ll get after the fight is over. At the end of the run, you’ll be rewarded with more Sigils if you scored higher, so mastering the acrobatic combos will not just make fights trivial, but will also reward you with more Sigils, the important currency used to unlock permanent upgrades for your characters.
Depending on what character you choose to play with, you might find that not just regular enemies, but also bosses can be locked into combos and killed very fast, despite being really spongy. It doesn’t always work and sometimes you can’t maintain the combo for too long, but it’s a strategy that makes boss fights much easier. It’s a bit weird because the boss design is pretty decent, despite their attacks being telegraphed.
Visually, Helvetii looks decent enough for an indie game, but the soundtrack doesn’t quite hit the mark. In fact, this is probably its strongest point, which is both good and bad.
The Good
- Solid combat, tight controls
- Boss design and movesets
- Nice visuals
The Bad
- Roguelike mechanics are very basic
- Very thin on story
- Too short
- Disappointing level design
Conclusion
Because levels are short and almost the same every run, repetitiveness will become a leitmotiv after a few hours. On the bright side, it only takes 2-3 hours to finish Helvetii, so many won’t have time to experience the repetitiveness that’s waiting just around the corner.
As a whole, Helvetii is an uneven product. The game’s nice visuals and solid combat are way above everything else. Roguelike fans will probably get something out of it, but my advice is to try and beat it fast and move on to another title.
Review key provided by the publisher.
