Sega has gotten quite a bit correct in this fantasy hack-n-slash title. While there’s a lot of untapped potential scattered throughout Viking, what Sega did get right, they got very right. And they failed, they failed big. At it’s core, Viking: Battle for Asgard has all the elements to draw in the fantasy crowd. Fire-breathing dragons? Check. Large open world? Check. Enough blood to fill the Great Lakes? Double check! Unfortunately the odd design decisions result in a sleep inducer instead of a sleeper hit.
One of the things Viking does do right is the visuals. The game tricks you like a hot girl that can’t spell her own name. You like the eye candy, but once you make the mistake of talking to her, you realize it’s a complete waste of time. And by then, you’ve already screwed up, and she just keeps talking. Yes, it’s just like that. By the time you realize what you’ve gotten into with Viking, the game clings to you and you’re stuck.
Viking has you playing from a third-person perspective, as you wander an expansive open-world. Playing as Skarin, you’ll spend most of your journey alone while exploring three different islands with the focus being on eliminating Hel’s forces. (An evil force named Hel? *slow clap*) The islands are humongous and the game sets you free to explore freely from the beginning. Skarin’s task is to liberate these islands. When you begin, everything is under the direct control of the Legion. Picture yourself as a Viking Luke Skywalker who’s out to battle a fantasy-style empire. And just like in every other heroic game, it’s your job to free all the Vikings who were captured before you. Once freed, the rescued warriors will come back to help you in a series of epic sized battles which occur once or twice on each island. As you rescue each captive, they’ll usually provide you with a task that involves eliminating more Legion troops or helping finish the captive’s original task. On rare occasions, the rescued individual will actually help you right away. The quests you’ll be sent on are nothing worth writing home about, but they do break up the monotony of hacking and slashing all the live-long day. The epic-scale battles that occur on each island are done very well with numbers on screen that would rival a battle scene from Braveheart, but still something is missing.
The combat itself doesn’t ever really pull you in, at least not right away. After a short amount of time, you’ll begin to realize that this game might as well be called Golden Axe: Viking. That’s because Skarin’s best used attack is the very simple 1-2-3-4 attack. Add in the occasional use of the shoulder ramming, and you have the dwarf from Golden Axe on roids. Your heroic Viking can learn additional attacks and moves as the game drags on, but outside of the learning to counter-attack with your weapon, they’re all pretty useless. It isn’t until you get to the last third of the game that any really challenge is put before you anyways.
As I mentioned - visually, Viking looks amazing. If the game was to be judged on looks alone, it would get at least a nine. And honestly, I can’t help but think developer Creative Assembly spent a little too much time on making the game look good. If God designed us the same way, we’d have a planet full of nothing but super models who constantly walked into traffic and off of cliffs. The point being, the great looks only get you so far.
The sound in Battle for Asgard didn’t show up to work due to a family issue I guess. The sound of the game is severely lacking. I never realized how important the sound of a game was until it wasn’t there. It does explain why I can never be impressed by early builds of titles without sound though. Viking as a whole feels just like an early build designed to impress at a trade show. It’s got the glitz and looks, but the sound isn’t there. While taking part in the huge battles that end each island, you feel like someone turned the volume down. War is louder than Viking thinks I guess. And due to this, the game can’t draw you in. In fact, it actually pushes you away.
Overall, Viking Battle for Asgard isn’t a bad game. It just doesn’t feel finished. It’s like a sweet new car that someone put wax on, but forgot to buff out. So instead of shining, it’s just all streaky and dull. The visuals will pull you in, but the monotonous gameplay and unoriginal concepts combined with phoned-in sound leaves this game stuck in the waters with no wind in it’s sails instead of conquering the new world as Sega has hoped.
+ The controls are responsive and do their job well.
Comments (11)
