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| Original Message posted by hippyman on 07/05/2008 at 4:43:35PM |
VIKING: BATTLE FOR ASGARD REVIEW
It was the 15th April, two weeks before the launch of GTA IV and I wanted something to play on the keep my itching thumbs at bay. I had £50 on a gift card and was wandering around my local Game store looking at my prospects.
After a few minutes, the store's deputy manager approached me; my ex-colleague and he asked if I needed any help. I told him my situation and he recommended I buy Viking: Battle for Asgard. He said he was currently playing through and loving it, as was another ex-colleague of mine, whom is said to "swear by it" for his evening's entertainment.
Usually, I take what these guys say about games with a pinch of salt as they have recommended me some awful games in the past, but this time, boredom and the lure of a good TV advertisement made me take their word and convinced me to buy it.
Playing the game was an interesting experience; it had the feel of several games I had played before. It felt as though it was a cross between Assassin's Creed and Fable , with elements of Conan thrown in. With that in mind, the plot would be considered the poorest out of all of them. I'm surprised they actually managed to make the game last longer than five hours with a plot as bad as this one. However, all games need to be based around something and other factors of the game more than make up for the poor plotline.
You play Skarin, a Viking Warrior with a past that leaves you untrustworthy in the eyes of nearly everyone in Midgard. You are portrayed as slightly crazy as you see visions and spend most of the time listening to a goddess, Freya. The goddess of the Underworld, Hel, has raised her evil army of the Legion to take over Midgard and Freya expects you to sort out the problem. Not much of a plot, but the game is based somewhat loosely around that.
The game is likely to be under the genre "hack 'n' slash" as that's basically what you spend your time doing. You wander around the world liberating Viking tribes from the Legion captors, slashing them apart in the most brutal ways possible. After fighting your way to the captives, you repeatedly press a button to break down the cage door. Once free, the majority of the liberated Vikings aren't grateful that you've saved them from impending doom and require you to do a quest for them before they join you on you cause. They might as well ask you to do their laundry or walk their dog for as much fun these chores usually end up. It sure beats having to travel across to the other side of a map to take the head of a large Legion-being and bring it back to prove your worth. This is done literally four or five times PER ISLAND. And there are three of them.
After all this faffing about, freeing ungrateful Vikings, you must summon a dragon by finding a rune somewhere on the map and doing some sort of dance in a ruin. This done (expect the bleep of 'achievement unlocked') you must battle for the strategic point of the island in a huge battle. Wait a second, let me re-emphasise that. HUGE battle to progress further in the game.
The battle scenes are the most enjoyable feature of the game with literally hundreds of NPCs battling away on screen. All of which actually have some sort of impact on the battle (but in fairness, they are as much use as a cream slice). I was first sceptical on how this would actually work as I've played games like Fable and the like and any more than twenty characters on screen caused my console to throw a tantrum like a teenager with his cigarettes confiscated. However, throughout the sequence I experienced a complete lack of lag. It ran as smoothly as I think anything could. Very impressive.
Your aim is to summon your shaman into the battle, thus causing you to win. However, you can only summon her into battle at the far end of the battlefield, so as expected, you are to fight your way across the vast city with zillions of Legions wanting to dice you up. Within the battle, there are large Legions you may want to take out. Some are called Champions and are extremely annoying and the others are called Giants (huge ugly things that kind of resemble John Prescott). Killing these figures on the battlefield (via action button sequences) cause you to earn dragon runes to help wipe out key figures in the battle. Usually to progress to the end of the battle, you need to take out the enemy shamans to stop them spawning more Legion. Once they are defeated you continue with your battle and further your storyline.
With the inclusion of the big battle scenes and the faffing about between the focal points, the game has varying tempo and it is just enough to keep you playing. All dialogue in the game is voice acted, but fast-forward-able subtitles are available to help you play at your own speed. Unfortunately, what makes the faffing about so tedious is the lack of a run button. Skarin travels at the same speed whether he is strolling along enjoying the sunshine or being chased by some axe wielding, demonic reincarnate. This too adds to the length of the game.
The final flaw I have found with the game is the amount of time wondering what you are supposed to be doing. You sometimes see a mission that needs doing on your map and cannot find a way to reach it. Certain items on the map look easy to reach, but then there is a 200ft mountain to scale and its only when you get to the top you realise you aren't supposed to be there.
However, if you look pass all of the flaws mentioned, you do have an enjoyable game. I even enjoyed the action button sequences (a rare thing for me to do) when bringing down the larger opposition. It gives you the chance to see the gore of the game (yes, it's extremely gory) and the battle tactics in action.
If you are struggling for something to play or just fancy something that is samey-but-different to the other titles out there, pick up a preowned version of Viking. I'm glad I followed the original recommendation and bought it as playing it was enjoyable. I hope to see it soon on your gamercards!
75%
(Actually make that 74.5% as it loses 0.5% for having a ridiculously hard prologue to the major boss battle, with the final boss giving you the illusion that it was made out of paper) |
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hippyman
"That was some chill"
on 16/05/2008 at 4:25:26PM
Total Posts: 1675
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Cheers guys. I'll remember to mention that the next April 15th review!
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MarcoG
"Thinking and typing"
on 15/05/2008 at 10:00:25PM
Total Posts: 150
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I agree...Nice one!
