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When the Lord of the Rings Trilogy was released, it indirectly influenced the gaming industry. We’re not referring to the Lord of the Rings games, but elsewhere, particularly Viking: Battle for Asgard. Viking: Battle for Asgard is the latest game from UK developers, The Creative Assembly. They’re known for their critically acclaimed strategy series, Total War. Therefore, Viking is a branch out, taking pseudo-strategy elements to the arcade hack and slash genre. Boasting visceral combat, combo-ridden attacks and ‘next-gen’ visuals, the game in theory sounds like an intriguing concept. Does Viking: Battle for Asgard pillage the genre successfully or does it end up getting smote by the Norse Gods?
You play the Viking champion Skarin who’s been entrusted by the goddess Freya to combat the evil doings of the goddess Hel. Hel’s attempting to initiate Ragnarok, the Norse apocalypse which will destroy the gods and mankind. Hel’s unleashed her demonic undead Legion on Asgard in an effort to wipe out the opposition. As Skarin, it’s your job to fight your way through the hordes to destroy Hel. It’s typical video game plot, but it’s founded well in Norse mythology so while melodramatic, and full of over the top voice acting, it serves its purpose successfully. With a distinct ‘historical context,’ it means the story flows well and unveils itself in a satisfactory manner. The game’s story unveils itself through comic-book style cut scenes, in-engine cut scenes and through NPC dialogue in game. To prevent such an apocalypse you’re given control of a burly, no-nonsense war machine that’s 100% muscle. With your trusty axe and sword, a pendent to provide light in caves, and a host of other equipment (like health potions, throwing axes and flame-pots), you’re charged with unleashing pain and torment on the undead. Alongside your weapons, you have access to three elemental magical powers; Ice, Fire and Lightning. They’re upgradeable and help to inflict higher amounts of damage on your enemies. When in combat you can use quick attacks or slower, more powerful attacks. Combining both unleashes devastating combos that rip the limbs from your enemies. When stunned, you can commit to a finisher that results in a slow motion cut in half, or decapitation. It’s deeply satisfying to watch and gruesome to the extreme. Squeamish players need not apply and there are bucket loads of gore.  As you progress through the game and find enough gold (which you will be doing a lot of; searching for chests, pots and bags of it) you’ll be able to visit the battle arena which allows the purchase of new combos and moves. Each is more violent than the last and they’re a joy to use. The combat is fluid and very rewarding. It’s gratifying and you can’t disapprove of the violence because it works so well. As the game develops, you’re come across stronger enemies, which require more hits and pack a meatier punch. They’ll have shields and will call in reinforcements. Even so, the difficulty level stays the same as you’re immortal. You’ll respawn back at camp if you die and if it occurs in a large battle then your shaman resurrects you. You’ll empty your rage bar (which is filled by killing and leaked by using the elemental powers), but that’s the only penalty. There are teleport waystones to transport you around the islands (there are three in total, each larger than the last) so your distance to travel is eliminated. To use the waystones you have to find them first and that means running around searching aimlessly. Run, run and more running. Viking doesn’t hold fast on making you sprint about the island from location to location with often nothing to do in between. It gets old fast and can be very boring. By the end of the game (which lasts about 15hours), you’ll most likely be sick of it. It’s one of Viking’s major gripes which could have been fixed with ditching the huge scale and condensing the islands. Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. Once you’ve reached a location (indicated on the map) you’ll fight your way through the crowds of foes and then be tasked with tapping a button to free your trapped comrades. You’ll tap B (on Xbox360) to open a cage, unlock a door, open a chest, use an amulet, summon a dragon and to initiate the sex minigame. Ok, we lied about the last one, but all the others are true. We don’t mind it once or twice but its excessive use is just outdated. We’re fine with the inclusion of quicktime events to take down the large champions, or towering giants, but to open a chest by tapping B for the n’th time is just ridiculous. We mentioned giants. Viking’s key selling point is, once you’ve freed enough of your comrades; got enough siege equipment and supplies, is you can take on one of the captured cities. Your army marches to the gates and a full scale battle is unleashed. You’re tasked with taking down shamans, champions and giants to progress and that’s helped by the Airstrike-like Dragons that you can summon to reign down fire and brimstone. Once you’ve finished the first island, you repeat the same formula but just under a bigger scale.  The game lavishes graphical effects on the player and even in the battles; we found that the frame-rate stayed smooth. Character models are detailed and animation smooth and silky. The textures are crisp and there’s an effective sense of scale being shown. The game’s a well rounded product, and even with it’s arguable repetitive combat, it still offers an enjoyable Norse romp. It can be tedious in parts and it’s ‘mission’ structure fails to vary, but it’s still worthy of its score. Score: 7/10 (Viking: Battle for Asgard is out on Microsoft Xbox360 (copy reviewed) and Sony PS3)
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