freddypoobles
Member
From the few vids I've seen, it looks God of War-ish (of which I'm a big fan) and was wondering if anyone could provide any opinions/info on this game
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Viking: Battle for Asgard
- Thread starter freddypoobles
- Start date
NikolaeVarius
Lifer
Crap. Seriously.
There is NO music. You don't know how important music is to gameplay unless its gone.
NikolaeVarius
Lifer
Gore is decent, at best. You can split guys in half. But its just not fun after 5 minutes. The only sound you hear is grunts. You have no environmental sounds. Nada. At most, you get footsteps, and maybe rain.
Don't bother. Thank God it was a rental
Inspector Jihad
Lifer
who is the developer? for some reason i keep thinking its creative assembly.
freddypoobles
Member
The developer is indeed, creative assembly.
I've never seen a game that doesn't have music in it...WTF? I never thought this would be purchase worthy, but from the sound of it, I wouldn't even rent it.
I've never seen a game that doesn't have music in it...WTF? I never thought this would be purchase worthy, but from the sound of it, I wouldn't even rent it.
warcrow
Lifer
I picked the game up, played it and completed it over the weekend. By saying that I dont mean to imply that its a short game because it's not. It actually took me (roughly due to no game timers) 20 hours to beat, and that's with little cutscene time.
It's weird because this game doesnt do anything in particular amazingly well--but I just absolutely loved it! I couldnt put it down! The Graphics are solid, so is the framerate (except during the final HUGE battles--more on that in a bit). The sound (music/effects) are alright but nothing too write home about. The controls are great, but nothing earth shattering. I'm finding it difficult to explain why I couldnt stop playing. I guess the overall package--the sum of it's parts--was so enjoyable to me that I just wanted to keep playing and playing and playing.
I'm going to skip explination of the fiction here because it's not that big of a deal (to me). It's ok. It's not horrible or anything, but it's also not even close to other more interesting themes that like Kratos's Greek tragedy.
The game consist of three islands that you traverse sequentially throughout the game. Once you complete the first isle, you move on to the second and then the third (revisiting not possible). The Islands get bigger with more to do and slay which is probably obvious.
Every isle is also a total sandbox. I really loved this part of the game. You start off in a town or village with an isle full of Legion. You must run around the island hacking and slashing, gathering resources to forge an army strong enough to take down the fortress (one on each isle). This leads to one final, large scale battle that youm your army, and dragon(s) will participate in. Also, just as a note, you're totally involved in it. It doesnt take a RTS or turn-based view--you're in the shit. 😀
The game has a helpful map that will automatically update and display what areas of the map you can and should visit to obtain more men. It updates regularly depending on your actions. In one instance, a local informed me that there was a farm that was overtaken by the Legion (read:bad guys) and that if I cleared them out--the men imprisoned would surely help me with my battles. When the area was cleared of the Legion, the sun parted the dark rainy skies visually acknowledging that the area was safe. Its a really cool effect and I found it always refrshing. Your men will take over the area, guarding it, the machines and mills will slowly begin producting again. It's a little thing that I just liked. 🙂
There are several resources that you must gather up. Freeing men will enlarge you army, although there are many times they will send you off on one more quest before they will swear allegiance. Freeing lumber mills will help you to produce war machines like catapults and what not. Also--there's dragons. Each isle has a dragon you must summon using a dragon amulet that's always an adventure trying to aquire. I say that with pleasure, not tongue-in-cheek.
There are teleport stones (Leystones) that you can use to jump around the island. They are usable once you run near one and "discover" it.
Saving is all done instantly requiring nothing on the users part and worked really well for me.
There are no mounts in the game. When nearing the end of the final island, I was running around jumping from Leystone to Leystone kind of wishing I had a horse. It never took too long to get from one area to another but it would have been helpful.
The big battles that your building your army for are pretty epic and fun. There are hundreds and hundreds of guys on screen, both good and bad just attacking and killing each other. You must take out the shaman (respawn points) in order to work your way up to the final boss in the back. Hitting the select button in battle here brings up a birds eye view of the battle field (and the game pauses). Here you issue your commands to the dragons to help out. Their help requires dragon stones, which are aquired from killing the shaman yourself, or by killing the mini-bosses on the battle field. There was some slow down by the second isle, and by the final battle of the thrid isle it was there. It was never unplayable--but just noticable.
