I feel there aren’t enough mythological inspired or influenced games out there. The last decent mythological game we had, I think, was God of War, and it’s a shame because mythology is a huge subject to delve into. This is part of the reason why I was quite hyped up about Viking: Battle for Asgard; I love mythology and I love battles, so a perfect combination. However, after playing it almost extensively for three days, and completing it, I have walked away from the experience a little confused, or should I say, with mixed thoughts.

Viking: Battle for Asgard sets you up with a nice cinematic introduction briefly explaining what this game is about and Asgard’s current state. It’s an interesting introduction as well, as it follows a classic, artistic storyboard sequence which suits the theme very well. The introduction also shows you why this game is rated 18, as there is gore galore.
To break it down a little, basically, a goddess called Hel has launched an assault on Asgard with some kind of vengeance in mind, her aim is to kill or enslave its entire people. You’re really left in the dark about certain details, and things get revealed to you as you progress through the game. So, Asgard has lost all hope and is faced with the devastation of Hel’s raised army of undead Vikings. But of course, all hope is not lost; Freya, god of war, has been appointed the task of finding a champion, that’s you, to unite the remaining mortals of Asgard and seize back what is rightfully theirs. And, that is the general gist of it. There are the occasional sub story cinematics giving further details about some of the characters, mainly Hel, but that is really how deep it gets, which is disappointing, but you can tell this wasn’t where most of the effort was spent.

Skarin, which is the main character of the game, is the person chosen by Freya to save Asgard from imminent tyranny. Strangely enough, Skarin is the least understandable character in the game, this is because the developers have given him the ‘If I don’t talk then I look good’ kind of attitude, it unfortunately doesn’t work for this game because it really feels like something is missing. It’s either that or they’re trying to give the game a more ‘first person interaction experience, even though it’s a third person game. But like I’ve previously said, this game isn’t about the story.

Gameplay:

When you’re first put in control of your character, Skarin, you may bump into a few control and interface issues. Firstly, the camera control, like many other third person games you control the camera with the right thumb-stick which orientates around your character. There isn’t enough scope in the control of the camera, in other words, it won’t go exactly where you want it to go. When moving it up or down it just seems really ‘loose’ and clumsy, this might take some getting used to. Secondly, the user interface is pretty bog standard; there’s a health bar and a power/mana bar which refills from orbs, which you have to figure out yourself by the way. This is fine, the problem is with navigation. You have a little map in the right hand side of the screen which displays…very little. It will display main objectives and people you can talk to, and these will only come up when you move close to them. So, half the time when you’re told to go somewhere you have no clue where you’re going, as a result, you have to rely on the menu map by pressing ‘select’. This can be quite a chore, but it isn’t the main issue. Within the menu map every quest and sub quest will be shown. Now, you can only move the map around by moving across the quests individually, when you select a quest it opens up all the information in a large box automatically, so potentially you will still have no idea where you’re going. This is definitely a problem when you happen to be behind that black box on the map. There is a way of visiting the menu map less often, this is by setting a way-point marker on the quest you want to attempt, you’ll still be frequently visiting the main menu though to change the pointer’s position, but it does make it a hell of a lot easier.

Pushing the minor quibbles aside, the actual game’s content has some very interesting details mixed with some petty, and in the long run, dissatisfying tasks. There are three islands to explore in the realms of Midgard, each one offering a different visual, and slightly different, gameplay experience. Basically, the further you get the more desolate it becomes. The islands are fairly large, and although the exploration is there, the game is pretty linear throughout. Each island follows a fairly similar sequence of events. You are sent to liberate some camps; you do a random quest for the liberated camp, which usually ends up with you killing some more enemies in another camp, and then you summon a dragon and initiate a large scale battle. Of course, it’s not exactly like this for every island; the odd task may get you to do some sneaking. This is what stops the game becoming very stale.
Amongst the amount of constant fighting, you’ll have to do a few ‘stealth’ like missions, which generally get you to either steal or kill something and then get out alive. You could if you want run through the whole camp, this is possible with an unnecessary amount of blocking but will be very frustrating. These missions are quite predictable and are nothing like ‘Splinter Cell’, but it does provide a nice breath of fresh air to the rest of the game.

The combat is a mixed bag for me, and I suppose it will split the audience as well. It is fairly shallow, and by the end of the second island you’ll be fed up with the same double limb chop and head slice animation. The ‘A’ button is the weak/fast attack, and the ‘X’ attack is the heavy and finishing attack, pressing these together will give you a few useful combos, but there isn’t much more to this. There is also a block, which is ‘LT’, you’ll be using this a lot. On the plus side, the controls are accessible to almost everyone. I’d personally say they’re as easy as Assassins Creed's combat, a little bit more in depth attack wise, although no where near as fluent animation/movement wise. But that’s ok, as the gore more than makes up for this. The game is quite gory, which is quite strange at first as the game looks similar to Fable, you get used to it and it is satisfying to watch, at first. What makes the combat even more satisfying however, is with another two hundred plus guys helping you out.

