Remember The Viking.

[SuperBelkar]

I was playing Viking again today after long time of not touching it and I must admit I was having a jolly good time. I had never thought to check to see if it ever made a sequel and I was disappointed to find out that it had none. I might add that if fighting alongside warriors in hundreds against hundreds battles, Norse mythology, and a love for brutal combat sounds like a grand afternoon to you, I can't recommend this game enough. Viking is a hack'n'slash open world game released in 2008 for the ps3. It has you traverse the land finding your viking brethren and taking bridges, watchtowers, checkpoints, wandering platoons and after building up your army enough you lay siege to camps, ports and entire cities.

Anyways, back on topic. As I played again my mind raced with all sorts of amazing things they could do with a sequel to the game since I must admit there is not much else to the game that I did not describe above. Create your own battles and maps, picking your own faction, a higher emphasis on rpg elements and even cooperative play to maximize efficiency in battles that span large areas were just a few things in mind. Had I any ability to make or develop games I would gladly do it myself but alas my dreams are hinged on the hope that someone else in the business dreams as I do, or just so happens to come by this particular thread and likes the sound of it.

I can't say that I had much in mind for this thread other to express my thoughts on the matter, but thinking now it makes me wonder what else I forgot was so good that wasn't particularly seen as a pinnacle of the game playing experience in the past. So, yeah, let's here your thoughts.

 

[shrekfan246]

I've kinda had a mild interest in Viking, but always got put off by the response it got. Is it buggy, clunky, unresponsive, or just kinda repetitive?

Anyway, I don't have the best gauge for games that were seen as the "pinnacle of game playing experiences", since I didn't know what Deus Ex even was until a few years ago. The only reason I knew what Banjo-Kazooie was was because of a local Blockbuster back in the day. My best friend and I grew up with Sega as well, so I didn't even know what a SNES was for the longest time.

So... Sonic Adventure? Sort of. Much like Sonic Adventure 2, there's a bit of a split between what's really fun about it and what really sucks about it. But considering Sonic's rocky past since going 3D, I figure that's as good a contribution as any.

 

[SuperBelkar]

I've kinda had a mild interest in Viking, but always got put off by the response it got. Is it buggy, clunky, unresponsive, or just kinda repetitive?

Buggy? Not so much that I've found. Clunky? Perhaps, but the combat is made so you're not an unbeatable god so it compliments it a bit. Unresponsive? No, I've never had death, damage done or loss of items due to the game. Repetitive? It can be, but I find that combat is usually challenging enough to hold your attention and areas and vantage points vary enough to change your approach all the time.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a perfect game. I find a lack of complexity does leave me wanting, and you hold no control of your soldiers so no real strategy is implemented when in huge battles. Other than how you approach high ranking enemies to break the enemy up of course. Lastly, dieing holds almost no consequence. You die, you re-spawn instantly at last spawn point. That's it. I find those other problems never really got to me.

 

[BarbaricGoose]

Are you talking about Viking: Battle for Asgard? I can't think of any other game involving vikings that appeared on the PS3.

I remember enjoying that game. I bought the Total War Master Collection, and I haven't yet installed it, so maybe I'll play it again soon. With the new generation of consoles, or if they made it a PC exclusive, I could see a sequel being pretty badass. If they can fit 1,000s of enemies on screen at once in a Total War game with the detail they do, I imagine they could do some pretty crazy shit with a 3rd person game nowadays.

And really, we need more games about vikings...

 

[piinyouri]

Really fun game, surprisingly.
I'm sure most people like those who would frequent this board would take one look at the game, as I did, and brush it off as a lame attempt at a tired cliche.

While the cliche part was still there mostly, the combat was pretty nice. You actually needed to block and counter, otherwise you weren't going to get anywhere. (Literally the first little group of guys killed me repeatedly until I realized "Oh it's one of these games!")

It get's stupidly hard later on even with infinite respawns, but if you enjoy the combat enough you'll probably soldier through.

 

[gibbles545]

I enjoyed it, but it did commit a cardinal sin with its inclusion of stealth sections that were rubbish and not the reason I wanted to play that game

 

[SuperBelkar]

Also, if you were hardcore enough you never HAD to stealth it up, if you're a bad enough dude to formulate tactical hits with some luck and a whole lot of chopping off limbs. You could hypothetically clear a path to your objective.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Man, Viking was so under-rated. I need to get me the PC version. I loved it on the 360.