Viking: Battle For Asgard Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 28th April 2008

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Hack and slash hel breaks lose in this action game from Sega.

Viking: Battle For Asgard Details:

Goto Viking: Battle For Asgard Game Page

	Action
	PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
	The Creative Assembly
	SEGA

18+

Out Now

N/A

After closely following Viking: Battle for Asgard throughout its development, I was expecting good things from this open world action game from Sega. For the most part I haven’t been disappointed although it must be said not all of my expectations for this title have been met.

The story of Viking: Battle for Asgard revolves around Norse mythology; you take up the role of a warrior named Skarin who falls in battle against the undead Vikings known as the Legion. These are the warriors of Hel, the Norse goddess of the underworld. You are then resurrected by the goddess of Asgard Freya, who recruits you as her champion to lead your fellow Vikings against Hel’s forces before she can take over Midgard`.

Viking: Battle for Asgard is an action orientated third person action game set in an open world. The action in the game is very similar to the old hack and slash games, in so much so once you have sufficiently weakened an enemy you can then hack them into small pieces, it sounds gruesome and it is!

Skarin is armed with both a sword and an axe which he duel wields during battle, his sword is used for swift fast attacks whilst the axe is used to inflict massive damage on an enemy. It’s possible to pull off combinations of moves to enable you to dispose of undead Vikings quickly. New moves and combos can also be learnt by visiting Battle Arenas, were a god will descend from Valhalla to teach you new attacks.

As well as weapons Skarin also has the use of elemental powers once you have charged your power meter up sufficiently. Powers you have access to are fire, ice and lightening. These powers are used to either aid you in defeating enemies or inflict large amounts of damage upon them.

Finally Skarin can also summon dragons into battle once you have collected specific gem runes. When a dragon is summoned they can be used to bombard enemy positions with powerful fireball attacks instantly wiping out enemy placements.

Levels in the game are split into islands, with several missions you need to complete before taking part in a final battle to free that island. Missions consist of either gaining control of a specific structure or freeing an imprisoned clan of Vikings. Freeing Viking clans adds more men to your army that will take place in the final battle.

As mentioned earlier the game allows you to free roam around the games environment and you are encouraged to explore as there is plenty of treasure in the form of gold to find hidden in various places. Also you may come across a small camp and be able to free more Vikings to further increase the size of your army. The games environments are pretty expansive which can lead to a lot of backtracking, although this has been kept to a minimum through the use of laystones which you can use to teleport between various places thanks to an amulet given to you by Freya.

Once you have completed all the set missions and gained enough men for your army, you will be able to begin a final battle. These are large scale battles in which you battle against hordes and hordes of Legion. This is one aspect of the game I was really looking forward to, however I found these battles slightly disappointing as they seem to feel automatic, and can be short lived as you only have to concentrate on defeating specific enemies., which can be over fairly soon, especially if you summon a dragon to do so.

Gold is used to buy various items that will aid you in your fight against Hel’s forces. These include health potions, throwing axes and mead bombs. Gold is also used to learn new moves and combos in the games various battle arenas.

There are numerous enemies featured in Viking: Battle for Asgard and as you would expect the strength of each type varies. However you will soon find that you are quite easily able to dispose of most enemies without to much trouble especially when you learn more powerful attacks. Although having said that the game still does provide a good challenge purely because of the sheer numbers of Legion you will have to face at times.

Graphics wise the game is pretty solid, with some excellent effects! The game features an excellent slowdown when you finish off an enemy and it’s pretty good to watch our hero hack them limb by limb! The game also features probably the most realistic looking sea that I’ve ever seen in a game. The game also runs pretty problem free, except there can be some serious slow down issues when you take part in the large scale battles which is slightly disappointing.

Sound in the game is also good. The games environments are filled with the sounds you would expect to find in the country. Voice acting is good for the most part although there are a few characters that you wish didn’t bother to open their mouths. Music in the game is fairly limited, but what there is fits with the games setting.

Despite not completely being the game I was expecting and being largely disappointed by the large scale battles, Viking: Battle for Asgard still provides an enjoyable and engrossing playing experience that is recommended to fans of hack and slash style action games.