The battles in this game are impressive to say the least. To give you a picture of how they’re like, think Kameo scale times two, blood and double the carnage and chaos. These battles are the most exciting moments of this game; nothing is more thrilling than having two hundred plus men on top of a hill,with you in front, and then suddenly charging an enemy army encampment. You’ll be seeing quite a few of those in this game, and they’re definitely something to look forward to. On the negative side, these epic battles do come at a technical price. There is noticeable slowdown, whoever tells you otherwise is very much oblivious, or, is too enthralled in what’s going on around them. The slowdown lasts a few seconds, and happens when there are a few too many troops on the screen at any one time. It shouldn’t affect the gameplay experience as it is almost instantaneous in occurrence, but it does happen.

The battles last anything up to thirty minutes; at least they do nearing the end of the game, and appear at the end of each island. Well, the ‘epic’ ones do. There are a few smaller battles, which are also very impressive, and you’ll encounter these through out the game.

You may find yourself rushing the game a little bit so you can get to these battles, the rest of the game can get a tad bit repetitive. The battles themselves could have gotten repetitive if there were anymore than two on each island, they tend to follow the same structure, fortunately, they appear in different environments and there are just enough to satisfy but too little before it gets stale.

Graphics:

As mentioned above, this game looks like a more detailed and slightly gritty version of Fable, which is a good thing. Viking contrasts itself between bright and colourful and dark and gloomy, it’s all very nice to look at.

The environments, when you liberate them and they turn to ‘good’, look gorgeous, and share a lot of eye candy from the Mythological and medieval inspired buildings, to the lush grasslands and rocky mountains. The developers hit the nail on the head for the theme, it suits the game very well.

Also mentioned above, the game displays a fair amount of blood and gore. You won't kill something without either lopping its head off, or hacking at its arm, it’s pretty grim, but no where as detailed as Gears of War. The gore is, I suppose, a thing of preference, it does make the combat more interesting, but you will be seeing a great deal of the same animations. Something else which is perhaps a bit picky, enemy bodies disappear, or should I say disintegrate, upon death. This is technically justifiable, but a shame nonetheless.

Sound:

Sound is a strange one with Viking. It definitely feels unfinished audio wise as there is missing ambiance music. Especially during the start of the game, and when you’re wandering around from point A to B, you’ll experience just... nothingness. This destroys the atmosphere and it shows how much you take it for granted, I’m wondering why the developers had not worked upon and finished this.
This doesn’t just appear within the music, but within sound effects as well. When you bash open doors, pick up items and destroy certain objects, every now and again you won’t hear any sound effects for them. About a fifth of the way through the game, the pace picks up a little and you begin to notice some music.

There are sound effects for all the basics obviously, and all the main battles, events and cut scenes feature full audio, and it’s all fairly good to listen to, it’s just that some of the bits in between that you will notice something missing, maybe it wasn’t included due to money or time constraints, I’ll guess we’ll never know.

Voice acting is all cut and dry, not the worst I've ever heard but certainly not the best. If it was meant to suit the hack and slash and slightly goofy nature of the game, then that’s fine, if not then there maybe some issues. However, you only really listen to the actors generally to find out your next quest, and seeing as Skarin doesn’t have a voice actor we can’t judge him. The cut scene narration on the other hand is very well done, and fits the game and gives the story, or what story there is, some essence.

Longevity:

The longevity of this game is very much dependent on how you look at it. The game will take you an average of 20 hours to complete, 15 if you’re an experienced gamer, that is fairly long for a hack and slash and for the repetitive nature of the game, it is more than sufficient. However, also due to the repetitive nature of the game, there really isn’t any going back to this.
There may be some urgency to go back and cover some of the, quite frankly, pathetic achievements. This is highly unlikely though as you can easily cover these all in one play through. There are two difficulty settings, hard and normal. Once you have mastered the block button and you know how it all pans out, then this isn’t a very hard game, even on hard. So, it’s most likely you’ll only be playing though the game once, this isn’t worth the full retail price of £40, it is probably worth a £30 purchase, and it is definitely worth a ‘three for two’ offer.

Overall:

Viking: Battle for Asgard is a very enjoyable game; it features a very accessible control scheme, graphically rich environments, highly intense battles and an immersive atmosphere. But, like all games it has its issues also. The issues in this game, some of them, cannot be excused as they can affect the full game experience. The issue of unfinished sound effects is quite unacceptable for example. There are also some minor issues with navigation and camera controls, and the events of the game are fairly predictable. Then again, I suppose it depends what you’re looking for in a game which may interest you into buying and playing this. If you’re looking for a hack and slash with a skilled and in depth control scheme, then you’re really not going to find this here, but if you’re looking for a hack and slash adventure, which gives you a little exploration and choice and also lets you take part in epic scale battles, then this might just be the game for you.