Well then, having been handed this game for free with the words "its shit. utter shit, even you will get bored of it before you finish it" still ringing in my ears I sat down to play through the "cheap-suit cheap-suit" RPG game Viking: Battle For Asgard.
The game is Fable 2 without the good bits and without the questionably good bits (aka magic, character customisation, and variety of game play) In fact I'm fairly sure the graphics engine is the same/damn similar as models move and interact in similar ways to Peter Molyneux's greatest achievement (in my opinion, its the only game he's ever done I've truly enjoyed) There are however some visual face-plants. Cutscenes are either in game graphics and none of the character's lips move nor do they show any hint of interaction with each other, or a badly put together "Wii'y" slide show of sketchy art work narrated by BRIAN BLESSED (its in all of his contracts that his name is always written in capitals. I don't make the rules) Another odd hole in the game would be the character design for the protagonist, Skarin. He wields an axe in his left hand and a sword in his right and yet for some reason the developers chose to put his scabbard on the left shoulder.......can't even begin to formulate a reason why.
Combat time. Against only a handful of unshielded enemies, combat is fun in the early stages of the game, but your health is too low to take more than a few hits. Once shielded and berserker enemies become commonplace the combat is more akin to "shitshitshitshit can i pull of this combo and then dodge that counterattack before those three big dudes rape my health" I was juggled to death by 4 shielded enemies as i didn't have the time to use a heavy attack and break any shields. However as soon as certain combos have been learnt at the arena you can, well, make enemies explode. Nuff said really. Other combat issues are related to mini boss fights, champions or giants. After enough damage has been done quick time events are used to finish off the enemies. Champions have three sets of QTEs whilst giants only have one.......which is also how you finish of the final boss. This is ridiculously lazy on the developers half. There is an element of magic thrown in for good measure as well. Mana is collected from defeated enemies and can be released through weapon runes as either fire, ice or lightening. These powers are most useful to bolster allies during battles as opposed to being in any way useful during combat. OK, yes, you can either drain mana slowly and help allies or get rid of it in one go with a more "powerful" move (ice = freezes enemies touching you [shit], lightening = lifts one enemy in the air and damages it [less shit] fire = flamethrower in front of you, weak but sets enemies on fire [passably good]) I very rarely used magic outside of each island's final battle to help my allies. Also, irritating beyond belief, it takes about 40 enemies to fill your mana bar. On tap of R2 and O and it all drains away with no way to stop it.
OK game play. In all essence a free roam game in which objectives are given in a linear fashion and all have to be completed in order to attack the stronghold on each island. These objectives are always...ALWAYS rescue a longboat full of hairy bikers with axes where they're faces should be, liberate a quarry/siege works to acquire the necessary equipment to assault the strong holds and a farm to provide you with healing potions to be bought from each of the three island's markets. Despite being the same every time these quests are not so time intensive to become boring. Other points worth mentioning are related to the game's fast travel system - leystones. These serve as not only in-game save points upon discovery, not only as teleport units for fast travel but they also serve as annoyingly located respawn points which are inevitably irritatingly far away from your current objective. The developers of this game obviously have some sort of under the table deal going down with arthritis pill companies. Instead of just simply holding circle to untie captives or activate leystones rapid, bone-shattering mashing of the button is required. This annoyed me more than anything else in this game. And hurt me. My thumb hurts because of playing this game. There is also an obvious last minute addition of "stealth." I say it like that because creeping around a fortress with a character with an obvious penchant for gymnastics who takes every opportunity to mount any beam, fence, barrel, donkey, RIGHT when the enemy patrol is the other side of it. This smacks of a lack of test gaming. Speaking of last minute additions, currency comes in the form of gold found in sacks, chests or jars across the three islands. They flash making the entire "treasure hunt" game play element I so enjoyed from games like Uncharted, redundant. And to add salty semen into the already rape-raw gaping stab wound of failure that was my last point.......on each island you can buy CHEAP MAPS which display all gold sites as blips on the minimap. Why even bother......
In the end though, gallivanting about islands freeing vikings to raise an army is cool. No other word for it really. The dragon powers are under developed, just like everything else in the game, but its still enjoyable burning legions of enemy forces from the sky. I would never have paid money for this game, so with that it has evidently failed its main purpose. Saying that, I did manage to last the entire game and still wanted to play it. More than can be said for the previous owner, that ADHD ridden-bastard.
