ace3502's Full Review: Viking: Battle for Asgard for Xbox 360
Maker Sega has really impressed me with their release Viking: Battle For Asgard for the Xbox 360 console which came out in March of 2008. The story line is relatively well thought out and the gameplay and graphics are top notch. I was pleased with the game overall but it does have a few minor down sides which I will discuss. The game rating is M for mature as there is some extensive blood and gore throughout the entire game and the game is single player with no multiplayer or online play options.
Overview You begin the game dying in a battle. Odd, I know but that's the way they chose to start. Your character, Skarin, is a gifted Viking warrior who is chosen by a "god" Freya to come back to life and battle an evil force called the Legion who has taken over portions of your world Midgard and is fixated on taking over your entire world of Asgard. Lead by the evil "god" Hel, the Legion forces have established strongholds across your land and need to be dealt with. Taking over small areas and setting up minor camps with less than 10 guys to large camps with over 30, they almost always have captive viking warriors you have to free. Whether it be just 3 Vikings tied to a pole in the middle of the woods, or a small group of 10 or so held captive in a wooden prison heavily guarded by Legion forces, it is your job to free them and increase your army. With that increased army you can then assault the major fortress and castles that the Legion has also taken over through epic battles that involve dragons, shamans, and countless soldiers. Pretty decent story line if you ask me.
The game is rated M for mature and man are they ever serious. The game has extensive blood and gore scenes throughout the entire game. Every enemy you fight will shed blood, and depending on the finishing move you choose or the coordinated move you choose (learned from the battle arena where you can upgrade character moves) Skarin will chop off an arm, both arms, a head, all three of those, or cut the torso in half at the waist.
Was the gore a bit over done? I think it was, I'm not a huge fan of it but I know some are so this game comes highly recommended for those of you who do appreciate that type of game play. It didn't necessarily detract from the game during play but I could have just as easily gone without that constant level of decapitation and dismemberment.
Game Play / Objectives - 8.5 / 10 The game is a third person slasher. The controls are simple enough with the left control stick managing your guy and the right controlling the camera angle which in almost all scenes can move 360 degrees around your character. Skarin starts out in a small camp held by mortals, one of the few left. You speak with the various villagers around and gain objectives from what they tell you. Your map, which you can access by pressing the < button, will hold all of your information of where you need to go based upon information your receive. Throughout the map there are bags / pots / chests of gold which you can use to aide Skarin in his quest. This is an aspect of the game that I'm glad the creators put in. I am a big fan of what I call progressive games where you can upgrade your character or your strengths or weapons etc. This guise of a slasher game is accentuated with a great feature that, with this gold you collect, you can upgrade your health and weapons as you progress through the game. In addition to that you can go to a special battle arena in the game and learn skilled moves (designated by various button combinations during battle) that can help you take down stronger or shielded enemies quicker, which is a necessity as you get to some of the more difficult characters in the game. Another great feature they added are the dragon gems. Throughout the game there are dragon gems (or in some cases fragments you have to collect and reassemble) which you use to summon a good dragon to fight on your side and help you in the epic castle stronghold battles in the game. These dragons can be used during battle to attack certain areas and help you progress through the enemy fort with a fire ball explosion of help from above.
The map for the game is quite large and a bit tedious to run through. There are transport points that you can use called leystones, which allow you to touch them and transport to any other on the map (that you have already walked up to and "discovered" in order to unlock it for use). They do make the game play easier but I definitely wish there were more because 40% of my gameplay was running, very slowly I might add, through this giant map one step at a time to get to my destination.
Graphics - 9.5 / 10 The graphics in the game are excellent. During normal game play the character trudges through anything from swamp lands to forests to edges of cliffs, all with detailed surroundings and backgrounds which make for a very realistic environment. The details in the character, the fighting and the terrain are very well done and crisp but the real money shots are during the battles. After culminating an army large enough, Skarin takes the battle to a large front such as a castle or fortress to fight countless numbers of enemies with his army behind him. The graphics both during these battles and in the little mini videos before and during the battle are excellent. From the dragons swooping in and breathing fire on a group of enemies to the aerial view of your enemies collecting at the entrances of the fortresses to barricade you out, the screen shots are very well done. One thing that I did enjoy / dislike about the game is the jumping. Now let me prompt this with, I don't like heights. Countless times in the game when I would be on a ledge or something to that effect, I would either jump trying to make it across to something or just try to jump down and the graphics were so on point that they made my stomach drop. I don't know if any other video game has ever made my stomach drop before because the graphics while jumping off a cliff were that realistic. Points to them for that one.
Sound - 9 / 10 The sound quality matched the graphics quality. They did not skimp on the audio aspect of the game, but instead gave it a very life like and genuine audio aspect to help enhance the great visual game play. The clashing of hundreds of swords during battle or the scream of a dragon as he breathes fire along a castle wall are all crisp and audible during a melee of action in a major battle scene. The intricacies during non battle times were also well done. From the banging of a blacksmiths hammer in town to the crashes of ocean waves as you stand at the top of a cliff they also did well with the small details. The soundtrack was very good as it helped to build the mood before and during major battle scenes. That ominous deep bass drum and slow string music really got your heart racing before you even saw the enemies.
Achievements - 9 / 10 There are 50 achievements in the game for a possible 1,000 Gamer Points. They are relatively easy to get for the most part you can get about 85% of them just by playing through the game once on Hard and all of the Normal and Hard achievements will unlock at the same time. There are a few that take some extra work but for the most part are relatively easy. I achieved 50/50 for all 1,000 points and would say that they are pretty easy to get. The game has no online mode so all of the achievements must be done in the single player mode in the game.
Down Sides The down sides to the game play were minor but they were still there. The biggest down side I found was the game has literally zero replay value. Now some of the achievements for it are to beat the game on normal and beat the game on hard (along with beating different castles on normal and hard as well) but I would highly recommend (as I was advised) to go through it on hard mode and beat everything because hard is not very hard at all. If I had to go through a second time on hard to get those achievements, after beating it on normal and seeing all of the intricacies of the game and the nickel and dime missions that take two minutes to do but 15 minutes to run to across the map, I would have been livid.
The leystones which help you transport throughout the map are good, but there needs to be more of them. As I said above a large portion of my time playing was spent running from point to point because there wasn't a leystone close enough for me to transport to to get the mission done quicker.
Finally the camera work was not perfect. This is a very minor detail but it could get a little annoying on a few occasions. 90% of the time you could use your camera to your advantage seeing over crates you're hiding behind or around corners, but on a few occasions it prevented me from switching angles and seeing an attack coming or hindered my ability to defend myself. This detail was very very minor and hardly affects game play so I wouldn't worry about my picky nature in regard to this.
Overall - 9 / 10 Viking is a entertaining game. The graphics and sound make for a great visual and audio experience and the progression of the game is quick enough (most of the time) to keep you wanting more. The replay value isn't there but the initial play-through will keep you entertained and give you your moneys worth.
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