Viking: Battle for Asgard (Sony Playstation 3, 2008)

There's a story here, but it's barely worth mentioning. You play as Skarin, a Viking that has been called upon by the Goddess of Light to fight the forces of Hel, whose undead army is killing people to create a new Valhalla. There's also something that has to do with Skarin having haunting visions and some anger toward at least one of the gods--you know, like in God of War. The story is told via cutscenes that are reminiscent of the graphic novel 300, but they're typically quite short, hard to follow, and fail to tell the game's tale in any coherent matter.

Without a gripping story, all you're left with is Viking's gameplay, which is occasionally enjoyable but usually just plain mediocre. It's a third-person action adventure that focuses on combat while mixing in fetch quests and unfulfilling exploration. Your main task is to go to enemy encampments, kill the bad guys, and free the soldiers who are imprisoned there. Once you've freed enough soldiers, you can attack an enemy fortress. This triggers a huge battle with hundreds of soldiers onscreen at once. Heavenly Sword did a fantastic job with encounters of this size, but during Viking's epic battles, the last thing you want to do is fight because it's so easy for enemy soldiers to gang up on you. Your best bet is to simply run past everyone, kill the shaman that protect the area, summon a dragon to fry some guys, and beat the boss. If you master this once, you're good for the rest of the game because every battle after this is almost exactly the same--just a little longer. Other than that, the only other things you'll be doing are fetching items for people and finding gems so that you can summon the aforementioned dragons. These tasks play out in much the same way as freeing soldiers, but instead of letting soldiers out of a jail after you've killed all the enemies, you open a treasure chest.

The game is broken up into three levels, each of which is a large world that's reminiscent of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but on a smaller scale. Having such a large area to explore is initially exciting, but this excitement quickly turns to disappointment and then boredom. The problem is that there's nothing to do and very little to see. The only optional quest in the game is to find barrels of mead, and other than that, the only thing you're rewarded with for heading off the beaten path is gold, which is quite easy to acquire. There are also several occasions where you'll find yourself lost or confused as to what to do next because either the game didn't make your next objective clear or the map was difficult to read. At least the game doesn't force you to walk around too much, thanks to its liberal use of portals that allow you to teleport from one area to another.

So missions are tedious and exploration is unfulfilling; how about the combat? It's a little better--at least at first. Skarin is armed with a large sword and axe with which to make short work of Hel's legions of undead soldiers. You attacks are initially limited, but upgrades can be purchased as you progress. Skarin can briefly power up these attacks using his rage mode (a handy way to break shields). He can also collect red orbs that represent the souls of the vanquished, as well as unleash elemental magic, such as lightning, fire, and ice onto his foes.

It can be fun for a few hours to run around, indiscriminately beating on undead soldiers, knocking them off of cliffs, and sneaking up behind them to stick a sword in their bac

Viking is actually a pretty fun game. You get to devastate massive armies of the enemy and also raise your own army. The open world exploration is a plus and the detail of the environment is beautiful. This game falls right between a "hardcore hack and slash" and a "take your time and explore to build your character" game. Nothing too fast, nothing too slow.

The attack system is killer with several ways to dismember and humiliate your opponent. Despite the fact that this can become repetitive, you'll find yourself giving up a "Hell yeah!" with every severed limb and dismembered enemy. The maps are decently large with lots of nooks and crannies to explore across three levels. The missions can become a little bland, but the action makes up for it (for the most part). Stealth kills and infiltration missions spiral into run-and-gun melees with the drop of a hat. The in-game movies are a little wooden, but the game also features several intermezzo-type mini-movie seizures which help to put you in the spirit, but eventually become a little tedious. All in all, lots of good fun if not a little repetitive.

Viking can be described very simply. If you take God of War, replace the Greek/Roman gods with Norse ones, and make the weapons more realistic, you've got this game.

Graphics: 8/10
Graphics are pretty good. Easily comparable to God of War. It has a massive View Distance though. You can see the laystones from miles off.

Gameplay: 7/10
The gameplay is most basically hack and slash but it can also be played as a stealth game. Both modes are fun.

Story: 5/10
The storyline is a war of the gods type thing. It's not crap but it's not great either.

Voice Acting: 7/10
The voice acting is fairly good if basic.

Overall: 7/10
Definitely worth the 9 bucks. Knowing what I know now I'd say this is good up to $14 of the $16 scale. Good stuff.

This is a wonderfull game. The battle scene are huge, and you are a middle of .
You are controll a viking warrior name Skarih. He is the humanitys only hope. He will fight with his great army against the evil horde.