Viking: Battle for Asgard
2008 · The Creative Assembly
Has it aged?Why ↓
Viking: Battle for Asgard is a third-person hack-and-slash that makes raising a Viking army feel like chores. As Skarin, Freya’s champion in the Norse world of Midgard, you free prisoners, fetch supplies and cut through Hel’s soldiers across three open regions, building towards enormous stronghold assaults that deserved a less repetitive game.
A fierce struggle is taking place within Asgard, the realm of the Norse Gods.
The publisher’s description, from its Steam store page.
What it looks like
the trailer, then the store's own shots
The verdict
Skip it unless massed Viking battles are enough to carry hours of repetitive fighting and errands. Hundreds of warriors colliding gives the stronghold assaults real force, but rescuing another settlement and fetching another item wears out its welcome long before the spectacle does. The 2012 PC port’s visual improvements cannot disguise the dated interaction design: even opening chests involves repeated button taps. Scale is its achievement; variety is its failure.
Play it if
You enjoy charging into crowds, using fire-infused sword attacks and watching extravagant dismemberment, and you’re happy to clear similar settlements repeatedly to assemble the army for a huge assault.
Skip it if
You stop playing when combat rewards repeating one attack rather than learning combinations, or when compulsory fetch quests block the next major battle. Both are central to the experience.
Common questions
- What does the 2012 PC port change?
- It adds higher resolutions, anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion and improved lighting and shadows. Use a gamepad: the PC game advises it, and keyboard play makes the combat more awkward.
- What are Leystones, and what happens when Skarin dies?
- Leystones are teleportation points for travelling around the regions, and Skarin respawns at one when killed. Death reduces the resource used for special moves, which you replenish by killing enemies.
- Why do I have to hunt Shamans during the big assaults?
- Shamans replenish Hel’s army, so killing them lets you break through the enemy lines. Expect that objective to recur across the large battles rather than each assault presenting a different tactical problem.
What everyone else said
we link, we don't reprintHas it aged?
How does it hold up today? Based on recent reviews, how opinions have changed since launch, player activity and updates.
% positive each month, last 4 years.
Reviews via Steam ↗Peak: 75 in Jan 2013.
Player counts via SteamCharts ↗Less liked than at launch.
The developer posts no update notes on Steam, so we can't tell.