Viking : Battle for Asgard

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Game Information

Developed by The Creative Assembly
Published by Sega
Platform : PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360
Genre : Action & Adventure, Fighting, RPG
Age Rating : 18+
Players : Single Player
Additional Contents Provided : None
Release date - Xbox 360 & Playstation 3 : (NA) March 25 2008, (AUS) March 27 2008, (EU) March 28 2008

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Synopsis

Legendary warrior Skarin faces his biggest challenge yet in the Norse realm of Asgard: prevent an apocalypse by defeating an undead army led by a banished goddess. Viewed from a third-person perspective, Viking: Battle for Asgard casts players in the role of the sword-swinging Skarin as he fiercely hacks and slashes his way through hundreds of combatants. The world in Viking is comprised of three islands, each offering wide-open areas to explore. The action is divided into two distinct phases: the first involves Skarin roaming freely throughout each island, while the second involves taking part in large-scale battles.

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Gameplay

Now anybody that has played this game has probably had loads of fun violently ripping the limbs off helpless enemies, tearing their insides out and destroying everything around you. But you can also walk around fields, talk to people and help others out. To me, the gameplay feels similar to Fable trilogy and Fallout but this was developed and released a while ago. Running around in Viking can seem sluggish and boring as the character that you play (Skarin) is quite a large person. This can be a nuisance especially if you have to get to a mission which is a long way away. Viking has vast areas to explore and the gameplay definitely takes more than a couple of days to complete if you have the time. The missions in the game aren't that hard to complete and usually take little effort and rewards are given if they are completed. You can earn gold to buy things and use your new purchased weapons to your advantage against your enemies. You can also interact with various objects in the game, the game will prompt you with a button on your controller that you might have to spam it really hard in order for something to happen. There are also cool combos that you can pull off in the game to defeat your opponents and when you get to the higher levels you will start to learn better and cooler combos. When you learn new combos the game will ask you would you like to try them out, when you start fighting try to pull of the combo and master it. Once mastered, you can use it against the real enemies out there. Campaign is thorough and really intense especially when you start fighting enemies in crowds. This is exciting and draws the player in for more blood-thirsty fun. Mountings walls and jumping crevices are great fun and they hardly go wrong given that you do it properly. The controls in the game are responsive but sometimes some combos may be delayed for a second or two. That is one of the problems that I had with the gameplay but other than that everything was perfectly fine. The voiceovers in the game are pretty annoying because they don't seem to put much effort into their voicing. Sounds boring to listen to and it's not lively enough to be honest. Although this is something small but if you're going to do a voiceover on a character at least put some passion into it. Only problems I had with the gameplay part.

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Graphics

Graphics in this game? (Shake my head). They're bad. They're under-developed and look as if not much effort went into the graphics. Textures look really fake and things like rocks building a wall. The whole wall is flat. It isn't supposed to be flat but it's supposed to have rocks sticking out of it. This game was developed in early March 2008 but they should have focused on the graphical proportion of the game to balance it out with the gameplay. However, things like fire and water look somewhat realistic and these are satisfying to look at. Some characters in the game are quite blurry and their clothing isn't developed that much with detail but the weapons and combos look great and the effects that come out when they are performed look fantastic. Graphics is a 50/50 in this game and it's pretty hard to decide whether the graphics are for the better or for the worst.

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Controls

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Overall, this game is decent and if you have some spare money lying about you might want to consider purchasing this game. It's quite similar to Fable and Skyrim and if you liked them games then it would be good to see the earlier version of them games, in this case it's Viking.

Game Rating: 6/10 (Gameplay is fun and bloodthirsty, no multiplayer which is a sadden, campaign is thorough and graphics aren't as great as they could be)