Viking: Battle For Asgard (Xbox 360)

The true highlight of the game is when you reach the final fight on each island, the massive battle and the sense of struggle is epic. You begin usually outside the main gates or objective, and then you have to kill a number of shamans whilst you destroy targets of opportunity as you attempt to reach the final Legion Commander of the base and end their miserable life. Complicating this is the fact that you have masses of enemy warriors and your own legions to contend with, it becomes confusing and a lack of any kind of targeting icon means you might hit the wrong enemy when all you want to do is wade into the sub-commanders and kill them for precious dragon gems.

Get enough dragon gems and you can call in an aerial attack by one or two of your dragons, these little cut-scene events are truly worthwhile since you can use them to get rid of pesky archers or save up dragon gems and take out the shaman targets without having to wade in with your axe and sword. Once you finish all of these objectives you move further into the war zone and eventually you’ll face the boss of the level in one on one combat, the victor (you) earns the gratitude of Freya and the loser (him)gets sent to Hel who is no doubt not pleased her little lapdog lost to such a wimpy mortal.

These battles are truly excellent and whilst they might seem repetitious, they have enough variety and enough going on to make them truly worth fighting. They are good chances to blow off steam and if you die, you respawn in from the last checkpoint (your own shaman) ready to fight again!

Death in the normal game pretty much takes you to one of the many leystones (magic stones used to get from area to area, since the islands are fairly big) and the enemies that you might have killed before in an area, will have respawned.

With all this pretty fun gameplay there are the camera issues I mentioned and sometimes the enemy AI seems a little too clever, but all in all it’s a good gameplay experience and it marries well to the excellent visuals. The islands have very little in the way of pop up and you can see for miles. The game’s engine handles large open spaces and cramped interiors well enough, there are numerous caves and tunnels to explore and the level design is such that the way to a place isn’t usually too obvious, it forces you to think outside the box a little and explore, climbing or shimmying ala Tomb Raider to reach different areas and pick a less guarded route into a base or encampment.

The use of textures is excellent, the lighting and weather effects as you transition from Hel controlled areas (dark and rainy) to the bright sunshine and light of the conquered zones gives you an idea that you’re battling to drive away the darkness. It is a great looking game that has a superb attention to detail in both terms of the levels and the main characters, the enemies and the allies. The sound is likewise visceral and marries well with the rest of the game elements, the crunch of bone, the clang of steel upon steel and the cries of agony all supplement the experience and make it a more mature affair.

The combat animations are right up there with the recent Conan game and some of them are brutal, with heads and arms flying off all directions. The animations in general are all spot on and Skarin kind-of lopes along in a determined way or sneaks around when he gets close to enemies.

The voice work reminds me of Fable, and I am sure they managed to peg a number of those voice actors to work on the game. The dialogue is a bit long winded but it’s delivered with a lot of enthusiasm by some of these actors. Of course having Brian Blessed narrating made the game even more of a sell for me, since he has the perfect voice for this kind of game and if he’s not Odin, well, he certainly should be!

The spot effects, the music and the rest all tie in nicely and I have to say that Viking was a totally excellent experience that merits the score. A few niggles keep it from being a really mega game but overall it’s one of those games that should be played if you have a hankering for an open world game that’s a bit different from the best sellers out there.

I certainly would love a sequel.