Review: Viking - Battle for Asgard

For a game that doesn't do any one thing particularly well, why is Viking: Battle For Asgard so much fun?

Put simply, it's because the developers of this Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game understand what turns a player into an addict. Viking's medieval sword-and-axe combat is merely alright, the visuals won't wow you, and the story is barely there. But the game's gradually expanding world ramps up perfectly, constantly teasing you with one more goal just out of reach, then another, then another.

Next thing you know, it's three in the morning and you can't remember how many legions of monsters you've slaughtered.

Viking is the story of a lone warrior tasked by the Norse goddess Freya to beat back the horrific armies of the death-goddess Hel, who has taken over the land of Midgard. To do it, you've got to liberate your fellow warriors and take back key military locations like quarries and lumberyards, so you'll be ready for a series of full-scale, thousand-man assaults on enemy strongholds.

One reason why Viking is so compelling is that it realizes its core competency and sticks closely to it. Although the setup makes the game sound like some sort of military tactics sim, and the open world brings to mind role-playing games like Fable, it's really an unabashed action game. You're on your own mowing down the enemies with your trusty sword, and the only strategy you need to employ is where to slash next.

But it's not all mindless hack-and-slash. If you run smack into the middle of a Legion-occupied area, you'll quickly be overwhelmed and die. Stealth is key. Now, generally when the word "stealth" is brought up in the context of any videogame whose title does not contain the words Metal Gear, it's a bad thing. Not so for Viking. Yes, main character Skarin is basically a lumbering oaf without a sneaky bone in his body. But his enemies make up for this by having the approximate combined intelligence of half a potato chip.

This leads to several ridiculous but undeniably entertaining stealth situations in which you tramp conspicuously around the outskirts of an enemy base, picking off preposterously inattentive monsters one by one as you thin out their numbers and move inward towards the oblivious rest of them. If you get behind an enemy undetected you can one-hit kill him with a special move you earn later in the game; these are generally accompanied by a gruesome dismemberment and a feeling of delicious power.

Once you've accomplished all of the smaller goals, you and a thousand other dudes take on one of the enemy's massive strongholds. This is a sight to behold when you first see it -- insane numbers of soldiers from both sides flood onto the battlefield and start going at it. There's a tradeoff, though, because the action slows down noticeably as the console chugs to keep up with everything.

This is not to impugn Viking's tech, however. In fact, good technical tuning is a big part of the reason why the game is so addictive. When you first start the game, it loads everything it needs into memory, and from that moment on, you're never pulled from the experience. When you use the giant monuments that let you warp around the three large island maps, it happens instantly. When you die, you're immediately put back into action. Even when you clear out one of the giant enemy bases, it's seamlessly converted into a friendly one. The game never stops -- not for loading, not for lame cut scenes, not for grinding or pointless busy work.

At some point, you realize that looking back at each of Viking's qualities, it's hard to really put your finger on anything that's truly standout -- and yet it's compelling. In a way, it's very much like last year's Xbox 360 game Crackdown, which also nailed the carrot-and-stick approach to game design. Give Viking: Battle For Asgard an hour, then see if you can stop. I bet you can't.

Rating 8.6