BUT you're review should have started...It was the 15th April (not only is this the birthday of the one, the only, Marc) etc etc hahahaaaaaaa
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pb
"Clean yr screen mr?"
on 15/05/2008 at 7:56:49PM
Total Posts: 6627
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Nice review, well done on the GAD.
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hippyman
"That was some chill"
on 07/05/2008 at 4:43:35PM
Edited: 7/5/08 16:46
Total Posts: 1675
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VIKING: BATTLE FOR ASGARD REVIEW
It was the 15th April, two weeks before the launch of GTA IV and I wanted something to play on the keep my itching thumbs at bay. I had £50 on a gift card and was wandering around my local Game store looking at my prospects.
After a few minutes, the store's deputy manager approached me; my ex-colleague and he asked if I needed any help. I told him my situation and he recommended I buy Viking: Battle for Asgard. He said he was currently playing through and loving it, as was another ex-colleague of mine, whom is said to "swear by it" for his evening's entertainment.
Usually, I take what these guys say about games with a pinch of salt as they have recommended me some awful games in the past, but this time, boredom and the lure of a good TV advertisement made me take their word and convinced me to buy it.
Playing the game was an interesting experience; it had the feel of several games I had played before. It felt as though it was a cross between Assassin's Creed and Fable , with elements of Conan thrown in. With that in mind, the plot would be considered the poorest out of all of them. I'm surprised they actually managed to make the game last longer than five hours with a plot as bad as this one. However, all games need to be based around something and other factors of the game more than make up for the poor plotline.
You play Skarin, a Viking Warrior with a past that leaves you untrustworthy in the eyes of nearly everyone in Midgard. You are portrayed as slightly crazy as you see visions and spend most of the time listening to a goddess, Freya. The goddess of the Underworld, Hel, has raised her evil army of the Legion to take over Midgard and Freya expects you to sort out the problem. Not much of a plot, but the game is based somewhat loosely around that.
The game is likely to be under the genre "hack 'n' slash" as that's basically what you spend your time doing. You wander around the world liberating Viking tribes from the Legion captors, slashing them apart in the most brutal ways possible. After fighting your way to the captives, you repeatedly press a button to break down the cage door. Once free, the majority of the liberated Vikings aren't grateful that you've saved them from impending doom and require you to do a quest for them before they join you on you cause. They might as well ask you to do their laundry or walk their dog for as much fun these chores usually end up. It sure beats having to travel across to the other side of a map to take the head of a large Legion-being and bring it back to prove your worth. This is done literally four or five times PER ISLAND. And there are three of them.
After all this faffing about, freeing ungrateful Vikings, you must summon a dragon by finding a rune somewhere on the map and doing some sort of dance in a ruin. This done (expect the bleep of 'achievement unlocked') you must battle for the strategic point of the island in a huge battle. Wait a second, let me re-emphasise that. HUGE battle to progress further in the game.
The battle scenes are the most enjoyable feature of the game with literally hundreds of NPCs battling away on screen. All of which actually have some sort of impact on the battle (but in fairness, they are as much use as a cream slice). I was first sceptical on how this would actually work as I've played games like Fable and the like and any more than twenty characters on screen caused my console to throw a tantrum like a teenager with his cigarettes confiscated. However, throughout the sequence I experienced a complete lack of lag. It ran as smoothly as I think anything could. Very impressive.
Your aim is to summon your shaman into the battle, thus causing you to win. However, you can only summon her into battle at the far end of the battlefield, so as expected, you are to fight your way across the vast city with zillions of Legions wanting to dice you up. Within the battle, there are large Legions you may want to take out. Some are called Champions and are extremely annoying and the others are called Giants (huge ugly things that kind of resemble John Prescott). Killing these figures on the battlefield (via action button sequences) cause you to earn dragon runes to help wipe out key figures in the battle. Usually to progress to the end of the battle, you need to take out the enemy shamans to stop them spawning more Legion. Once they are defeated you continue with your battle and further your storyline.
With the inclusion of the big battle scenes and the faffing about between the focal points, the game has varying tempo and it is just enough to keep you playing. All dialogue in the game is voice acted, but fast-forward-able subtitles are available to help you play at your own speed. Unfortunately, what makes the faffing about so tedious is the lack of a run button. Skarin travels at the same speed whether he is strolling along enjoying the sunshine or being chased by some axe wielding, demonic reincarnate. This too adds to the length of the game.
The final flaw I have found with the game is the amount of time wondering what you are supposed to be doing. You sometimes see a mission that needs doing on your map and cannot find a way to reach it. Certain items on the map look easy to reach, but then there is a 200ft mountain to scale and its only when you get to the top you realise you aren't supposed to be there.
However, if you look pass all of the flaws mentioned, you do have an enjoyable game. I even enjoyed the action button sequences (a rare thing for me to do) when bringing down the larger opposition. It gives you the chance to see the gore of the game (yes, it's extremely gory) and the battle tactics in action.
If you are struggling for something to play or just fancy something that is samey-but-different to the other titles out there, pick up a preowned version of Viking. I'm glad I followed the original recommendation and bought it as playing it was enjoyable. I hope to see it soon on your gamercards!
75%
(Actually make that 74.5% as it loses 0.5% for having a ridiculously hard prologue to the major boss battle, with the final boss giving you the illusion that it was made out of paper)
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