Vikings - Wolves of Midgard

Vikings – Wolves of midgard takes a lot of cues from its competition – as well it should. Its an ARPG, much like in the vein of Diablo or Path of Exile where you run through dungeons (raids), collect loot and XP and build a character that does magical, majestic, mayhem and masterful butchery of everything that moves. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRhTpadPoyg Text: The games leveling and progression system is a lot more fluid then that of most competitors, throwing out classes to allow free-form skill trees where a player can level up and invest in as they deem fit. This creates a more dynamic experience where you can expand beyond the limitations you pre-selected if you feel something is more cool during gameplay. This also translates to weapons with crafting and progression being a lot more fluid and allowing you to experiment more, especially as you have some control over upgrading and building your own town in terms of which vendors and crafting stations you upgrade. The downside is that the truly outrageous stuff you can do with other ARPGS with exploding blades of flaming farts, are very much limited with the majority of items providing passive buffs. This means that while getting cool looking items is great – their actual effects are pretty boring. Thankfully, the combat makes up for that with varied enemies and challenges between different areas, locales, vistas and mechanics while still keeping a clean style where you just want to keep pushing forward. So while the mechanics are basic on face value, using the varied enemies and skills coupled with the limited healing available does create challenge. Also – slow motion killcams never get old. All good taken along, the game does have some bugs and issues, mostly focused around the interface and various problems with the inventory being unresponsive and minor ease of use annoyances. All in all, not a bad package at all with decent replay value with NG+ and pretty nice content overall.

Okay, so a bit of background - I've been gaming since Pong, the Commodore 64, and the Atari 2600. I've run through every "X" Quest game Sierra ever put out, and spent months with games like Starflight, Phantasie, Myst, and Riven before Google was even a thought. Don't get me started on Diablo and Diablo II... To preface, I've been playing Grim Dawn, which is awesome (especially after the latest patch). For people looking for skill trees that go for miles, being able to customize your characters eyebrows, or games where every decision you make affects the outcome of events...this "might" not be your game. However...it might just be what you're looking for. I love the mechanics of this game. So much so, this is my first review on GOG, and I have over 40 games. Granted, I have only reached 15th level so far, but I wanted to write this, so that anyone on the fence, will cross over and buy this one. It's just damn fun. Hack and slash, yes - but I have yet to be bored. The boss battles are interesting, and require some attention. You die, you start back at the last checkpoint (no lost XP, no grave marker to fight to) and you keep going. This is a game that is purely entertaining - it's not trying to achieve some Tolkienesque grandeur...you run, roll, kill, and destroy. I use a Logitech F310 gamepad for the action, and the mouse for inventory and buying/selling. Another plus - you are not inundated with useless loot requiring un-ending trips to town to unload, and everything takes one spot in your inventory - be it a two-handed axe, full chain mail, or a ring. If you're looking for a game where you get to just kill everything in your way, and not worry about which faction you're offending, or whose feelings you're hurting - this is the game for you. I strongly recommend it! Sidenote: I've studied Norse mythology since I was very young - in my opinion, this title does those old tales justice and then some.

Graphically, it is quite beautiful. Mechanically, it doesn't work, and as ARPGs are all about the mechanics, this game fails to deliver. Playstyle is heavily restricted by gear choice, and passive effects unlocked via gifts (acquired at level up) are locked to specific gear. I choose Thor, and he gives bonuses for twohanded weapons, but if you use anything other than a twohander, you lose access to all of the passive effects as well as the active abilities. Gear drops are basically non-existent. I played until about LV 4, and I rage quitted because I got a Legendary Bow piece (requires lvl 28... why is it dropping at lvl 4?) and a Legendary Twohanded hammer... with worse stats than my starter twohanded weapon... what the heck?!?!? You rarely get anything that is worth equipping, even though items do drop. Supposedly you can get better stuff from crafting, but that requires obscene amounts of resources to upgrade a smithy. Level up bonuses are pretty weak. You get to choose to give a single point into damage, health, etc... but each only gives +1%. Yep, 1 percent increase per level. And with the gifts locked to weapon choice, there is very little character customization or even worthwhile rewards given at level up. Shame... Controls are not ideal for an ARPG, and you will often get stuck on wierd things and rolling is less effective than I thought as enemies often track you and hit you regardless. I really wanted to give this a fair chance, but it just isn't do a good job. It had a good first impression for the first 15 minutes, but after that, everything just fell apart, and I would highly recommend avoiding this title.

I've played until level 6 so far and I have enjoyed it too much. It is addictive. I play with a cheap Afterglow controller, not the keyboard/mouse, and I have found the controls to be intuitive and easy to use, with the HUD showing your abilities and which button goes with that ability staring you in the face if you forget. Before I played, I read some negative reviews that centered around controls, and I have not found that. Perhaps it is a keyboard/mouse issue. I've not found any true bugs. There might be a spot where you should be able to skip a movie scene that I couldn't skip out of, but that is about it, and it only happened once. I am using a computer I built, with AMD FX8320, 8 GB ram, and a Radeon 9 200 series graphics card with the game installed on an external hard drive. I have the settings on high. During some battles, I do get a stutter of graphics, where I am using a spell/ability and the screen stops for a brief second, but it doesn't hamper my ability to fight. It is more an eye candy failure than something that affects gameplay and my system is several years old and wasn't the top of the line by any stretch when I built it. The voice acting is OK. Not a plus, not a minus. The story is interesting enough so far, but I haven't gotten far into it. The action is where you fall in love though. It is fun to use your abilities and melee to destory enemies. harhar har har!! I am a shieldmaiden/Odin. The crafting is not onerous like it is in some games. It is there and easy to use. The inventory system just holds the ingredients and shopkeepers have the recipes. If you want more recipes, you can upgrade the shop. The gold you gain has plenty of places to be spent. The leveling up is gradual, but rewarding. I will say that it almost seems to easy for me at times. The environment danger is more real than fighting at times. You can adjust the difficulty, so there is that. Plus you can play in a mode where death is real. So far--- I LOVE IT... too much.