Einar
Released Jul 2017
The player takes on the role of Einar, who is on a quest to kill the inhabitants of a Norse fishing village who are infected by a mysterious material. Use different weapons such as the bow, hammer and axe to clear the village of the monsters.
61% positive · 1,424 reviews
Done
All announced content has been released
High confidence
Done
All announced content has been released
High confidence
Where to get it
Free on Steam
Evaluation
Einar is a free-to-play, single-player hack-and-slash game developed by approximately 40 students at NHTV University of Applied Sciences in Breda, Netherlands, as part of a university coursework project. It launched on July 20, 2017. Three days after release, on July 23, 2017, the team shipped a small update adding Nvidia Ansel screenshot support and minor bug fixes. In that same post, the developers explicitly clarified that this is a student project released for free after their academic year concluded — not a commercial game with ongoing development plans. There have been no developer communications of any kind since July 23, 2017. The game was designed and built as a finite academic exercise, and the development team has never indicated any intention to add further content beyond what shipped at launch. The game is complete as delivered.
Evidence
Developers clarified that Einar is a student university project released for free after the academic year ended, not a commercial game with ongoing development plans. This is the last communication from the team.
Store description confirms the game was developed by ~40 students over one academic year with a goal of creating 'a short but beautiful and engaging game' — framed as a self-contained project, not an ongoing service.
Media
Details
Developer
Publisher
DreamPunks
Achievements
—
Platform
Windows
Controller
full support
Steam Deck
Not rated
Players
Single-player
About this game
Summary
Einar is a single-player 3rd person hack and slash based on Norse mythology. The player takes on the role of Einar, who is on a quest to kill the inhabitants of a Norse fishing village who are infected by a mysterious material. Use different weapons such as the bow, hammer and axe to clear the village of the monsters.Features
- Intense combat featuring three different weapon and enemy types.
- Beautiful environments and lighting inspired by real-life landscapes.
- Complex AI which groups and attacks the player from unexpected angles.
- AAA-quality graphics and gameplay.
Music
Beautiful Soundtrack and Audio created in collaboration with Moana Production.About
DreamPunks is game development studio from Breda, The Netherlands.
Einar was developed by a group of 40 students of the NHTV University of Applied Sciences in Breda, the Netherlands. During the course of one academic year, a group of developing artists, programmers and designers worked on the game with a single vision: making a short but beautiful and engaging game of AAA-quality.
Are these done yet?
Last evaluated Jun 27, 2026
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