Like War of the Roses, War of the Vikings is a heavily skill based action game, like the medieval Call of Duty or Battlefield, although Vikings developer FatShark have fine-tuned the experience even more. It’s hard to really describe most of the changes that they’ve done, but playing it definitely ‘feels’ different to War of the Roses. There are some obvious things, like the power bar and how the directional combat works, the fact that every weapon has a special attack, and other little things like you not having ammo for bows etc., and the new throwing weapons. You can also dodge; tackle whilst running as well as countless other small changes, many we haven’t even seen yet.
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Lovely vistas – the environments in Vikings really are something to be proud of |
On top of all that, it’s hard. More than any other game I’ve played in my life (I haven’t played many MOBA’s, so we won’t go there for now), there seems to be less room for people to ‘get by’ with Vikings. I remember playing War of the Roses when it first came out – I wasn’t amazing, but I liked to think I held my own, but not so much anymore. Going back to it for a quick comparison, I got my ass handed to me more times than I’d like to admit. You could probably factor into account things like there being less of a casual population in Roses – the people are there because they’re good and they want to remain good, and it basically means people like me are cannon fodder. Vikings is even worse in many respects – the fine-tuning into how that game plays, whilst too subtle for words, means that to be competitive you have to be really, really good.
This is probably keeping with the theme – the thing about Roses is that you’re in the height of the medieval era, just before Gunpowder really started changing warfare forever. You’ve got plate armour and huge swords and everything... in the age of the Vikings, you were lucky to have a piece of chainmail that wasn’t broken in several places. Your shields are also made of wood, and can crack easily, so defensive tactics aren’t as effective as they used to be. You’ve got to get good at stabbing people and stabbing them hard, with a surprising degree of accuracy. At least it looks gorgeous – War of the Roses wasn’t an ugly game, but the improvements to the engine in Vikings give everything that extra special shine. If there weren’t homicidal Vikings trying to gut me or take my head off all the time, you could actually have a really nice experience just appreciating the environments.
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Moments like this, where both sides are fighting over a single chokepoint, can be pretty frantic but pretty awesome as well |
On the Spectrum of... stuff? Vikings probably rates more on the Call of Duty side of things at the moment. There’s some room for co-op – like the newly included two-handed spear. Wielding this beat of a pointy thing is only for experienced players, and you’ll definitely need a bro with a shield to help protect you against immediate threats. Aside from that though, it’s all a bit of a free-for-all right now. No real opportunities for genuine co-operation other than mutually wanting your team to win, and the environments, while stunning, lack interaction. This is not much different from War of the Roses to be fair, but it’s still kind of sad to be in such a beautiful environment that you can’t really touch, or interact with in any meaningful way. I suppose everyone will be too busy throwing Javelins at each other to care though.
At the time of writing, War of the Vikings has officially gone into Beta. There are a number of different classes now available to both sides, although full load-out customization isn’t available yet. There’s a handful of maps, and they’re testing out their new ‘Conquest’ objective mode at the moment as well. That adds a little bit more structure to a match than simply racking up a kill count for your team, so it’s a refreshing addition at the moment. More maps and features are to be expected in the new year. Overall Vikings is shaping up to be a pretty decent game, although its place in the company’s larger strategy has yet to be tested. Apart from the era, there doesn’t seem to be a hell of a lot of incentive to switch over right now, or support both titles, but perhaps the community will appreciate the increased level of skill required to play. It’ll certainly help on the Esports front.
Top Game Moment: The special attacks add a new dimension to combat, timing and accuracy is everything, but when you do manage to land one and get an insta-kill or a knockdown, it’s such a good feeling.