There is a LOT of button mashing (tap "B" to open chest, open large doors, to initial Leystone) a la God of War to perform certain tasks. It's a little lame, but I didnt find it a big deal. Also, there are quick timer events (like GoW once more) for some of the bigger battle. It's fair to say that they're not as well done as its muse.
There are NO load times except for when you kick off the game initially. Not even when you use the Leystone to teleport to the opposite side of the largest island--it's instantaneous.
One thing that bothered me was the weapon upgrades. I'm pretty big on loot and weapons in these types of games and although you can upgrade your sword (via quest, not shop) it neve changes shape or visual appearance. Armour is never upgraded--you get new (actually very useful) dodge moves.
One important thing I want to mention is that the devs (Creative Assembly) totally went all out and created unique environments for every single area. There are no cookie-cutter farms or caves! I'm not reffering to a single isle here, I mean the whole game. Locations and settings for environments from the first isle will not somehow make their way to the second or third isle painted with a difference texture and populated with new enemies. It's rare to see something like this in this type of game and felt it's worth mentioning.
I obviously enjoyed the game and encourage anyone who likes hack and slash games to pick it up. I'm actually a little bummed the game is over. 🙁
P.S. - It's asthetics are similar to Fable with the glowly, enchanted visuals but with a better frame rate.
-edit-: I want to add, there is no MP. Also, when I mentioned button mashing, I dont want to imply that the fighting is like that. It's actually quite the opposite. You will not get far if you just mash the "A" button. 🙂
It's weird because this game doesnt do anything in particular amazingly well--but I just absolutely loved it! I couldnt put it down! The Graphics are solid, so is the framerate (except during the final HUGE battles--more on that in a bit). The sound (music/effects) are alright but nothing too write home about. The controls are great, but nothing earth shattering. I'm finding it difficult to explain why I couldnt stop playing. I guess the overall package--the sum of it's parts--was so enjoyable to me that I just wanted to keep playing and playing and playing.
I'm going to skip explination of the fiction here because it's not that big of a deal (to me). It's ok. It's not horrible or anything, but it's also not even close to other more interesting themes that like Kratos's Greek tragedy.
The game consist of three islands that you traverse sequentially throughout the game. Once you complete the first isle, you move on to the second and then the third (revisiting not possible). The Islands get bigger with more to do and slay which is probably obvious.
Every isle is also a total sandbox. I really loved this part of the game. You start off in a town or village with an isle full of Legion. You must run around the island hacking and slashing, gathering resources to forge an army strong enough to take down the fortress (one on each isle). This leads to one final, large scale battle that youm your army, and dragon(s) will participate in. Also, just as a note, you're totally involved in it. It doesnt take a RTS or turn-based view--you're in the shit. 😀
The game has a helpful map that will automatically update and display what areas of the map you can and should visit to obtain more men. It updates regularly depending on your actions. In one instance, a local informed me that there was a farm that was overtaken by the Legion (read:bad guys) and that if I cleared them out--the men imprisoned would surely help me with my battles. When the area was cleared of the Legion, the sun parted the dark rainy skies visually acknowledging that the area was safe. Its a really cool effect and I found it always refrshing. Your men will take over the area, guarding it, the machines and mills will slowly begin producting again. It's a little thing that I just liked. 🙂
There are several resources that you must gather up. Freeing men will enlarge you army, although there are many times they will send you off on one more quest before they will swear allegiance. Freeing lumber mills will help you to produce war machines like catapults and what not. Also--there's dragons. Each isle has a dragon you must summon using a dragon amulet that's always an adventure trying to aquire. I say that with pleasure, not tongue-in-cheek.
There are teleport stones (Leystones) that you can use to jump around the island. They are usable once you run near one and "discover" it.
Saving is all done instantly requiring nothing on the users part and worked really well for me.
There are no mounts in the game. When nearing the end of the final island, I was running around jumping from Leystone to Leystone kind of wishing I had a horse. It never took too long to get from one area to another but it would have been helpful.
