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Viking: Battle for Asgard
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Creative Assembly
Genre: Action
Release: March 25, 2008
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Reviewer: Eric
 Sega use to be known for good, quality games. Any more there games are full
of glitches, terrible controls and sluggish. Viking: Battle for Asgard suffers
from these things I mentioned above, but with a whole lot more. This isn’t the
worst game Sega has brought out as of late though it does fail miserably.
Viking: Battle for Asgard is set in the time of the ages of Norse Gods. The
story is pretty much summed up like this, I lost all interest in the story after
a few lousy minutes. Out heroes back story is boring and the game seems like a
complete rip off of Lord of the Rings. Sega was nice to add enough gore in here
to satisfy blood lovers.
You will spend most of your time fighting off undead warriors. You start the
game talking to certain individuals that give you quests throughout the land.
These quests range from finding food to taking over fortresses. Viking: Battle
for Asgard does do a good job with the missions, but the games difficulty level
will have you throwing your controller at the wall after thirty minutes.
I literally spent hours to try and beat one quest in this game. Some of the
games quests take no time to beat while others seem to drag on forever. This one
quest I was on took longer than normal and I died at one part. I didn’t die due
to an enemy, no the games camera turned out of no where and my character jumped
off of a tower and died. Great now I have to start all over.
If you have to start over with a quest you’ll have to fight all of the enemies
again. Doing this the first time is one thing. Once you are fighting the same
group of guys for the tenth time the game starts to get lame. The general
gameplay is easy, hit one of two buttons and use magic to make your attacks
special. Sound easy? No it’s not, these undead warriors sometimes take half of
your health away and you won’t even know how.
One nice thing that was added into the game was the map. You can add hot spots
to your quests and then on your mini map you’ll know where to go for your quest.
Certain quests though have you climbing up structures and this can become a real
pain when the vines blend in way too much. Do I have to tell you how long it
took me to figure out how to get this damn dragon amulet working? How was I
supposed to figure out that I’d have to climb into the fortress?
 When you think of Vikings what comes to mind? Sega thought Vikings moved as slow
as a snail because your character moves so damn slow. There is no run button in
the game! Going from point A to point B may take longer than it should, but wait
there is something that will help out. You can use these teleporting stones to
move around the map a lot easier. Wait there’s more! In order to use these
stones you have to hit the B button like a mad man! Why do I have to do this all
the time? This makes no sense at all!
Let’s talk more about the running aspect to the game. There are some points
where the enemies become too much for you so you’ll want to regroup and try
again. You can’t do that because there is no way to run. Your enemies on the
other hand can run and the archers have the marksmanship of professionals. If
you are having a hard time just sit back and die. Once the carnage is over
you’ll start over at the first village and you have to hit the goddamn B button
again to teleport again. Why?
Hack and slash games follow the same formula and Viking: Battle for Asgard
follows it all too well. There is nothing new here, Sega did a cut and paste
job. Sure you have magic (fire, ice, and lighting), but all it does is make your
attacks different. The only one that is worth while is ice spell; the others
just take up space. You do get to buy new attacks later in the game, something
that we’ve seen before. All of these attacks are pointless and don’t add to the
gameplay.
Health potions mean jack shit in this game. One health potion heals about as
much as jack shit. The best part is you can only carry three potions in the
beginning of the game and most of the hardest quests occur in the first part of
the game. Sometimes the potions don’t even work right away, there seems to be a
three second delay. Before you know it your getting man handled and you’re
starting over at the first village again.
The games music is such a rip off of Lord of the Rings. Why does this game have
to copy off of these movies? Every music track must have been ripped from the
movie and then changed, slightly, so nobody would get in trouble. At least the
games graphics make up for this. I did find a few clipping problems though and
some bad animations for characters. Wait is there anything good about this game?
 If you can make it to the end of the game then get ready for the hardest battle
in the world. I can’t beat the game; the last boss is the cheapest character
I’ve ever seen in a video game. I’ve come to the realization that there is no
way to beat him and to tell the truth I really don’t care if I beat him.
I got carried away with all of the bad parts in this game. To be fair there
is…well there is one good thing about this game, maybe two. Earning some of the
achievements is fun, even if you suck you’ll still get a few achievements here
and there. Viking: Battle for Asgard does have some cool fatality moves. See I
found some good things about this game.
Final Verdict
Hack and slash games are fun, but not this one. This game isn’t the worst thing
Sega has brought out so a rental should be alight. Buying this game without much
knowledge on it? Don’t do it.
Rating
5.50 out of 10
Viking: Battle for Asgard Trailer
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