Viking: Battle For Asgard Comments by Kristan Reed

Hmmm, I hope Peter Molyneux isn't reading this - he's put an awful lot of effort into his one button combat system. ;)

Flippancy aside, the thing I absolutely do not get is if you found using just one attack to battle through the entire game hateful and tedious enough to mark the game down quite so savagely, why the fucking fuck did you not try using some of the other attacks and combos?

If it really is possible to go through the game using a single attack (which I'm led to believe isn't actually the case, but whatever) then clearly the game is a little flawed - but no more so than an absolute shedload of other games that will also let you beat them using a single move or weapon.

It seems to me to be a spectacularly stubborn approach to take, and one lacking in even the slightest bit of imagination or desire to engage with the game. It really comes across that you did your utmost to play through in the least enjoyable way you could find, and then concluded that it wasn't very enjoyable. Sheesh! You could probably play through huge swathes of Dead Rising using nothing but the baseball bat and a pistol if you had the sheer bloody-midedness to enjoy it as little as possible, but most people tend to give the rotivator a go from time to time because it happens to be a lot more fun.

lol PMs one button system is actually like "tap x for fast hit, hold x for big hit" ... and there are no combos... could be kinda button mashy for all the music stuff he has included :(

I could handle following the opinion of Kristan, if he also wrote the previews. I didn't get that. I got previews from Tom and then Quentin. Why couldn't they follow up their previews with their own reviews? That would make sense if we had this idea that reviews were just personal opinions. Surely it should be representing EG's opinion?

Besides, if it's just opinion. Can I get my review up on that front page. I'll do it for free, too!

--------

Has anyone noticed any significant difference in holding down the X button for a harder slash? It's rather risky if facing lots of guys but does sexy damage.

*some of this post could (maybe) be considered a spoiler if you don't want to read it*

just wondering if this happened to anyone else playing viking....! :)
right near the start, on the first island, before attacking darkwater(or something) you're supposed to sneak in and go to that red glowing bit to charge the dragon amulet...
so you start by going round the back and climbing over the rug-type thing draped over the fence, then you're supposed to sneak up to the red bit stealth-style and charge it, only i got spotted half way there and a shite load of people came after me, only i was sort of behind a fence, so they were sort of funnelled towards me and i killed them all...then when i went to charge the amulet i got an achievement called 'Secretive Rogue' despite attracting the attention of 90% of the people in there :)

not a moan, just made me laugh :)

*POTENTIAL SPOILER OVER*

but yeah generally i'm enjoying this game so far, its been a bit clunky during the big battles but not to being umplayable, and i enjoy the wandering around because the scenery etc looks ace.

@krudster - By stealth I was referring to the parts of the game where you have to sneak around enemy strongholds while actively seeking NOT to engage anyone in order to achieve your objective. Of course, you can sneak up behind someone and kill them that way but for the most part you can reach your targets with minimal kills if you do it properly. That is stealth to me. This is the best way to play because if you're seen and the horn is sounded then you're pretty much dead as you'll be quickly overwhelmed plus Skarin, the fat lout that he is, cannot run fast!!!

I'm just wondering what score Kristan would give Streets of Rage II...

/dares not dream

@japstersam

Same for me, but I only attracted 4 very close to it. I guess the fact you survived was the key. Since even if some guys did go after you, you sorted them out enough. :)

@disussedgenius

i was thinking the EXACT same thing

you, it wouldn't hurt EG to have another reviewer take a stab at the game.....

The stealth is a bit hilarious though as the guards are very blind, deaf and dumb. I mean I'm running along a castle wall making big *clomp* *clomp* *clomp* noises on the wood, dispatching the occasional guard with an axe that makes him howl with pain into the uncaring night, all while wearing this huge massively glowing amulet that just screams *shoot me!*.

Great fun though :)

Of course I used other attack methods, but found most of them didn't work nearly as effectively. So what are you supposed to do, use varied attacks for the sake of it and get killed, or use the one that works and make progress? Riddle me that.

So, we're all in agreement then: it's a game for gamers, not for reviewers.

