We - a lonely mouse - find a clearing ahead in the lush, beautiful forest. Surrounded by the towering trees, a pond piques our interest with faded out runes floating high above it. Why are they there? What can we do with them? A conveniently placed fixture is hanging from a tree branch above right into the middle of all those triangles. This can only mean one thing: puzzle time. Welcome to the world of Hela, the debut title of Swedish studio Windup Games, founded by some of the people behind Unravel Two.
A whimsical adventure
Set in an inviting environment inspired by Scandinavian landscapes, you take control of a little tiny mouse that is the familiar of a centuries old witch. She has fallen ill and now needs you – and up to three of your friends – to help her out; not only her but also the other kind people living in this valley. In a stark contrast to many recent games, you literally have all the time in the world to complete these task. There is no apocalypse waiting to happen, no looming evil cackling in the dark; just kind folks waiting patiently for your help, friendly animals to assist you, and a big playground in which to explore and play.
This was a point the developers highlighted during our hands-off demo. “We want the player to play for the sake of playing” said Creative Director Martin Sahlin. This ideology is reflected in your surroundings, which are presented more as opportunities rather than an obstacles. You are encouraged to get lost in them and use environmental storytelling for context. Instead of always pushing towards a goal, you're invited to use your tools and abilities to play and do good deeds.
These tools and abilities are unlocked during the course of play; some come from the witch who gives you access to her magical powers while others are unlocked by talking to and studying friendly animals at special altars placed in the world. An early example is a squirrel that teaches us about double jumping while racing it. Some animals even offer to give you a ride around, like a hare that races through the forest while you hang on for dear life by using the grappling hook (which resembles a frog tongue) on your backpack; and yes, you can do it with all four players at the same time by daisy-chaining your tongues together. It looks as funny as it sounds. Although the open world is not that big, this acts as a fast travel system. If you'd rather take the scenic route, you can also swing on every tree, bounce off of mushrooms, and slide down rocks and hills to quickly and joyfully traverse the landscape. The developers cite Skate, of all titles, as an inspiration for Hela. “Just traversing the world on a skateboard was a huge amount of fun in that game," they said.
A pack of mice
Another unique thing of Hela, besides the emphasis on non-violent open-world exploration, is that you ARE a tiny mouse in a realistically big world. So-called “Rats”-maps are always popular in shooters, but what is just a gimmick there gives you a totally new perspective on things here. Entering the witch's hut, for example, brings a huge sense of mystery and wonder; it doubles as the central location of the game where you advance the main plot/get new quests and also use the stuff you collected on your travels to brew potions.
Exploration has its limits, though, so when you're not traipsing through the environment, there are puzzles both big and small to solve. Movement puzzles, physics puzzles, and the traditional “collect something and bring it over there” puzzles are all part of the affair. Some only give you tiny rewards, others are needed to solve the objectives and move the story forward. This isn't a hardcore puzzle game, however. As with the rest of Hela, the emphasis is on enjoying your time, not banging your head against the wall.
Almost all of the puzzles are designed for co-op play. Two players can team up at any time on the couch in split-screen multiplayer or up to four players over the internet. Combo co-op is also possible as well as cross-platform multiplayer. If you don’t have a full pack of mice available however, you can place "shades." Basically, you do an action, like hanging from a rope, then press a button and a ghostly representation of you appears. Now you can either interact with it by, for example, shooting your grappling hook at the shade, or quickly switch to your shades to do consecutive actions. So, while a huge emphasis of the game is on co-op play, everything can be done solo by placing up to three shades in the world.
Conclusion
We only saw 20 minutes of gameplay during our demo, but what we saw was intriguing and – more importantly – very charming. Even at this early stage, the movement of our character looked fluid and the environments were very “hygge,” as IKEA would advertise. The idea of just exploring and enjoying an inviting world is a welcome departure from the usual “go save the world”-stuff you have to do in most Action-Adventure-titles. Of course, it’s always a plus for us to see them place such a big emphasis on seamless co-op-play with the option of also enjoying it with less than a full party or even alone. All in all, we liked what we saw even if it only was a tiny glimpse (pun intended) and look forward to seeing more of it.
The game is set to release sometime in 2026 for all major platforms (PC, Xbox Series, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2).