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Middle of the Road Hack and Slash Title

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 24 / 32
Date: March 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Since no one's reviewed this one yet, I thought I would give you guys a rundown of the basic gameplay to help you decide whether or not to buy Viking: Battle for Asgard

Basically you start off as a viking warrior tasked with defeating the evil hordes threatening your villages. Its more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it. To defeat these evil armies, you have to accomplish a series of small tasks, in whatever order you choose, in order to then complete the larger tasks.

For instance, you might have a problem like "the evil legions of Hel have taken over the old fort. raise an army and drive them out" and to accomplish that you'd need to kick the bad guys out of a farm so the guys in your army have enough to eat, free a group of vikings being held prisoner in an old mine so you'll have enough troops, and find a special key to open the gate to the fort

So you can do all that in any order you want, finding gold, killing bad guys and freeing small groups of prisoners on the way. You can spend your gold on better weapons, magical runes, healing potions, etc. You use the runes to integrate fire, ice, or whatever into your regular attacks. For instance, a fire rune gives you a burning sword for a certain amount of time

Once the little tasks are done, you summon your army of Vikings and go have a big battle with the bad guys at the larger objective. Assuming you win, you can then wander around and talk to NPCs to find out information and get new tasks and quests

I played this for about 4 hours yesterday and thought it was ok. There's only about 4 or 5 enemy types, and they break down into: soldier, big soldier, soldier with shield, soldier with bow, or assassin. All of those except the assassin are basically the same thing and you just have to hit them more or less times to kill them

Speaking of hitting people, you use the A button to attack with your sword, which is a fast attack, and hit X to use your axe for a slower but stronger attack. You combine those two buttons and the left trigger and bumper to make various combo attacks. Its all very simple and intuitive, and probably something you've seen a million times before

There's a token stealth feature, where you can sneak up on a guy and kill him with one shot, but since you usually find enemies in groups of 5-12 and once you kill the first one the others catch on that you're there, it doesn't really do you alot of good to sneak up on them.

The main appeal of this game to the casual gamer are the slow motion and extremely graphic kill shots when you do combo moves. Chopping people's heads off, cutting them in half, holding them down and stabbing them in the eye, cutting their arms off, etc. Plenty of gore and brutality for the teenagers to enjoy

For the older gamer, or maybe just people who don't love gore, there's not alot here to hold your interest after 3 or 4 hours. Its basically just running from quest to quest, buying supplies, and cutting the bad guy's limbs off, assuming no drastically new ideas are introduced farther into the game than i am now

So as of right now I'd have to call this one a rental, unless you just really love Vikings. Hope that helps you guys make a decision

A Hack and Slash/Fantasy Action Adventure Gem

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: March 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

J. Hornbuckle's review compelled me to write my own take here (i.e. he didn't even get to the first dragon summon before he wrote it, which means he didn't even get to the first major battle).

And before I get to my review, I have to highlight this line from his:

"Plenty of gore and brutality for the teenagers to enjoy"

I read that and I just had to write this counter-review. How is that kind of viewpoint helpful in deciding to buy a game like Viking? So here's a review from a 32 yr old metalhead who is into bloody, slow motion limb chopping in video games:

Gameplay: There are 20 or so different moves, and there is a strategy for each enemy type- so you aren't just rushing in and mashing buttons. If a Legion soldier has a wooden shield, for example, you use the shield crusher (hold LB + tap X twice) to splinter his shield first. The highlight of the gameplay for me is the counterattack- hold LT and hit Y to dash backwards- then hit A right when the enemy strike goes by. The timing for this move is excuisite- enemies will time their strikes differently in anticipation of your counter, so you have to watch to time it correctly (sometimes enemies will delay their attack til the last possible moment, making it impossible to counter!).

There are QTEs to kill Legion Giants and Champions. I think they are implemented fairly well (QTEs normally bother me).

This is an open world game, so you're able to pretty much go where you want and complete objectives in almost any order.

Visuals: A feast. There is a wide variety of landscapes and weather/atmosphere. Honestly this game has my jaw dropping as much as any game on the 360. There are some truly epic vistas that will have you stopping to admire the ridiculous draw distance and amazing environments. The artistry and design is top notch.

