Viking does try to add some depth to the combat with learning combos and new maneuvers throughout Skarin’s journey at battle arenas, but the combos never affect the gameplay as much as they could have. Even though they aren’t that effective, the best learned maneuvers happen to be the ones that allow Skarin to break an enemy’s shield due to that they continually block all of your attacks later on in the game. Outside of these combos, Viking also incorporates the action-time sequence button sequences that occur when you face off against a boss, giant, or heavily armored soldiers. All of the button sequences tend to be the same for enemies that you encounter and run their course of being fun by the time you reach the third island.
Another portion of the combat is the ability to apply rune magic on your weapons. Using the right trigger and then selecting fire, lighting, or ice is an effective way to clear the battlefield in a hurry. The rune magic also is applied to your surrounding soldiers’ swords too, so using the magic at the right time is essential to get the max out of the magic. The magic will run out over time and you can see how much you have left as it drains from your bar on the top of the screen. To gain more rune magic, players only have to kill enemies and collect the red orbs that appear after their deaths. The ice magic is the best to utilize due to that it freezes the enemies instantly upon contact and if you hit them again, they’ll shatter.
In terms of difficulty, you will at least die a few dozen times throughout the course of the game if you are reckless. The enemies aren’t insanely hard to take care of, but they do have strengths in numbers when they surround you in packs. When this happens, it’s best to run away and hope that they don’t pursue. As for the overall length of the game, Viking is around 15-20 hours long in length depending on if you do any of the small side missions that include: finding lost barrels of beer and saving all the tied up soldiers that can be found in caves, on the beachfront, and hidden in many other various places.
The graphical aspects of Viking aren’t one of grandeur. When the big battles occur at the fortified cities, there happens to be a lot of slowdown around the shaman enemies that summon grunts to fight against you. The character models aren’t that detailed and are reused too often to provide any real sense of attachment to any of the characters. Though, the developers should be proud of the large environments they created for players to traverse through. Lastly, the animations of the finishers are well done, but as you move on in the game, they take a little too long to execute.
Overall, the combat is a cinch to grasp a hold of. When you die in Viking, you’ll be resurrected at the home base of the island you currently are on. Players won’t have too much trouble with the controls as they are tight and have no need for adjusting any annoying cameras. The last thing that Viking does well is provide great voice-overs with real emotion behind the delivered dialogue. The only issue with Viking is that once it’s completed, there isn’t anything to drag you back for a second play through. It’s a “one and done” title all the way through.
