Customer Reviews

Viking: Battle for Asgard

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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

MY PERSONAL OPINION: Despite outstanding graphics, decent gameplay, and easy achievements, this game falls very short as far as story, variety, customization, and originality.


PROS:

-Graphics are truthfully on the level of Assassin's Creed. Need I say more?

-Gameplay was one of the better features, but it was still a pretty simple and dumbed down hack n slash game. True you can dismember enemies, but that offers little more than graphic pleasure. It would have been much more entertaining if maybe you could disarm enemies or even cut an arm off and have them keep fighting. I thought the bosses were pretty easy as well; all you have to do really is dodge and wait for a certain button to pop up and press it.

In truth, all you have to do to defeat the majority of enemies is mash one or two buttons again and again till they go down. Also, whenever your attacks land you gain energy for your charge attacks, which reminded me of the musou attacks from Dynasty Warriors.

-Looting is fine but nothing out of the ordinary. All you have to do is run over items that your enemies drop, like health potions, to obtain the. Except for chests, then you have to either hold or tap a button.



CONS:
- The story is about a resurrected Viking who goes on a campaign to seek vengeance and reclaim his homeland from an evil Greek Goddess. Sound a little like God of War? Also, the main character doesn't say one word and so you get no character development. There are also no plot twists, notable supporting characters, factions. Nada.

-One of the things that I was super disappointed with is that you can never upgrade nor change your weapons. Your three main weapons are your sword, axe, and throwing axes. Also, there is no armor or repairing in the game.

-The only thing you can really do with the money you earn is buy health items or new combos (which don't really change the game all that much).

-You can't customize your character at all. No clothes, haircuts, or tattoos - nothing.

-You're always on foot. It would have been nice if you could have had the option to buy a horse or have been able to ride your dragons so you don't have to walk everywhere all the time.

-The missions themselves are very repetitive and lack variety. You rescue other Vikings, kill some traitor, or kill a group of enemies to clear a location.

-The enemies themselves aren't anything special either, there are about eight different types of enemies and each class of unit all look exactly the same as the next. The enemies you typically encounter don't have much to distinguish themselves as far as difficulty other than the fact that they have a shield or you have to hit them more times before they finally go down.

-What most critics are saying that is so great about this game is the huge battles. In reality, there are only 3 or 4 of them and if you try to fight the whole army you'll die over and over again. The point is to take out the groups of sorcerers to stop the spawning of new troops. So, it's really a trick to make you think it's going to be awesome when really it's like Dynasty Warriors in the sense that all you have is take out the leaders and you win automatically.

Specifically, all you have to do is rush towards and kill the sorcerers manually or use your tokens to get your dragon to kill them for you. You get these tokens for doing things like killing all the archers or killing a giant.

Also, the objectives for these big battles never change; the only thing that separates each battle from the next is the scenario and landscape.


LAST NOTE: Viking is worth the cheap price it is now on Amazon of less than ten dollars, but it became a real bore, almost a chore, to finish after few hours of playing.

Many websites will have you believe that this game is easy, and can be played through in 6 to 8 hours. However, this is a lie, and it took me (a skilled gamer) over 25 hours to complete. The graphics are easily among the best on the console (just look at the in-game screenshots that are provided by Amazon [found below the boxart on the first page]). the game does have a very simple story (that is presented more to justify the action), but this doesn't really distract from the game's overall immaculate quality, because the real treat in Viking is in its incredible swordplay and massive battles. No game haas ever attempted to create battles of the scale seen in this game. The scenery in the game looks very pretty, and there is an absolutely massive world to explore (consisting of three large islands). The game never really gets old due to its challenging missions, and the fact that the scenery changes dramatically from area to area. there are about 20 new moves and combos to learn, and each finishing move is gory and presented in slow motiion. Each successful hit and crunchy limb-removing hack feels like a truly real sword hitting flesh. The game is bruatal, beautiful and lastly, it is very unique. Each large battle wont lag a bit (oddly, some of the smaller fights can lag, although even the largest final battles dont have a single framerate hitch), and no other game has ever attempted to introduce scale even close to this. Nor has anyone ever presented a game centered around vikings. I'm looking forward to a sequal! You will not be dissappoionted. BY THE WAY, GAMESTOP OFFERS THE GAME NEW FOR $20!