Sound: A mixed bag. Most sounds are fine, but the voice acting is weak and there are a few really bad sound effects (the rope ladder sound is possibly the worst sound effect ever). The music is typical and used sporadically, but I turned it off and streamed viking metal from my PC (Theudho, Valkyria, Moonsorrow etc make a perfect soundtrack).

Length and replayability: I think I'm close to the end, and I've been playing for around 20 or so hours. I'm going to play through it again on hard difficulty as soon as I beat it- the gameplay is fun and varied enough to keep you coming back.

Large scale battles: When you build up your Viking army enough and complete certain objectives, you can launch an assault on Legion controlled settlements- the battles are huge, with hundreds of participants (sometimes you can't see the ground anywhere into the distance, there are so many guys onscreen- you can even lose sight of which one is you). This aspect of the game is intense and epic, and a hell of a lot of fun. And there are dragons.

The graphics are phenomenal but I would say the strongpoint is the gameplay, it's really well done and a lot of fun to play. I would probably only recommend Viking as a definite purchase if you're into fantasy hack and slash games- it's not a genre crossover hit. But if you like this kind of game, you're going to remember this one for a long time.

typical

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 04, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Nothing about this game sets itself aside of being different than any other medevil hack and slash game. The game is very short, I beat it in 1 day and that's with doing everything and getting all the acheivements. If this is your type of game it's worth picking up if you find it cheap; definately not worth paying over $15 or $20.

Fun Game ...But not perfect

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: April 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Viking was one of the games I'v been waiting for for a long time ... and it's finally available .. but I have to be honest I was disappointed by the game play at First ,as the game fight system is weak and Shallow compared to other big games (ninja gaiden) But the game really start to shine in the big HUGE battle at the end of each island .
Graphically the game is bellow the average .
This game is not just Hack n' Slash game but you have to do some quest and side quest before each battle ... There are 3 Huge islands waiting for you to explore .

If you like hack n' slash games you really have to Buy this game and even if you are not a fan of this genre you have to give it a try

A little underrated..

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: April 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is not an oblivion type game dont go into this game with that approach.Its very different and takes much less time to master. A lot of people said this game was a little difficult. To me after you kill about 50 guys you have about played as hard as the game is going to get. The game is easy but not too easy but does present challenges at some points though. Enemies in groups of about 2-6 are really easy but if you go into a area with around 20 or so it will be a lot more challenging. The games quest ideas are good and a break from the ordinary. With that said this is a good game to buy if you like hack and slash type games are just beautiful amounts of gore. The game runs around 10-15 hours which is a little long for this game i think it would have been better if they would have kicked about 3 hours of useless gameplay out.
overalls:
gameplay 7.5
graphics 8.5
sound 10.0
ai 7.0
overall 8.0-9.0

WONDERFUL...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: April 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

i love this game it is really war style . you have to build an army and do some side quests to win big battles and the fighting system is fantastic and strategic and the peak of the game is when you are in a big battle so if you liked spartan total warrior from the same studio you sure gonna like this one dude

Noobs beware!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 8
Date: March 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is a difficult hack n slash game. it requires skill and certain blocking at certain times then striking at certain times. you also have the option of mastering new killer moves and power-ups. when fighting swarms of enemies you will get crushed if your a noob who does not like good hard challenges.

Abominably stupid.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 7
Date: April 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is by far the most idiotic game I have played in recent years, though playing it is really a misnomer as you really have no control of anything, even you character movements. Everything in the game is pre-ordained by the programmers, even the buttons pressed to defeat certain enemies. What challenge it does offer is through the sheer numbers of opponents who are really little more than damage sponges.

Classic game, where's the sequel???

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: May 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I'm very impressed with the game, because if you looking for a hack and slash game with a lot of gore then this is the game for you. Even though I feel there should be other weapons you can get or maybe different body armor it's still a good game. I might be more than half way done with the game but so far its gets kind of boring on the side mission but the battles themselves are worth waiting for and get larger the further you get through the game. I will hopefully beat it soon and I am definitely hoping for a sequel of some type.

Fun hack and slash with little substance

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The game is very short. Only 3 maps, which have several missions on each. I played the first two maps and got bored with the game. It is graphically beautiful and the combat is very fun and gory, but a bit repetitive. If you want some easy XBOX360 achievements, then I highly recommend it.

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