Apsulov: End of Gods

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Norse myth meets a steel research facility, and something old wakes in the dark.

Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Stores: Steam, GOG
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (87% of 1,717 reviews); Metacritic 71 (PC, 5 critics); 4.05 of 5 on the PlayStation Store (195 ratings)
Length: about 5 hours
Players: 1
Made by: Angry Demon Studio
Released: 2019

On GOG: one of the GOG horror games.

No. 24 of the cave horror games · No. 20 of the robot horror games · No. 13 of the underworld horror games

Get it on Steam GOG PlayStation Store (PS4, PS5)Xbox (One, Series X|S)Nintendo eShop

What frightens You wake strapped to a chair in a research facility built to exploit the realms of Yggdrasil, where something dug up from the earth has wrecked everything. Much of it is pitch dark, and creatures from the nine realms roam the halls and the other worlds.
Content: gore and blood, violence, strong language, flashing lights, very dark sections.

Apsulov: End of Gods is a first-person horror adventure by Angry Demon Studio that sets Norse mythology in a science-fiction future. You wake in a facility built to exploit the worlds of Yggdrasil and must sneak, fight and solve your way through it and the realms beyond, with a vision power to light the dark and a mechanical hand that drains the machines' energy.

About Apsulov: End of Gods

Apsulov: End of Gods is a first-person horror adventure from Angry Demon Studio, released on Steam in August 2019, then on PlayStation 4 and 5 and Switch in 2021 and on Xbox One and Series X|S in September 2021. Its makers call it future viking horror: the gods and realms of Norse myth meet steel, concrete and machines.

You wake in a sanctuary dug deep under the earth to study and exploit the nine worlds of Yggdrasil, and to hold an artifact buried there long ago. Humans went looking for the mercy of the gods and found something that was never meant to reach the surface. TheSixthAxis sums the story up as a Norse take on Doom 3 or Dead Space: scientists dig too far and set loose an apocalypse, but the enemies come out of the realms around the World Tree, whose roots creep through the levels.

The opening has you strapped to a chair while a robot operates on you. You soon gain the Sight, a vision mode that lights up pitch-black rooms and reveals hidden codes but runs out and must recharge, and a prosthetic hand, the Jarngreipr, that absorbs and redirects the energy powering the facility's machines. Play mixes stealth, some combat and environmental puzzles. When you die you wake in a strange afterlife realm and must find two orbs to open a way back while something hunts you.

The store warns of gore, flashing lights and strong language, and the console stores carry an ESRB Mature rating for blood and gore, intense violence and strong language. There are difficulty settings, rebindable keys and an option to reduce head bobbing.

Critics liked the setting and the atmosphere more than the play: the Metacritic score for PC is 71 and TheSixthAxis gave it 7 out of 10, praising the Norse sci-fi mix while calling it very dark and a few sections annoying. It suits players who want a single-player horror story of about five hours with a setting they have not seen before: runes, a world tree and old gods in place of space stations.

How to play Apsulov: End of Gods

Buy it on Steam or GOG for Windows, or on the PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo store.
Pick a difficulty setting and turn on reduced head bobbing or rebind the controls if you need to.
Explore the facility in first person and follow the story of what was dug up.
Use the Sight to see in the dark and find hidden codes, then wait for it to recharge.
Use the Jarngreipr hand to drain and redirect the energy of machines, open the way and fight back with a charged shot.
If you die, find the two orbs in the afterlife realm to open the portal back, or reload your last save.

Screenshots

A dark round chamber where a robotic arm hangs over a rune-carved stone, watched by four giant stone faces with glowing orange eyes

First-person view of the green-glowing mechanical gauntlet as a pale creature with glowing yellow eyes crawls toward the player down a dark corridor

A tattooed hand sets a golden orb into a serpent-headed altar of glowing purple runes in a cave

Close-up of a scarred, bearded man with one glowing cyan eye, holding up three fingers beside a blue rune-lit horned device

Snowy ruins of carved Norse stone slabs, steps and icy broken arches under a misty teal sky

An antlered mechanical figure holding a green flame hangs from a machine in a cave, above a purple rune pedestal on a bloody grate floor

A giant biomechanical statue with glowing green eyes and runes looms out of the fog over a dark, bloodstained industrial hall

Tips

Save the Sight for rooms you cannot read at all: it is limited and runs out at bad moments.
Look for numbers the Sight reveals when a door asks for a code.
Sneak where you can; enemies are few in kind and the combat is a small part of the game.
Raise the brightness or lower the difficulty if the pitch-black caves get too tiring.
Expect gore and flashing lights; the store warns of both.

Questions

How long is Apsulov: End of Gods?

About five hours for the main story, by HowLongToBeat's figure as shown on Deku Deals, and about eight and a half hours to complete everything.

What platforms is Apsulov: End of Gods on?

Windows PC on Steam and GOG, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. It is single-player only.

Is Apsulov: End of Gods gory?

Yes. The store says it contains gore, blood and disturbing imagery, flashing lights and strong language, and it is rated ESRB Mature and PEGI 16.

Can you fight in Apsulov: End of Gods?

Some. Your mechanical hand, the Jarngreipr, can fire a charged shot, but reviews describe the game as mostly exploring, sneaking and solving puzzles, with combat a smaller part.

What is Apsulov: End of Gods about?

A future in which humans dug up an artifact tied to the Norse gods in a facility built to exploit the realms of Yggdrasil, and you wake in the aftermath.