DLC REVIEW: ‘Nobody Saves The World: Frozen Hearth’ Is Challenge Levels at Its Prime (XSX)

When I originally reviewed Nobody Saves The World, I mentioned that its developer, Drinkbox Studios, is one of my favorite indie developers. From their unique art style to the hundreds of clever easter eggs to their inventive game design, each new release has always brought me joy in its own way. However, what I’ve loved most about Drinkbox Studios is how their DLCs take their interesting game design and push players to their limits. Guacamelee! 1 and 2 both received challenge-level DLCs, and Nobody Saves The World got its own pack. So how does “Frozen Hearth” fare compared to past Drinkbox challenge levels?

As a quick refresher, in Nobody Saves The World, you play as Nobody. Nobody has the ability to take on forms thanks to an all-powerful wand left behind by a wizard. Each form comes with four unique abilities and passives which, as you go on your journey, can be put onto any other form. As an example, your first form is a rat that can bite and poison people. By the end game, that same rat can fire arrows, breathe fire, and pull rabbits out of a hat while turning everything around it into zombies.

“Frozen Hearth” takes Nobody to the frozen North. With no real continuity or story, this DLC is just a new sub-area. As Nobody arrives at this massive fiery coliseum, players are challenged to complete specific rooms, win medals, and try to become the champion.

Compared to Guacamelee!‘s DLC, the difficulty here isn’t as bad. Sure, I felt like some of the levels were difficult, but none of them felt like they pushed me to the same level its predecessors have in the past. That’s not exactly a complaint. Some levels in previous Drinkbox DLCs were ridiculously hard, some of which required near pixel-perfect movements to get the gold. Here though, there’s less of a focus on being perfect and more on finding what combinations work best.

Building on the original game, the challenges take the end-game dungeon’s difficulties to the next level. But what makes this one shine is the settings that are made to really push your creativity. For instance, one of the levels requires players to hit a boss as fast as possible. You need to weigh which form has the fastest attack, has the best way to regenerate mana, which attack can actually attack the fastest, and the best way to stay alive. That’s a lot for a quick 30-second challenge.

But the beauty of it is that once you find the winning combination, you really win. It’s not like, “oh, I’m close; I just need to do what I did last round but better.” Once the perfect combination is set, you blow past the goal. There are exceptions to this, though. Some challenges rely more on skill, like a race level where you have to break all the crystals in 25 seconds or less.

What surprised me the most was how much more I relied on the non-form-focused passive abilities this time around. I exclusively used the form-obtained passives in the base game as they all gave the best benefits. However, I found so much solace in using the other passives here. That speaks to the root of why I love challenge DLCs. They push me to use just about everything at my disposal to make it through.

Challenge rooms aren’t the only new additions to Nobody Saves The World. “Frozen Hearth” also brings along two very unique forms, the Mechanic and the Killer Bee. While I haven’t had too much time with the Killer Bee, I’ve played a lot with the Mechanic, and it feels right at home. Imagine Torbjorn or the Engineer from Overwatch and Team Fortress 2. That’s the Mechanic. It builds on the other forms that are all about creating and maintaining minions. This time though, it’s a massive turret.

The Mechanic really gave me advanced Magician feels. Instead of a massive wave of rabbits and tigers, it’s giant turrets. Similarly to other forms, it just gets so absurd and fun when you equip the right passives that just let you have a literal war crime of turrets to blast enemies away. When I spoke to the developers before, they mentioned they had a lot of ideas for forms, and many were on the cutting room floor. But if this is the quality they’re adding to the game given more time; I can’t wait to see what’s next.

As a final note, be sure not to sleep on the extra quest you get for beating the DLC. It’s the most unique quest I’ve experienced in “Frozen Hearth,” and I have a feeling many players may miss it altogether.

Nobody Saves The World’s “Frozen Hearth” DLC ups the absurdity to a new level. It adds one of my favorite parts of a Drinkbox game—the challenge rooms—with new clever restrictions and missions. While it’s not as difficult as past challenge rooms, each one finds a way to make you think more outside the box using the zany toolbox from the base game while also throwing in some wilder tools into the mix which feel right at home with the 20+ roster of forms. Overall, “Frozen Hearth” adds an extra hour or two of fun to an already entertaining package.

Nobody Saves The World‘s “Frozen Hearth” DLC is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.