Viking: Battle For Asgard

There are very few hack-and-slash action games that showcase more than just the ability to tear through enemies and then there are those that are simply content with just doing the same thing over and over again until the end credits roll. Sadly, Viking: Battle for Asgard is the second one and while it has its good moments those moments are fleeting and hardly worth entrance to Valhalla.

The story revolves around Hel, daughter of the Norse God Loki, as she targets Midgard (the human world) with her minions from the Underworld. During one particular bloody skirmish, a noble warrior named Skarin is killed during battle and resurrected by Freya, daughter of Odin and a Goddess that protects Midgard. Freya offers Skarin a chance to be the “Champion of Midgard” and so the warrior sets out to fight against Hel and her army. With the guidance of a Goddess and a Viking’s bloodlust, Skarin takes on hordes of enemies at once in a huge open world.

Yes, you read correctly, the game contains a somewhat vast open world that you can explore at your leisure. The world map is actually big enough that you’ll be glad that there are portals that allow you to magically travel to various locales you have visited. The problem is that there is nothing at all to do in the open world except for liberate very specific locales (like a farm or sacked castle) from enemy occupation. There are side missions (locate more barrels of mead for your comrades, for instance) but they’re simple fetch quests that get boring quickly.

What you will spend most of the game doing is slaughtering enemies that Hel has sent to take over the various key locations. Liberating locales is not easy, of course. First you must defeat a number of enemies that have taken over the area and finally release any prisoners that were locked into cages. As a lone warrior, you battle your way through a number of enemies, using bladed weapons in each hand. You can block attacks as well as perform a swift or long swipe from your weapon.

The good news is that there are different levels to your Rage attacks and you can add crystals or runes to your weapons to add lightening, fire and ice attacks. The rage attacks allow different decapitating moves that range from brutal (take your enemy’s head off) to extreme (take all of your enemy’s limbs off). The bad news is that you will be performing the same few moves throughout the entire game. What starts off as fun will quickly get old fast to the point that even Rage attacks aren’t able to save the action from getting too repetitive. The enemy does offer some challenges. There are enemies with heavy shields and there are champions (such as Drakan) that fight for Hel. You’ll go up against undead forces that will attack in groups and in one level you’ll even be pushed to the limits in a battle that’s not as massive as it could have been.

Visually, Viking displays some decent-looking graphics that do many things right and other things not as well. For example, the water, main character and cut scenes look excellent. On the other hand, there are some pop-up issues that make stalks of grass or trees suddenly appear out of the blue. The lighting effects aren’t good either and, despite some magical properties you bestow on your weapons, the magical visual effects don’t light up the screen. You will be treated to gruesome decapitations but the dead seem to disappear quickly so you won’t be staring too long at the gore.

The game’s sound doesn’t make an impact either thanks, in part, to the fact that the environmental noises are nonexistent. How is it that you can hear your fellow villagers whooping it up in your village but not hear your enemies while they’re pumping each another up in their camp? You’ll be surrounded by the great outdoors and you won’t even hear a single noise. The voice acting in the game is not great but not bad either and the soundtrack fit’s the Nordic theme of the game.

Viking: Battle for Asgard for the PlayStation 3 had all the makings of an epic action game complete with a huge world to explore but, in the end, the game just doesn’t move past its repetitive hack-and-slash action. The game does have its shining moments and slicing through the hordes can be fun at first, but these things can’t overcome the game’s uninteresting story or been-there-done-that gameplay. If bloody action is what you crave, then this one will certainly feel right at home as a weekend rental. 

Gameplay: 6.5
Skarin knows how to swing his bladed weapons as well as unleash his feral Viking rage but that’s about all you can expect from him. He has a few decapitating moves but they are only cool the first few times you see them. The story isn’t particularly deep thanks to the game’s short length and poor storytelling.

Graphics: 7.0
The game’s visuals range from delightfully decent to somewhat disappointing at times. Backgrounds lack good lighting and some character models could have used more work. Still, the game displays some good visual effects and the cut scenes are fluid.

Sound: 6.0
The environmental noises are non-existent so don’t expect to hear birds chirping or a breeze blowing through the trees. In fact, sometimes you won’t even hear the clanking of steel or the sounds of your sword slicing through Hel’s minions. At least the soundtrack is OK.

Difficulty: Medium
Hel’s followers and undead army do put up quite a battle and oftentimes they will overwhelm you with their numbers. If you’re not careful they will certainly rip Skarin to pieces so make good use of your ability to block.

Concept: 6.0
Viking possesses nothing we haven’t seen before in games like this and while the Rage attacks can be fun to unleash the game rarely shows us anything completely unique. You can explore your surroundings in the open environment but there’s very little that will have you coming back for more when you finish.

Overall: 6.5
Sadly, Viking is one of those games that could have been great but thanks to repetitive hack-and-slash gameplay there is really not much here even Odin would approve. All is not too bad, however, since the action and themes are wonderfully gruesome. It’s just not worthy of a purchase.