@ hiddenranbir
glad someone else had that! i didn't suddenly become a God and manage to kill them all in some epic battle (as i found out when i tried to go through the front gate), they were all funnelled towards me and came 1/2 at a time, just made me laugh that when almost the whole camp was laying dead after a very noisy/obvious battle i was 'secretive' ;)

Shame, I was looking forward to this and it looked like it had made a few improvements to the massive battlefield hackandslash genre, however incremental.

symmetry - "The stealth is a bit hilarious though as the guards are very blind, deaf and dumb. I mean I'm running along a castle wall making big *clomp* *clomp* *clomp* noises on the wood, dispatching the occasional guard with an axe that makes him howl with pain into the uncaring night, all while wearing this huge massively glowing amulet that just screams *shoot me!*.

Great fun though :) "

Hehehe. So true, especially the bit about the light which would make Skarin visible from miles away!!! LOL

of course streets of rage is an ancient game with ancient gameplay. Great for its time but c'mon. the 5 score seems a bit harsh but other major review sites are complaining about too easy combat and lack of combos too. The text of Eurogamer's review is not completely off base. Thsi game should have been half the price it is selling at.

Thsi game should have been half the price it is selling at.

/sigh

I don't know even where to begin....

Of course I used other attack methods, but found most of them didn't work nearly as effectively.

The one attack that work all the time? You mean the heavy attack right?

Assassin, level 2 quick combo. They can't dodge those. Heavy attack is you'll miss.
Champions, level 2 slow combo. You have a few frames of invincibility at the start of the move. If you land a heavy attack you would still get hit.
Grunt with shield, jumping shield breaker.
Twin axe dude, dodge and counter.
Even with the lowly archer, you are better of using a few quick attack.

Viking is being marked down by being mindlessly repetitive, yet other examples (far worse offender if I may add) of mindless repetitive games like N3, DW6 are given a higher score because Viking is more like onimusha. So it's ok for DW to be repetitive for being a DW game? Bottom line is Viking is given the same score as Beowulf, you'd have a hard time convincing anyone that the games are the same quality without hiding behind "it's my opinion so I can't be wrong."

@dryden555 So a 7-8/10 game for most of us that lasts around 16 hours should be half price?

I hate to think what price you think they should be selling RSV 2 at in your value scale. I am guessing it would have to come with a free BJ.

That's it. Clearly too many people are having a good time with this game.

I'm getting it. See if I don't!

/shakes fist

@Krudster

I've only briefly played the game, so can't tell how true what you say is. If it is indeed the optimal strategy for beating the game then I'll concede it's more of a problem. Time will tell. Whether it's such a massive problem that the game gets scored quite so poorly I'm not convinced.

One thing I would say is that I play games to have fun, and often sub-optimal strategies are more fun than optimal ones. I'll pull risky stunts in games that allow me to when there's no need to, I'll use the chainsaw in Doom when I could easily have killed things from afar, I'll use the frying pan in Dead Rising whilst I'm carrying katanas, and I'll use flashy special moves in games when simpler and possibly more-effective alternatives exist. Obviously I'll stop if me twatting around means I'm getting annoyed at making no progress, but if I can make a game more fun by playing WITH it, rather than just playing it I will.

I've mentioned in another comments thread that went along similar lines that the optimal strategy for life is to drink nothing but water. It's almost always cheaper, better for you, more convenient, more readily available and less effort than any of the other alternatives, but most people go the extra mile because it's incredibly dull not to.

"I've mentioned in another comments thread that went along similar lines that the optimal strategy for life is to drink nothing but water. It's almost always cheaper, better for you, more convenient, more readily available and less effort than any of the other alternatives, but most people go the extra mile because it's incredibly dull not to."

What you're discribing with regards to play tactics is more like adding a little bit of flavour to the water to make it less dull. The drink shouldn't be dull in the first place...

So if the game is buggy, does that mean there's some flies in the water?


Mike Giggler, via E-mail.

@Les re: "What you're discribing with regards to play tactics is more like adding a little bit of flavour to the water to make it less dull. The drink shouldn't be dull in the first place..."

