At first, I thought, you know, there's really no reason to cut the guy's arm off after you cut off his head.' It's not like you can make him deader. Then I thought, well, there is blood squirting into the air. And that's pretty awesome. You know what else is awesome? Vikings! This game's about Vikings. In fact, it's even called Viking: Battle for Asgard. It was released in 2008 for PC, PlayStation 3 and the Xbox360, which is the one we're playing here. No matter which one you play, though, you’re getting the same hack-and-slash adventure --- the same torso slashing.
For the love of Odin, he was already dead! Listen, I'll be real honest with you. There's no reason this game should be...half as much fun as it is. It's a button-mushy brawler, it's got serious performance issues and in general, it just seems like it's going to bore you to death. The entire game is just walking around, doing these repetitive and completely uneventful missions. And yet somehow, I had a pretty good time doing it. I think part of the reason for that is that sense of 'you against the world,' you know? There's always a larger mission invade the enemy base, that kind of thing. But before you do that, you have to take care of a few things on your own. You might have to find tiny pockets of captured troops, and rescue them. To do that, you might have to sneak into places. Or at least come up with a smart approach, so all these brief and frankly repetitive missions feel meaningful because you’re building toward something much bigger.
You're actually building an army, and that's where the primary missions come into play. Once you're ready, you can lead these massive assaults, complete with awesome battle scenes that are like something out of Middle Earth. So yeah, the combat is really shallow. Beyond learning some new moves, there's just not much to it. But it's placed within a surprisingly effective structure. Moving about this world and taking down enemy encampments you really end up feeling like part of the war. It just feels like you're involved. And because of those slight strategic elements, the gameplay never gets as stale as it should. It is bloody, though. So there's that. Listen, I don't want you think this is some amazing game. Viking has lots of problems. Shallow gameplay, a bad frame rate...on paper, this game should be terrible. But that’s the thing. Despite its issues, I still had fun with it. This game made me feel like a conquering Norseman...and that's awesome. Viking could've been better, but it could've been worse, too.
on the main page
For the love of Odin, he was already dead! Listen, I'll be real honest with you. There's no reason this game should be...half as much fun as it is. It's a button-mushy brawler, it's got serious performance issues and in general, it just seems like it's going to bore you to death. The entire game is just walking around, doing these repetitive and completely uneventful missions. And yet somehow, I had a pretty good time doing it. I think part of the reason for that is that sense of 'you against the world,' you know? There's always a larger mission invade the enemy base, that kind of thing. But before you do that, you have to take care of a few things on your own. You might have to find tiny pockets of captured troops, and rescue them. To do that, you might have to sneak into places. Or at least come up with a smart approach, so all these brief and frankly repetitive missions feel meaningful because you’re building toward something much bigger.
You're actually building an army, and that's where the primary missions come into play. Once you're ready, you can lead these massive assaults, complete with awesome battle scenes that are like something out of Middle Earth. So yeah, the combat is really shallow. Beyond learning some new moves, there's just not much to it. But it's placed within a surprisingly effective structure. Moving about this world and taking down enemy encampments you really end up feeling like part of the war. It just feels like you're involved. And because of those slight strategic elements, the gameplay never gets as stale as it should. It is bloody, though. So there's that. Listen, I don't want you think this is some amazing game. Viking has lots of problems. Shallow gameplay, a bad frame rate...on paper, this game should be terrible. But that’s the thing. Despite its issues, I still had fun with it. This game made me feel like a conquering Norseman...and that's awesome. Viking could've been better, but it could've been worse, too.
on the main page