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War of the Vikings

War of the Vikings

We head once more unto the breach.

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War of the Vikings marks the return of Fatshark's combat series, and following on from the studio's exploration of melee combat during the English civil war in War of the Roses, we're now travelling back even further in time, throwing our sharpened axe into the skirmishes that took place between the Vikings and Saxons on the coast of England many years before the Houses of York and Lancaster bloodied each other's noses.

Vikings will have a familiar feel for all of those who've played Roses, though to call them identical would be to miss the point. Vikings is a streamlined affair in many respects, and while the immediate handling of both games feels very similar, scratching under the surface reveals a more simplified combat system that's easier to get to grips with and more intuitive. Having said all that, it's still an utterly punishing game, and while it is certainly easier to pick up, it's still very tricky to master.

It's obvious that this was part of the design brief, and limiting Roses' wider range of attacking and defensive moves to the three here is a clear indication that Fatshark is aiming at broadening the series' appeal, while retaining the skill-based combat that their previous game has become synonymous with. As before, the cream always rises to the top in War of the Vikings, and if you're not very good (like us) you'll find breaking even on your kill/death ratio very tricky indeed.

Dying a lot isn't always a barrier to fun, though. A good thing considering the amount of death one is subjected to on Viking's servers. Sometimes, it can be overwhelming, and very frustrating, but there's still usually moments in every match where even a layman has the opportunity to do something satisfying in the thick of combat; score an outrageous hit, overcome some staggering odds, make a difference however fleeting or solitary.

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War of the Vikings

The heavy plate armour of Roses is replaced by the simpler defensive garb of the viking age. Third-person avatars wearing chain-mail and helmets dart across a variety of interesting battlefields, set in tonally appropriate locations. Sitting squarely behind you character, you swing your weapon (axe or sword) to the left or right, or centrally from above. If you've got a shield equipped you have the same range of defensive options (otherwise you're left with the more perilous task of deflecting incoming attacks with your weapon).

There's a fairly small range of different weapons to choose from (although you can unlock a larger selection of cosmetically altered options as your progress), with one-handed axes and swords, two-handed axes, spears, and bows. Each player also has the option to carry a throwing weapon; we always go for the axe, but there's knife-based options in there too. Why there isn't dual-wielding axes already in place we have no idea, and although it's been hinted at, we'd have liked this in place from the start. Each weapon has a special attack, and some of these feel slightly over-powered. For example, the sword-jab has a very narrow focus and it's too easy to miss with, whereas the one-hit-kill axe attack sees an avatar spinning around on the spot making it much easier to connect (although, to be fair, it can still be interrupted by an opportunist darting in with a blow midway through the arc of attack).

More often than not the different classes and weapons fit together quite snuggly, and as everything is, for the most part, accurately depicted (historically speaking), nothing feels out of place aside for a few balancing decisions that we don't particularly agree with. The injustice of an over-powered attack is most keenly felt when outnumbered, which happens all the time with swarms of players picking off vulnerable stragglers wherever possible.

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War of the Vikings
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Vikings feels at its best when two clusters of opposing players clash together in eventful pitched battles. Taking chunks out of your own teammates isn't uncommon, especially when trying to tag an enemy with a special move, and you have to accept that there's a fair amount of team killing and let it slide. However, despite accidentally slashing your friends in the back from time to time, getting lost in an en masse melee is really when War of the Vikings is able to demonstrate its true qualities. Some exchanges end with one player horribly outnumbered, duels evolve from nothing in the thick of battle, archers (bloody archers more like) stand at the back and shoot arrows into the fracas and hope to help their team rather than hinder it, all the while trying to avoid the advances of soldiers hunting an easy kill. It's chaotic at times, brutal for the most part, and as frustrating as it is enjoyable, but it's unique and, usually, exciting.

That's not to say that there aren't issues. The netcode can feel a bit laggy from time to time, and while we have it on good authority that the hit detection is incredibly specific, it doesn't always feel like that in the midst of battle. Too often the outcome and the animation doesn't marry up, and even if your opponent has you bang to rights, if that's not represented properly on screen, it can lead to frustration. As it was in Roses, you can resurrect fallen comrades, and dispatch those who've died and are awaiting revival, but the finishing moves felt a little inconsistent; surely one hit - no matter how slight - on a downed foe should be enough to finish them off (still, it's better than it was in Roses).

There's a few other things that niggled away at our enjoyment. Sometimes you can respawn right in the middle of an attack, heavily outnumbered and destined to die immediately. Other times you can find yourself sent over to the other team to balance things out, but there's no clear indication that this is going to happen; one minute you simply switch teams. If you're playing with friends, like we were, you can suddenly find yourself fighting your buddy. Not in itself an issue, but jarring nonetheless.

War of the Vikings

From a visual perspective it's a decent looking game. There's some nice textures and the lighting is good. The animations are, for the most part, solid. Fatshark has clearly got better with the Bitsquid engine, and their mastery shows. That said, we'd have appreciated even more maps than are already present. There's both large and small maps, but if, like us, you gravitate towards the bigger player counts, you won't get to see many of the smaller arenas very often, and it's not long before over-familiarity sets in. The maps themselves look fantastic, but there's perhaps not enough going on inside them to really set them apart.

Across the different maps there are a selection of game modes, but again, not as many as we'd have perhaps liked. The main course is the basic kill-em-all mentality of the deathmatch mode, but there's modes that feature capture points and shorter battles played out in individual rounds whereby players have but one life each. Presumably there's going to be more maps and modes released over time, but they'll be sorely missed if you let the game get its hooks into you.

If you're to become addicted to the savage warfare of yesteryear, a large part of that will be down to the robust customisation options. You can spend a lot of time adjusting the look of your character, from shield decorations to the length of your beard. There's also buffs that can be unlocked with experience earned in-game. These perks might be slight, but they'll certainly adjust the way you play. If you prefer to hang back and fill your enemies with arrows, you can create your character to represent that, but if you like to express yourself with an axe in your hand, you can add buffs that improve your stamina and so on. All told, the customisation options are really decent, and one of the game's stronger elements.

Ultimately we appreciated what War of the Vikings is trying to do (a special shoutout should go to the attention to detail, as well as the characterful Icelandic and ye olde English audio work, which is superb). Some of the time we really enjoyed the barbarity of the combat and the tug of war between the two forces, but it's also fair to say that we regularly found ourselves frustrated and on the periphery of the battles. When it works, the combat is glorious and exciting, but there's a bit too much hit and miss (pardon the pun) for us to give it a wholehearted endorsement.

War of the VikingsWar of the Vikings
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07 Gamereactor UK
7 / 10
+
+ Looks good, streamlined controls, skill-focussed, great audio, customisation options aplenty
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- Can feel a bit laggy, some dodgy respawns, lack of modes and not enough done with the maps
overall score
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War of the VikingsScore

War of the Vikings

REVIEW. Written by Mike Holmes

"It's still an utterly punishing game, and while it is certainly easier to pick up, it's still very tricky to master."



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