Being a viking is not easy, I mean sure you have your pillaging, plundering and looting, which is cool and all, but you have the harsh winters, and your family trying to kill you.
Expeditions: Viking opens (as these stories so often do) with your father’s passing. He died on a journey to the British Isles, so his position of leadership falls to you. Immediately, you’re berated by some of his most bitter enemies and dissenters, and you’re tasked with holding everyone together and bringing glory to your tribe.
However, to ensure long-term stability, the clan must seek political allies (or at least riches) from the mysterious isles and kingdoms across the sea to the west. And so the beleaguered hamlet begins construction of a longboat while your hero sets out to recruit warriors for a classic viking expedition.
You can decide whether to be vicious and cruel or kind and forgiving. To take slaves or to promote freedom. To believe in the old gods or to dismiss them myths. To pillage and loot in foreign lands or to try a more diplomatic approach (which may or may not work, depending on the situation).
Graphics & Sound
If your a fan of early 2000-era graphics CRPG’s then you will be right at home here, I found myself thinking fondly of the days with Ice Wind Dale And Baluder’s Gate. So don’t expect to see some hardcore cutting edge graphics here. Which mind you is not a bad thing at all, this game knows what it is, and it does that very well. I can’t talk enough about the music, it’s wonderful. I’ve said before that I’m a sucker for a great soundtrack to a game, and this was not disappointing in the least bit, even the ambient sounds draws you into the world of the vikings. One minor nitpick though, I wish there was more “battle music” after awhile I found the same songs playing, it was great music, but it just got very repetitive.
Game Play
Most of the game centers around players rebuilding their clan, and your attempts to get revenge on someone who betrays you early on (Keeping this spoiler free kids) , bringing you from Denmark to the British Isles.
There are plenty of places to explore as you make your way through the story, There is a lot of reading, which I found very enjoyable to explore all of the character interactions and other things that help flesh out this world, and see how others react to as you, In almost every situation, there are multiple well written dialogue options that each have a slew of possible solutions and effects on the story.
Some choices even result in the life or death of some important characters, so I had to carefully determine each choice I made. Story is definitely one of Expeditions: Viking’s biggest strengths, and they play to it.
When talking your way out of it won’t work, Viking plays out on a grid of hexagonal tiles allowing you to move within a specific range. The range is denoted in green and yellow, the green obviously allowing you to move and still perform an action while yellow means that you’re sacrificing an action for an extra movement order. Planning your attacks and understanding the strengths and weakness of your team, along with those of the enemies, is vital to ensure your allies don’t take unnecessary damage and sustain injury that might affect their combat effectiveness. Also, using abilities that leaves an enemy stunned or knocked to the ground will ensure that your team can move in for an attack of devastating effect.
When your not using your axe to have your way, As you move around the world, time will pass. Characters will become hungry and you’ll be forced to camp. When you camp, you’ll assign jobs to your followers. It would be advised to make sure to ensure the camp is guarded at all times. Send people out to hunt for meat, others to turn meat into rations. Do you have any injuries in your party? Spend a little time healing them while others craft weapons, armor and items to use in battle.
While you’re passing time you’ll also send orders for your clan to improve the villages’ structures. Everything you build and the actions you decide throughout the game’s major quests improve either the prosperity or power of your clan.
Final Thoughts
The world of vikings is brutal, so be prepared for death, your choices matter so keep that in mind as well! It’s a fun game that drops your in to the harsh world of the vikings, if your a fan of the history of the viking people, than you can’t go wrong here.
For more information you can head over to the official web site or you can purchase the game on Steam.
Logic Artists provided the game for us to review, this in no way reflected into the review.
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