The game is Fable 2 without the good bits and without the questionably good bits (aka magic, character customisation, and variety of game play) In fact I'm fairly sure the graphics engine is the same/damn similar as models move and interact in similar ways to Peter Molyneux's greatest achievement (in my opinion, its the only game he's ever done I've truly enjoyed) There are however some visual face-plants. Cutscenes are either in game graphics and none of the character's lips move nor do they show any hint of interaction with each other, or a badly put together "Wii'y" slide show of sketchy art work narrated by BRIAN BLESSED (its in all of his contracts that his name is always written in capitals. I don't make the rules) Another odd hole in the game would be the character design for the protagonist, Skarin. He wields an axe in his left hand and a sword in his right and yet for some reason the developers chose to put his scabbard on the left shoulder.......can't even begin to formulate a reason why.
Combat time. Against only a handful of unshielded enemies, combat is fun in the early stages of the game, but your health is too low to take more than a few hits. Once shielded and berserker enemies become commonplace the combat is more akin to "shitshitshitshit can i pull of this combo and then dodge that counterattack before those three big dudes rape my health" I was juggled to death by 4 shielded enemies as i didn't have the time to use a heavy attack and break any shields. However as soon as certain combos have been learnt at the arena you can, well, make enemies explode. Nuff said really. Other combat issues are related to mini boss fights, champions or giants. After enough damage has been done quick time events are used to finish off the enemies. Champions have three sets of QTEs whilst giants only have one.......which is also how you finish of the final boss. This is ridiculously lazy on the developers half. There is an element of magic thrown in for good measure as well. Mana is collected from defeated enemies and can be released through weapon runes as either fire, ice or lightening. These powers are most useful to bolster allies during battles as opposed to being in any way useful during combat. OK, yes, you can either drain mana slowly and help allies or get rid of it in one go with a more "powerful" move (ice = freezes enemies touching you [shit], lightening = lifts one enemy in the air and damages it [less shit] fire = flamethrower in front of you, weak but sets enemies on fire [passably good]) I very rarely used magic outside of each island's final battle to help my allies. Also, irritating beyond belief, it takes about 40 enemies to fill your mana bar. On tap of R2 and O and it all drains away with no way to stop it.
OK game play. In all essence a free roam game in which objectives are given in a linear fashion and all have to be completed in order to attack the stronghold on each island. These objectives are always...ALWAYS rescue a longboat full of hairy bikers with axes where they're faces should be, liberate a quarry/siege works to acquire the necessary equipment to assault the strong holds and a farm to provide you with healing potions to be bought from each of the three island's markets. Despite being the same every time these quests are not so time intensive to become boring. Other points worth mentioning are related to the game's fast travel system - leystones. These serve as not only in-game save points upon discovery, not only as teleport units for fast travel but they also serve as annoyingly located respawn points which are inevitably irritatingly far away from your current objective. The developers of this game obviously have some sort of under the table deal going down with arthritis pill companies. Instead of just simply holding circle to untie captives or activate leystones rapid, bone-shattering mashing of the button is required. This annoyed me more than anything else in this game. And hurt me. My thumb hurts because of playing this game. There is also an obvious last minute addition of "stealth." I say it like that because creeping around a fortress with a character with an obvious penchant for gymnastics who takes every opportunity to mount any beam, fence, barrel, donkey, RIGHT when the enemy patrol is the other side of it. This smacks of a lack of test gaming. Speaking of last minute additions, currency comes in the form of gold found in sacks, chests or jars across the three islands. They flash making the entire "treasure hunt" game play element I so enjoyed from games like Uncharted, redundant. And to add salty semen into the already rape-raw gaping stab wound of failure that was my last point.......on each island you can buy CHEAP MAPS which display all gold sites as blips on the minimap. Why even bother......
In the end though, gallivanting about islands freeing vikings to raise an army is cool. No other word for it really. The dragon powers are under developed, just like everything else in the game, but its still enjoyable burning legions of enemy forces from the sky. I would never have paid money for this game, so with that it has evidently failed its main purpose. Saying that, I did manage to last the entire game and still wanted to play it. More than can be said for the previous owner, that ADHD ridden-bastard.
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