Nope. Life would still be pretty dull if you only drank weak lemon drink instead of water. Each attack is a separate drink. Admittedly only ever drinking draught Theakston's Old Peculiar would be pretty brilliant, if a little impractical.

This or Conan?

Conan.
What it lacks in graphics and polish it more than makes up for in the breasts, macho one liners, and gargantuan moves list department.

"All I can say is I traded DMC4 for this, and I found DMC infinitely more bland, repetitive and tedious."

That's strange because DMC 4 has a vast amount of weapons and moves, and you are actively punished for not varying which weapons and attacks that you use.

"This has the most review variation ive ever seen on metacritic. 33% on 1up"

That's just Metacritics' interpretation, though. Gamerankings turns a D+ into 55%.

I really enjoyed the bit of Conan I played, but never finished it after getting stuck at a rather tough boss fight.

Hmm, that's got me thinking - if I could have just mashed the heavy attack button to get past it, I'd have probably got a lot more fun out of the game. ;)

I was surprised how much I enjoyed the Conan demo. Considering it's now £17.99 from Play.com it's got me very tempted....

actually, one good point brought up, is that the 69.99 euro price tag was a bit steep, it really should have been in around the 55 euro mark

@Feanor
You also fight the same tedious enemies and backtrack through the same sterile environments constantly.
Room, fight, room, platform, fight -repeat ad nauseum since 2001
Go watch the Videogaiden review for exactly how I felt playing it.

Got £20 trade though, DMC only cost me thirty so I got the Viking steelbook for £14.99.
I've already had at least 10 times more fun out that than I did DMC.

Casual games. Redundant gameplay for people who are not able, or willing, to use more than one button combined with subpar story-telling. Fable 2's one-button combat is another bad idea.

Brian Blessed is a great story teller. His storytelling is magnificent.

"Casual games. Redundant gameplay for people who are not able, or willing, to use more than one button combined with subpar story-telling. Fable 2's one-button combat is another bad idea."

With that I don't agree. Subpar storytelling has nothing to do with casual games, just with poor writing skills. As for the one-button combat, that's more difficult. I'm of the opinion that controllers are very poorly designed devices, not really suited to controlling in-game avatars at all. It's just that they were the best that we had until the Wii-mote (which is an improvement but still very limited). Whether using one or four buttons is rather irrelevant, as long as you can make the avatar do what you want. How to do that with one button I can't imagine but who knows, maybe Peter M. has some magic left...

I guess Sega didn't give you enough money for this review eh?

The way (opps I was reading the bottom of page 3 when I typed this) talk about the stealth made me think of The Mark of Kri, which was utterly sublime in its mixture of stealth and combat, or is the comparism way off on my part?

that's a bad score. i bought it nevertheless

I've been really pleased with Viking so far. I'm on the second island and enjoying it so much that I've not given GT5 or RSV2 a look in at all over the last couple of days. 8/10 in my book.

Why should Krudster have to defend his review? This is just silly.
The game is a 5/6. (Add a point if you like mindless games and, or LOVE Vikings. Maybe. I dont, so wouldnt know.)

You dont even pay to read EG. Go read this http://www.atomicgamer.com/article.php?i... review, for example, if you really need a high score. Problem solved! Yay!

5 out of 6? Now that's a score I would go with! That's more inline with people's experience.

"That's strange because DMC 4 has a vast amount of weapons and moves, and you are actively punished for not varying which weapons and attacks that you use."

That's odd, because Viking has a lot of fighting moves, and you are actively punished for not varying the attack that you use.

"iWhy should Krudster have to defend his review? This is just silly. The game is a 5/6."

Because it implies that it is of the same mediocrity of other 5/10 games, which it clearly isn't. A lot of work has gone in to this game to make it what it is. The visuals are amazing, there are no loading screens, everything is seamless, the combat is remarkably solid and allows for creative and FUN fighting, the way Skarin traverses the environment with ease, never asking you to press too many buttons to vault over stuff that gets in the way, stuff that would get infuriating after a while because the devs have tried to make the world look believable by littering it with fences and walls etc. Also the stealth sections are worked in beautifully, allowing you to concentrate on watching patrol patterns so you can kill off most (if not all) of the camp before the alarm gets raised. Even the climbing sections are fun and a nice change of pace to the rest of the game. Add in all the skirmishes and the battles and you can easily see that the game is worth more than a 5/10 TBH i've haven't played a game in a while that tries to do this much. And all the while the game never burdens you with ungainly combinations that leave you with the 'gaming claw'...

