Viking: Battle for Asgard

[Bruhaha69]

Anybody watch the video clip for this one?

http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/958/958171/vids_1.html

There are some non-insider videos as well as insider ones.

It's published by Sega and developed by The Creative Assembly. I'm guessing it'll be somewhat based off the combat engine for Spartan: Total Warrior, which I thought was a great mindless hack n' slash game. No air combo's and juggling like in the Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden games we get so often today. This game was purely about hacking through tons of enemies. Way better than games like Ninety-Nine Nights and Dynasty Warriors, in my opinion.

Anyway, if it's anything like Spartan, I imagine it'll be a lot of fun. It looks like they have some grappling with bigger enemies, as well. I just hope taking them down isn't all comprised of Dragon's Lair style mini games.

Anyone looking forward to this or could you care less?

[Luminous]

I like Viking mythology (Norse).
I like some good hacking and slashing.
I like SEGA.

Sure I am interested. As long as it is not mindless or just too difficult I will be very interested.

[Frogacuda]

I had always heard pretty bad buzz about Spartan: Total Warrior, but perhaps it was being judged unfairly because of its legacy. I like Vikings, I like Creative Assembly, so I'll put this on the radar.

[Bruhaha69]

I honestly didn't play any of their games before Spartan:TW so it made a fan out of me. Really simple and gratifying fighting.

[Newport420]

Never did give that game the time it deserved. It was a lot of fun but I recall being a tad frustrated as it was unclear what to do at times.

[The Skies]

The Asgard! :O

[Hunter]

The Asgard, sadness :(

[Bruhaha69]

Not sure I like the Asgard as SG showed them. Thor was a good character, though. I much prefer these slaughtering brutes.

[Bruhaha69]

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/852/852676p1.html

A little preview. New vids. Looks like nice, brutal slaughtering. Their fears of it being shallow lead me to believe it WILL be a lot like Spartan, which isn't a bad thing. You'll be taking control of a powerful badass, ripping through hordes of enemies. My kind of game. As long as they leave out the "protect this jerk" missions, I'll be in hack n slash heaven.

[lordsnarf]

From the videos it looks like they're starting to get their shit together. I spent some time with Spartan, and it was mediocre at best. Like Newport said, it was tough to know exactly what you were supposed to be doing sometimes. It was clunky and a little tough to control too. There was a bit of goodness in there though, if you like the hack and slash stuff as I do. These vids look smooth and sweet. I dig the Viking theme, as well. I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this one.

[Bruhaha69]

IGN rated it:

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/861/861397p1.html

I wish they compared it to Spartan, which I thought was very good but also rated not so great (7.9, I think). Well, I'm still getting it, so I'll know firsthand if it's as good as Spartan or not.

[Hunter]

Let us know how it turned out.

[Frogacuda]

Yeah, I want to hear more. I can't go on a single IGN review and write it off just yet.

[Hunter]

TBH, the game sounded good from the review, if a bit tedious.

[perfekchaos]

I like their Total War games. Not sure if I really wanna play a hack and slash though. :flat:

[Conjoshus]

I was curious about this one as well as Total War... both come out this week (already out maybe?). I love strategy games... but never played any of either series before...

[Frogacuda]

Bahn said this game was really good.

[Hunter]

We getting a review?

[Bruhaha69]

Well, I'm due to get the game tomorrow. Once I play for a couple hours, I'll give the word in my sloppily written way. My main comparison is definitely going to be Spartan (at least, I imagine it will be closely related to it). I thought that game was a lot of fun, even if it was a bit monotonous. It was one of the few "giant armies versus very powerful main character" hack n' slashes that I've really enjoyed (do not like
Dynasty Warrior and thought Ninety Nine Nights was severely lacking).

[Hunter]

Yeah, Im not a fan of Ninety Nine Nights or DW, and I had no idea this was supposed to be that kind of game. Grr, Im a bit turned off now.

[Conjoshus]

I love Dynasty Warriors and N3... but I also love RTS games (Command & Conquer, Starcraft, Warcraft (sans heroes), etc.).

I don't think these games are hack and slash. I'm expecting RTS greatness! Though I haven't played Spartan either...

I also love turn based strategy games (like Military Madness, Field Commander, Shining Force, etc).

[Bruhaha69]

Well, I saw a bit of it at my cousin's house tonight. From what he says, it's a lot like Fable, which I never bothered to get. it doesn't quite look like Spartan either. I dunno. We'll see when I get it. I hope it kicks ass, but I didn't get a good vibe from what I watched.

[Hunter]

Wow. If its like fable, then this is a must buy for me!

[Bruhaha69]

Well, still not sure if it's like Fable, but it's not a lot like Spartan, as far as combat goes. In Spartan, you could fight 100's of enemies without worry. You get overwhelmed in this game if you don't have other vikings around you. You can still work your way through it, but it's not about being a one man army in this game.

Story is basically that you died, gods revive you and want you to beat the legions of Hel. In other words, it's unimportant.

The basic formula is that you start on a big map and talk to some people in your town. They give you missions that are marked on the map. This is usually a Viking camp that has been taken over. You kill Hel's Legions, release the Vikings and then talk to the leader of the camp who gives you another task elsewhere. You also get sent out to collect Dragon stones which give you access to a Dragon in large battles.

