For me it always seems that Vikings have been overlooked when it comes to gaming. I know there have been plenty of games featuring Vikings but the number of titles focused primarily on Vikings exclusively just seems small. Well now we get an action game that centers upon Norse mythology and all the bloody, brutal legends to go along with it. Viking focuses on the story of Skarin and his battle against Hel, leader of the underworld, and her army of undead Vikings called the Legion.

The first area we need to discuss in Viking is the gameplay. The majority of the gameplay is a hack-and-slash game with tons of gore and violence. You find an enemy camp and you start hacking away at the enemies. You find another enemy camp or hideout and you keep on hacking away. All of the combat is a breeze to unleash with most of the combat based on pressing the A or X button. The A button is labeled the fast rage moves while the X button is the slow rage moves. The longer you hold down either button the more potent of an attack or combo you will unleash. When you’ve stunned an enemy an X icon will appear which allows you to perform a deadly finishing move, usually where you chop the enemy into several pieces.  

The game does offer a few training areas you will find in the game to learn additional combos. Honestly, I never felt that these additional combos really did much during the regular combat in the game. Timing your moves just right or hacking away seemed to be just as successful either way. Certain enemy encounters, usually mid-level boss characters, allow you to perform a bloody-and-brutal finishing combo by following on-screen button presses at precise times. If you mess up the combo you will have to repeat the button sequences again in order to defeat these characters to progress in the game.  If you’ve played God of War then you should already know what to expect with these huge combos.

For me the biggest difference maker in the combat was the rune magic: Fire, Lightning and Ice. During combat red orbs will appear from fallen enemies. These red orbs charge your Power Bar, which determines how long you can use the rune magic. Pressing the right trigger brings up a menu to select which run magic you want to use. Once you’ve selected a particular magic you will have a significantly higher attack until your Power Bar runs out. I found the ice magic to work the best since it froze the enemies, which came in very useful when fighting several monsters at a time. Another way to use your Power Bar was by pressing the A and X button together to perform Focused Power move. These attacks are extremely powerful and will hit all nearby enemies but will deplete your Power Bar.

Part of the game has a light strategy element to it since you have to rescues captured Vikings on the map in order to build up your army. Each map or area you’re battling in usually has a boss location that you have to take out as the end goal. But there are several tasks you must complete before you can attack the enemy’s headquarters. One of them is always rescuing enough Vikings to amass a large enough army ready for battle. You will discover enemy hideouts, camps, bases, cave, et cetera where the other Vikings are being held captive. Once you’ve destroyed all of the enemies within the camp you can then free the Vikings, which itself is another button-mashing segment of the game. Repeatedly pressing the B button allows you to use various items in the game, such as freeing captured Vikings from their prisons and opening treasure chests.

The rest of the gameplay is a rather run-of-the-mill example of adventure gaming. You have to search for different items in the game, usually scattered across various locations on the map. Once you’ve located an item you then have to bring it back to a certain person in the game to unlock the next event. After you’ve cleared all of the mini quests and conquered all of the enemy hideouts you are then ready to attack the enemy headquarters for the stage. The only true bright spot in the rather standard adventure gaming elements was the ability to move around the map. Each stage has numerous portals, called Leystones, scattered about which allow you to teleport from one to another. Once you die you always start at the beginning of the map inside a Leystone circle. Press the B button several times and then select the Leystone you need to travel to on your map.

Viking is one of those games that does just enough right to make it a fun game but lacks the substance to keep you playing over and over again. Once you’ve cleared the first map the rest of the game feels very repetitive which can be an issue with many hack 'n slash-type games. The combat in the game always felt nice and responsive since the majority of the combat is handled by pressing two buttons. There was always the sick sense of satisfaction from chopping enemies into several pieces. The special super combos were always spectacular looking and were usually easy enough to pull off after one or two attempts.

Gameplay: 8.0
The combat is a piece of cake since you don’t have to worry about a pressing some elaborate button combination to pull off your moves. The controls were always tight and easy to perform during most of the game. After a while you will probably get bored performing the same moves over and over again, even after you’ve learned new moves.

Graphics: 7.4
At first I really thought Viking was going to be visual treat but after a couple of hours I started to notice some issues. The majority of the game looks fantastic with a huge open world full of lush details such as grassy meadows, beaches and huge buildings such as castles, ruins, etc. Yet once you get up close all of the characters look too dark, especially your character. Skarin seemed to always have a bad case of shadows; no matter the camera angle he seemed to be drowning in shadows. There were some pop-up issues, especially in the grass, which would occasionally cause the frame rate to slightly sputter. The graphics at the beginning of the game and during the cut scenes between maps had a comic-book style look to them that was impressive.

Sound: 7.5
All of the voice acting in the game was top notch. All of the voice actors sounded excellent when speaking their lines with emotion. The music in the game was almost non-existent except for certain portions of the game such as the last battle at the enemy headquarters.

Concept: 7.6
It really is hard for a hack-and-slash game to really excel and break out of its confined box. There are parts of Viking where the game tries to break out, such as the adventure elements and special combo moves, but in the end it still falls back within its description. Hack and slash is the name and that is the core parts of Viking’s game.

Difficulty: Medium
Nothing too challenging but do expect to restart several times.

Overall: 7.6
Viking is a good game that will provide its mandatory entertainment factor to almost anyone that plays it. The problem comes up in how long will the entertainment value will last? For some it could be several hours while others it could be several days. If you understand the repetitive nature of the game then you shouldn’t be disappointed with Viking. Setting our expectations at just the right level can definitely help in appreciating certain games.