Viking: Battle for Asgard

I did think Viking: Battle For Asgard reminded me of Spartan: Total Warrior on the Gamecube. I only have very vague memories of it but I remember it to be a fun hack and slash with some large scale battles. This is by the same developers so is basically the same series although unrelated in terms of story. Freya's dialogue reminds me of the narration from Lord of the Rings. Some of the music, scenery and the large battles also evoke scenes from the movies.

The initial gameplay was a bit weird, you are instructed to fight 1 enemy, sneak up on a few others, then battle about 25 at once! It made me feel a bit lost at first because I wasn’t convinced that was the correct place to be. Objectives are marked on the map, and more are added when you conquer the landmarks. Once you learn the game structure, then your objectives become more predictable and obvious.

The game is split across 3 maps and sees you rescuing Vikings, and taking strategic locations to be able to take the enemies' forts. Each map has similar objectives, so there will be a few clusters of enemies with Vikings to rescue, a cave, a tower, buildings such as a mill, quarry, fort etc and a dragon stone to acquire. Across the map are Laystones which are fast-travel points. Some seem to be positioned a bit awkwardly like the one right at the beginning of the game where you have to drop down a ledge to access the shop, then it’s very awkward to get back up.

There’s a day and night but it doesn’t use a standard day/night cycle. Instead, it depends whether that region is free of evil so it is night when not liberated, light skies when liberated. Therefore you play the majority of the game at night. Your character has a lightsource which helps in the darker areas.

Your character crouches automatically when near enemies, and if you remain undetected, you can perform stealth kills. There are some dedicated stealth missions, and some areas where stealth makes the game much easier because you can be swarmed once enemies are alerted. There are some enemies with a horn that you need to take out quickly because these alert enemies (and I assumed spawn a few more in for good measure).

Your Viking clan will rehome many times as you progress and conquer new cities. You can spend your money here: Blacksmith for magic runes, item shop for some consumables, health upgrades and treasure map (a separate one for coin bags, urns, and chests). I often think being rewarded for observation and exploration makes games fun, so it's a bit weird having a cheap item to show them on your radar. Treasures can be often awkwardly positioned by objects and elevation so sometimes it's hard to spot them when you are in the area anyway.

You can also use your coins in the Arena to buy new combat moves. There can be a long time before you find the arena when moving to a new map, so you can be stuck with a sub-par move list.

There is a light and strong attack with a few combos. There's also a stronger special attack; the faster one is good for the assassin enemies, and the strong attacks are good against shielded enemies. When the enemy's health is depleted, you can execute them. Executing enemies triggers a brutal finish with decapitations, which rewards you with drops of health and magic orbs. If you fail to execute them then they drop dead but without bonus. Quick time events are used to finish off bosses or the strongest enemies like trolls.

If you have purchased a rune, then you have access to Electric, Ice and Fire attacks. This consumes your magic metre. Once triggered, I didn’t see a way of cancelling out, but collecting more magic prolongs your attack, so there’s scope for chaining kills. The magic metre is there from the start even if you haven't bought a rune to actually use it. I didn't find the rune shop for a while (it's in the starting town but I just overlooked it).

There’s also throwing axes and fire potions, but it's easy to forget about these options.

If you die, you are returned to your camp. I think all gold remains picked up, but the current mission is reset so all enemies are spawned back in.

There's a bit of platforming (jumping, shimmying, climbing) but sometimes there's large gameplay sequences where you don't perform any. So when it is utilised again, it seems a bit awkward and tacked on. Early on in the game, your objective is to climb a ruin, but there is only 1 instance prior to that where you need to jump. When I was led up a ramp, then saw a small beam with a platform above, I thought you'd have to jump to it then climb up. However, you are supposed to climb the vines. It can be difficult to spot these, especially when the game switches them out for other objects like netting. Again, it’s a rarely used mechanic which means you can forget to keep your eye out for its use.

At certain points you can trigger a battle like an ambush or to take the enemy's city. This then becomes more like Dynasty Warriors where you are hacking away through hundreds of enemies. Enemies and allies seem to be constantly spawning in, and you have to usually take down a few Shamans who are spawning in the enemies. Working your way through the horde is a challenge in itself. To take down Shamans, you take down 5 magic pillars that surround them, then they are a one-hit kill. Later on there will be trolls and other tougher enemies in your way. This is usually a few phase process, so after taking on 2 Shamans, then you may have to take on another 2 or 3. You don't even need to take down every target yourself, because you can summon the dragon to instantly wipe them out. In these battles, if you die, you simply respawn and can just run back to where you were, so it’s not too frustrating. The final stage in this process is to take the portal. Here you can summon Freya and defend her whilst she works her magic.

Many actions (Use laystone, treasure chest, pull lever, free prisoners) require you to repeatedly tap B to use which is weird. I think it seems awkward because the animation takes a while to start up so you start hammering before your character moves into position and starts using his strength. Gameplay wise I don't mind it because there's plenty of situations where you can be attacked so taking a while to free the prisoners can be a risk/reward action.

I’m not sure what is up with the audio - I had it on max in game, then had to increase the volume on my TV a few levels, then it still often sounded quiet. There's a few areas where I felt the audio needed more oomph, maybe a flourish to the music when you defeat a boss/strong enemy.

I thought the environment is a bit barren in places, sometimes having long stretches with nothing interesting to do. The final map is particularly bad for that. The game started to feel tedious by that point, although it does increase difficulty at that point; that does make the game drag even more when you have to replay sections.

The graphics are a bit dated, looking a bit dull for modern standards. There was a small amount of slowdown in places, and there’s the usual complaints from the PC community with the fact it is locked at 30FPS.

At around 15 hours, it felt a bit on the long side and could have been trimmed down on the final map because it just felt a bit unfinished; like they were meant to add a few more missions in there, but just ended up having long stretches of walking. It has its flaws, and is a bit dated, but I did enjoy it overall.