Pirates, zombies and ninjas have all had their time and place in video games for quite a while now, but if there’s one class of character that continually gets the cold shoulder when it comes to starring roles, it’s Vikings. SEGA and developer The Creative Assembly of Total War fame have decided to buck the trend and bring the brutal Norse warriors and their intricate mythology to the next generation with their latest title Viking: Battle for Asgard.
The game revolves around Skarin, a warrior of Midgard who has returned from his apparent demise to become the harbinger of the goddess Freya as she battles with Hel, the Queen of the Underworld and daughter of the mischievous god Loki. Hel, banished from Asgard by Odin, seeks her revenge on Midgard and all who dwell within it by bringing about Ragnarok, the Norse mythological version of the Apocalypse. As Skarin sets off on his quest to stop Hel and her Harbinger, Drakan, he must raise an army great enough to stop her forces that have started to plague the land, a mass of undead Vikings rejected from Valhalla called the Legion.
Fighting and running is the heart of the gameplay and that’s what you will spend most of your time doing. You have two main attacks to start with, but with the help of a trainer and a battle arena, new moves can be purchased and learned. As the game continues, the option to buy ranged weapons such as flame pots and battle axes is offered, with the latter being quite effective for one hit kills from a distance. Skarin also has weapon runes that he can use, which allow him to attack with elemental damage, such as the torching of enemies in a ball of fire or turning them to a block of ice when struck. Skarin’s attacks are deadly and blood-filled; as you will constantly be lopping off heads and limbs; the game often slowing down to show a cinematic display of your fury.
There are three islands that you will visit through the course of the game and ultimately liberate and although they do get more complex as the game goes on, each one plays out the same way and have the same basic overall goals. For each of the three lands, you will need to free pockets of soldiers that have been captured by Legion forces as well as sections of land used by villagers such as distilleries, watch towers, mills and quarries. Once you have reached the destinations on your map, how you approach the battle is up to you. When enemies are near, Skarin will crouch when he hasn’t been spotted and will pull out his trusty sword and axe when enemies notice him hulking through the grass.
Running from one side of the map to the other when you first arrive to a new land is not unheard of but thankfully once you discover the Leystones scattered across the world, you can travel far distances in the blink of an eye. Running all over Odin’s green Earth looking for the Leystones and reaching your objectives wouldn’t be so bad if there had been a run button included in the controls. Having to jog at a leisurely pace everywhere you go can get overly tedious, not to mention severely frustrating when trying to out run a swarm of Legion and Skarin doesn’t want to move faster than a slow trot while getting swords plunged into his back.
Everything you are asked to do, from rescuing soldiers to saving farms and settlements, prepares you and your men for the large scale battle of each area. When you have accomplished the set out requirements for each major city, you will gather your massive army together for an all out war. Once the large scale battles start, the game does start to pick up the pace. It is quite impressive watching your army march towards the city with dragons soaring overhead, but soon enough; the battles suffer the same tedious and repetitive action as the rest of the game. The dragons, as awesome as they are, are severely under used and require you to have a token to use them to attack a target. To get the tokens, you can attack the larger Legion warriors, the champions or giants, or simply attack the target you would have had the dragons attack, in turn making them pointless.
The battles themselves bring other games like Ninety-Nine Nights and Dynasty Warriors to mind where there are an immense number of allies and foes all clamoring to get a piece of each other. Unlike those other games however, the frame-rates dip quite frequently throughout the fight and when you charge up your fellow soldiers with your weapon rune, the effects make the frame-rates drop exponentially. If you die in these large battles, there’s no real penalty or fear, until later on in the game, as your Shaman will revive you immediately and you will need to fight your way through the swarms of enemies to get to your goal once again.