It has clearly been a labour of love for CA and it saddens me when its made comparable with games of a 5/10 calibre...

Been playing this for as good few hours now and really enjoy it. I have always found Kristian reviews excellent in general but think 5/10 is not high enough. But the whole thing with reviews is its just one persons opinion, but agree that Eurogamer now has alot of clout in review terms. I enjoy this site so much as, in general, you do get some great debates and a genuine knowledge of gaming from alot of Eurogamers.

Well, even if I found this game to be absolute dope, I wouldnt go bangin on Kristians low score. If it, in his opinion, is a 5 then there is nothing to do about that. If you enjoy the game and and think its excellent, good for you! But dont try to change someone else opinion/score.

While I respect Kristan's opinion, I think Eurogamer have got it wrong on this occasion. And as has been pointed out already, a professional review is far more than one person's opinion - low scores impact on sales which in turn dictate what projects publishers are willing to finance. If quirky offbeat titles like VBFA fail to sell through, the industry is driven to play safe & we are more likely to end up with shop shelves full of identikit shooters and racers.
Is nobody else at Eurogamer towers enjoying this game as much as the rest of us? If there are any contenders for a second opinion article then VBFA has surely got to be near the top of the pile.

I am not really trying to change krudster's opinion/score. Those who decide not to buy the game based on this review are the people whose mind I am trying to change. Eurogamer's reviews do carry a lot of weight.

"But dont try to change someone else opinion/score."

It’s not even that, people buy games based of review scores and a 5/10 can be damaging to any future prospects that the game might have. Personally I have no problems with that if the game is indeed absolute tosh, but when it isn't expect people to shout shenanigans!

I think if you read most of the comments though, people aren't trying to force Kristen change his score of the game(i certainly don't), if he did that would go against his journalistic integrity and I would think less of him as a reviewer if he caved in to the masses. But don't expect me to sit idly by and not point out to people how wrong he is! ;)

The beauty of gaming forums and the fickle community, eh? Don't worry - we still love you Krudster :)

EDIT: ah Bust_Nak essentially said just that! Sorry..don't mind me, mumble mumble, etc

Well played last night and i can confirm the LB+ combos are far more effective and quicker for killing hench than just using heavy attack

LB + a,a does a five hit combo that seems fairly unblockable, and LB+ x, or jump +x break enemy sheilds in one hit. Obviously the right trigger moves are handy too as they also power up everyone around you in the big battles

Last night i did the attack on Caldberg and i have to say it was excellent, prior to the big rumble you had to sneak around the castle engaging only small groups of soldiers to get the 2nd dragon amulet (2nd island)...i don't see how you could play this part by running straight through the middle of the castle, unless you wanted a 20min hack with little chance of success

Bit of a shame really as i think Creative Assembly have made something here that's far better than something like Conan, but alas i'm not sure they'll sell what they probably deserve.

Nak:
Thats why one should always check more than one source if your uncertain about buy/rent/not buy. Common sense, right?
Even if EG is my mainsource of reviews, I do want another take on a game from time to time. Especially if its one of the lesser known EG-reviewers.

Also, this game has got alot of shit reviews. Its not just EG. Take 1up/ign for example. Say what you want about those websites, but they hardly give such scores even to Tamagotchi spin-offs.

Naa, its some sort of CA love going aroud here. You people just have a hard time accepting Viking didnt turn out as well as their PC-ware. (No hard feeling. Im gutted aswell. Deffo had high hopes for this one.)

omg edit x 2

Naa, its some sort of CA love going aroud here. You people just have a hard time accepting Viking didnt turn out as well as their PC-ware. (No hard feeling. Im gutted aswell. Deffo had high hopes for this one.)

Well ive never played a CA game before this one - and you're really missing out on a great game :o)