The big battles that your building your army for are pretty epic and fun. There are hundreds and hundreds of guys on screen, both good and bad just attacking and killing each other. You must take out the shaman (respawn points) in order to work your way up to the final boss in the back. Hitting the select button in battle here brings up a birds eye view of the battle field (and the game pauses). Here you issue your commands to the dragons to help out. Their help requires dragon stones, which are aquired from killing the shaman yourself, or by killing the mini-bosses on the battle field. There was some slow down by the second isle, and by the final battle of the thrid isle it was there. It was never unplayable--but just noticable.
There is a LOT of button mashing (tap "B" to open chest, open large doors, to initial Leystone) a la God of War to perform certain tasks. It's a little lame, but I didnt find it a big deal. Also, there are quick timer events (like GoW once more) for some of the bigger battle. It's fair to say that they're not as well done as its muse.
There are NO load times except for when you kick off the game initially. Not even when you use the Leystone to teleport to the opposite side of the largest island--it's instantaneous.
One thing that bothered me was the weapon upgrades. I'm pretty big on loot and weapons in these types of games and although you can upgrade your sword (via quest, not shop) it neve changes shape or visual appearance. Armour is never upgraded--you get new (actually very useful) dodge moves.
One important thing I want to mention is that the devs (Creative Assembly) totally went all out and created unique environments for every single area. There are no cookie-cutter farms or caves! I'm not reffering to a single isle here, I mean the whole game. Locations and settings for environments from the first isle will not somehow make their way to the second or third isle painted with a difference texture and populated with new enemies. It's rare to see something like this in this type of game and felt it's worth mentioning.
I obviously enjoyed the game and encourage anyone who likes hack and slash games to pick it up. I'm actually a little bummed the game is over. 🙁
P.S. - It's asthetics are similar to Fable with the glowly, enchanted visuals but with a better frame rate.
-edit-: I want to add, there is no MP. Also, when I mentioned button mashing, I dont want to imply that the fighting is like that. It's actually quite the opposite. You will not get far if you just mash the "A" button. 🙂
raystorm
Diamond Member
I suppose they are both similar but Conan is a straightforward God of War ripoff (I liked Conan) while Viking tries to take that style of gameplay but give you land to explore with very basic quests. I think Conan feels more solid with its combo heavy gameplay and I think some of the button mashing aspects of Viking (button mash to use a teleport and open a chest?? WHY?) are unnecessary. I'm only done with the first "world" of Viking so Warcrow can give you a better explanation since I don't have all the combat moves (you buy them).
I like Viking so far though. Its very, very simplistic in its adventure elements and the jumping is HORRIBLE but its not too shabby.
warcrow
Lifer
I enjoyed it more much more than Conan. My Conan impression is HERE
if you're interested in reading it.
But they're pretty different games, I hope I didnt give the impression that they're a lot alike. Conan is really on rails and more after Kratos's gameplay. Viking is so much more about freeroaming and going wherever you want.
Plus, Conan had a ton of T&A. 🙂
warcrow
Lifer
There are less combos and abilities to unlock on Vikings. But all the ones you train in are useable as I felt Conan was ust flooded (how many did you really use?) with unecissary ones. I found myself attempting to use different attacks and benefitws more often.
To be fair, the jumping isnt used often (in gameplay). Mainly it's used to initate some attacks. I persoanlly didnt find it "horrible"--but I wouldnt call it great either.
raystorm
Diamond Member
I loved the fact that Conan had a ton of moves. What I loved about the game is all the visceral combos you can link together and I had lots of fun with the variety. I never did get all the moves though and I suppose that adds to the replayability of the game.
Viking's jump for attacks is fine. I meant jumps for the small amounts of platforming in the game. I just don't like how its done. Not a big deal really since there aren't a ton of jumps in the game anyways.
warcrow
Lifer
Man! My OP had a TON of type-os. 😛
Yea, he jumps a lot like I imagine a viking would--kinda clumsily--he's a bit of an oaf. But you're right, there are a few jumping puzzles throughout the game and in some caves. Funny thing, I didnt die once when doing any. I was surprised because of the jumping mechanic. I think I was just lucky though.
freddypoobles
Member
warcow - thanks for taking time to write a quick review...you have bumped the status of this game back up to rent worthy, for me.