This is all done to get you ready for the big battle which is basically an enemy stronghold you could never take by yourself. When you look at it on the map, you'll see a checklist of things you need before attacking (free x number of Viking camps, get the dragon ready, etc). Once you accomplish the tasks, you click on the stronghold in the map screen and you see the army gather for the battle. A good amount of slowdown in these battles and they involve you needing to kill a Shaman or two, or maybe a legion champion. As you kill them, you get Dragon runes which allow you to pick a spot on the map to send the dragon. He'll then kill an assload of enemies to clear your path. Kind of basic. Once that's over, you're warped to a new, bigger section of land where you do the same kind of stuff. Enemies are tougher, strongholds are bigger, but the formula is the same.

Throughout all this, you collect gold strewn about the lands. You can use it to buy health upgrades, runes for your sword (fire, ice and lightning), throwing axes, little bombs, health potions, etc. The runes imbue the sword and Axe with those elements and drain a meter below your health while in use.

There are also arena areas where dead Vikings teach you moves (costs gold). Some are combo's, some are stun moves, some are rage attacks that dish out a quick combo automatically but drain some secondary 5 symbol power meter. You gain that power back simply by hitting enemies with a normal attack. 5 attacks and it's all filled up for more.

The graphics are a lot nicer than I expected. The land looks very nice and the exaggerated lighting effects are pretty sweet. Any land taken over by Legion is raining and dark but as soon as you take it back, the sky clears and the sun lights everything up. It looks really nice. Nothing amazing, but it does look very sharp.

Sounds are pretty standard hack n' slashy sounds. Not bad. Music is pretty much nonexistent unless you're in a battle. It's appropriate at those points. Other than that, it's either the sound of rain or chirping birds.

Combat is basically made up of a block button (L trigger), a weak attack (A) and a strong attack (X). Whenever enemies get stunned, you can give them a nice finisher, which looks pretty brutal (prompted with X). You might chop guys in half or behead them. Nice and gruesome looking. sometimes they slow it down and give you a good angle on the kill. As mentioned, you can use runes to power the weapons up with elements. They work like you'd expect: Fire sets enemies on fire, Ice slows down big guys and freezes smaller guys for a quick shatter kill and lighting zaps them for a quick stun and extra damage. I haven't really used throwing axes, but the bombs you get do good damage. The moves learned at arenas can be useful to break an enemies shield or toss out some quick damage, but they don't really change the fact that you need to be defensive when fighting more than a few enemies. To me, it's a step back from the Spartan fighting engine, but I'm sure it's because they didn't want to make you too powerful.

So, to be honest, I'm a little disappointed. I thought it would be more like Spartan where you could rush into a large battle all alone, but they wanted to make it more like you're a leader motivating all these Vikings to follow you into big battles. I just think it's too bad you can't really fight more than 15 or so enemies without getting slaughtered. Even in those big battles with all your Vikings, you kinda have to just sneak to the main targets or you will get destroyed by the tons of grunts. Still not a bad game though.

[lordsnarf]

From the sound of it, i might dig this game. I love me some straight-forward DW style slashers, but this sounds like a welcome change. It also sounds like it could be even slower and more tedious then other games in the genre. I don't know, I guess I'll have to try it to be sure.

[Bruhaha69]

It is pretty slow. One thing that helps are these warp stones (forget what they're called in the game) that you find all over the map. Makes it less of a chore when you're going from place to place on the map. Now that I think of it, though, most of the fetch quests you get are usually extremely close to the Vikings who sent you to get them. Seems a little awkward walking outside a little village to grab something from 3 enemies and come back in a few seconds later.

I've only completed one map, so I'm hoping the action picks up.

[Bruhaha69]

Finished this today. They (IGN) weren't kidding about the disappointing climax. Crappy, crappy final boss/battle.

All-in-all, I think people who like a slower paced game would definitely enjoy this. I wanted to see myself fighting massive battles with 100's of enemies all by my lonesome, but it was not to be. This is a game where you let your army fight the large numbers and you go for the generals. They really wanted this to feel like some kind of Brave Heart type game, but to me, it felt awkward blocking and slowly walking my way towards the shamans, giants and legion champions. It would have been cooler slashing my way there. Unfortunately, that usually spells certain death.

Anyway, I did enjoy it, overall. Sneaking through enemy bases and killing guys stealthily was very enjoyable and being able to handle small numbers of troops by yourself is cool. The QTE style kills for giants and champions were a bit easy and not too thrilling, but I'm sure some will love them.

I think the thing I liked most was the environment. The water effects, in particular, are very nice. Viking just has a nice exaggerated glowing bright world kind of similar to Kameo, but quite a bit different in style.

I think a 6.5 was very harsh for IGN to pass on the game. To me, a 6.5 is more leaning towards a poor game that was strictly bearable. I found Viking above average in most respects. I'd say a 7.5 - 8.0 is more in line with what you get. It's got pretty damn good graphics, nice ambient sound/music/effects, solid controls and decent combat system. It didn't hook me in, but it also didn't feel like a chore to finish. A good game, just not great.