Viking: Battle for Asgard is an example of a great game with bad reviewers with negative opinions which are ALL false! Playing through this game is an experience in itself; from the graphics, sound, to the overall game play; all balanced, and FANTASTICALLY EPIC!

This game's graphics have to be seen to be believed. The water effects of the ocean looks real, with the surrounding forest areas even more startlingly photo realistic. I loved it all, and so will you.

The sound really drew me in from the fluttering of bird's wings, to dried leaves falling out of trees as I walked underneath, to the sound of a giant dragon as it fried the enemy with scorching flames; no other game comes close to this.

As for game play, I enjoyed the game from start to finish. Blood and gore fans take note- this game is for you! With over a dozen deadly slashing moves with swords, knifes, axes, and even one special move where you call in a dragon,Viking does it all and does it well!

Overall, Viking is an excellent game. I take my hat off to Sega for bringing such a well balanced and magically superb adventure to my little gamer fingers! Well done!!

The Bottom Line: Viking: Battle for Asgard is for fans of blood and gore. This well made game gives the player a truly epic experience that should not be missed!

Much better than the published reviews would have you believe. Sort of a combination of fable and dynasty warriors with a very cool Beowulf type mythos. What the game is a bit thin on is depth. You have only 2 meelee weapons to use throughout the game, there are only a handful of upgrades and items to purchase, and with few exceptions, you fight the same enemy types pretty much throughout the game. That being said, I had a blast with this game.
Here's my run down of pros and cons:
+ open world environment to explore
+ a few stealth missions for added variety
+ nice graphics
+ auto save feature that keeps frustration from deaths to a minimum
+ there's actually a basic story to justify the action
+ good length to the campaign
+ large scale battles are pretty sweet

- could have used more depth in combat, loot and enemy types
- lacking in supporting characters and main character backstory
- Magic use is limited to a handful of elemental spells
- starts to get repetative about 3/4 of the way through
- 2 melee weapons ....2

Overall this is a great concept and a solid action game. If they make a sequel with some added depth and polish, this could evolve into a AAA series. Don't expect God of War or Ninja Gaiden, but this one is definitely worth checking out.

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

See, I liked this game. It did great for passing time if I had nothing else to do with it. But I think the only really I can say I 'liked' this game was because I only paid something like $14 for it. If I paid full price for it I think I would have hated it. It's gory and has entertaining battle scenes, but it's terribly repetitive though and through; especially the boss battles. Ever feel like you're fighting the same thing over and over and over again? Gah! Otherwise, yeah, it's worth spending less than twenty bucks for. It'll keep you occupied if you like the hack-and-slash gore-fest type of things. The story is awful too, haahh. But still it can be entertaining to hack the limbs off things and watch the terrible AI wonder what's going on. Go for it.

Viking: Battle for Asgard is an exciting hack and slash adventure with a slight bit of Norse mythology thrown in. One part of the game that stood out in my mind was the huge battles that you can take part in. In these battles hundreds of units, including your character, try to take over an occupied city/town/fortress in order to advance further through the game. Before the huge battles are allowed to take place you must fulfill certain objectives. Most of these are running errands or freeing captured vikings. Although the game is slightly repetitive, it still manages to be very fun. For the price its a huge bang for your buck!

Playing through the game feels like a cross between Diablo and WoW. It's a lot of hacking and slashing your way through enemies, but rarely does it feel like it's getting old. The open environment and non-linearity is very welcome, and helps to give you some flexibility on your priorities. The visuals are actually quite impressive - it has some of the best water I've seen in a game.

No, this is not a game that deserves to win any awards. It should, however, win a place on your shelf. At the price this is going for nowadays, there's really no excuse not to pick it up.

(and for those who care about that sort of thing, getting 1000/1000 achievement points on it is actually doable)