I know most hacknslash games don't have much, if any, replay value(DMC4 & GoW the exceptions)...I know no MP, but any replay value on this one?
I know most hacknslash games don't have much, if any, replay value(DMC4 & GoW the exceptions)...I know no MP, but any replay value on this one?
Conan is one of my favorite PS3 games. I'm 4 on the leader board, I've played through at least a half dozen times now, beaten every difficulty level, and have almost every accomplishment. I can definitely get to #2 but ARIES score for first place is astonishingly good, when you realize what he had to pull off to get it. I liked it better than God of War because it didn't include the more frustrating and time consuming platformer puzzles and jumping, but had better gore and the best combat system I've used.
Viking sounds like a medieval version of CrackDown in many ways, so I'm definitely going to pick it up. Running around in a sandbox wreaking havoc and engaging large numbers of enemies is always a good time.
warcrow
Lifer
Admit it--you just like partially naked, slutty girls pushing their ass into your face when you release them!
I was originally going to make the Crackdown comparison because when I began playing it it totally reminded me of that great game. But, the more I played it, the more it became it's own game. There are some similarities though for sure!
:laugh: Nubile wenches begging to be crushed with my love, what's not to like?
Wench - "I didn't expect my savior to be so....Strong!"
Me- Yeah baby, I get that all the time.
The voice actor for that one, sounds a lot like Tanya Roberts.
You have me excited about this game now, but I need to get Army of Two first.
I grabbed this as a rental and I'm not really "feeling" it. Having the "jump" tied to the "triangle" on the PS3 is different from all other combat games of similar nature. In Conan/GOW/HS/ect usually that is your "heavy" attack. That's throwing me off. And the attacks and controls in general just feel slow and rusty.
The character animations are rather bland for being this far into the "current gen" systems.
And I just don't really feel like there is any real sense of direction on what you are supposed to do/go.
Maybe I didn't give it enough time (an hour or so) but I'm not feeling like I need to go back and play it again.
The character animations are rather bland for being this far into the "current gen" systems.
And I just don't really feel like there is any real sense of direction on what you are supposed to do/go.
Maybe I didn't give it enough time (an hour or so) but I'm not feeling like I need to go back and play it again.
Can you change the default controller scheme? I used to complain about Resistance using the bumper instead of trigger to fire. Then it occurred to me I was being a dumb ass *as usual*, so I checked and sure enough, I could just reassign the functions so I could use the trigger.
The sandbox thing in general, can definitely feel strange if you aren't use to it, or like the orderly tasks and goals many titles have. The rest I can't comment on, I haven't played it yet.
warcrow
Lifer
To be fair, jumping isnt used as often here as it is in other games. When it is used (at least by me, so your mileage may vary), it's for attacks. I can understand where you're coming from with the control scheme, but it took only a short time for me to adjust to them to the point where it was a non-issue.
What console are you playing this game on?
You're right. 🙂 It's sandbox type game that allows you to pick and choose where you want to go. Hitting the Select button brings up a map that details where you need to go to accomplish certain goals. It will update on the fly too. So as soon as a quest is updated, it'll reflect that in the details on the map. It's makes it pretty straight forward--atleast it did to me.
You've only been playing this game for an hour? Give it more time! Relax and just enjoy the game for what it is. It's kinda like Crackdown. Remember, in a sandbox type game you have a lot of control over the pacing of things. I, personally, was really interested in completeing most of the quests (hubs on the map) on each isle, but you totally dont even need to do that.
I should mention that it's not necessary for you to run around and grab quests. If you wanted to, you could run around in a counter-clockwise motion around the isle and just slaughter things, free prisoners, bash open gates and pillage and progress that way. Or, you can sort of do things in order of the quests that you receive by talking with people. It's totally up to you. I tried ot both ways and it was fun either way. Man, wait till your first big battle. 🙂
One more thing--the beginning of the game is the least fun because basically you have little to no abilities or skills. I dont think this game is going to win any critical awards--but it's pretty darn fun in my opinion.
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