Viking: Battle for Asgard is a third person action adventure game that draws its themes from Norse Mythology. You play as Skarin, a typical hero of legend. At the time of its release, the game was not received well by many major video game publications. The consistent message by many reviewers was that Viking had great potential but failed in its execution. Despite its obvious flaws, the game does have some redeeming qualities that make it at least worth renting.
Unlike traditional action adventure games such as Devil May Cry 4 or Ninja Gaiden where you push through a very linear level to complete a stage, Viking attempts to be somewhat open world by giving you quests to complete that are similar to the ones found in MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft. Quests are confined to the stage you are in. Each stage is an open area where you are technically allowed to travel anywhere on that particular map. Unfortunately, the open world illusion is shattered by the repetitiveness of the quests, their linear design, and lack of variation in the enemies you fight. The developers did try to mix things up a bit by throwing in some side quests, but in the end it felt like they failed to follow through on their vision.

Despite these flaws, the gameplay was quite enjoyable. Many of the main quests have the player sneaking around enemy occupied territories in a Metal Gear like fashion in order to free imprisoned Vikings. The sneaking mechanics are not very deep but still quite engaging. While approaching enemies, Skarin automatically goes into a “sneak mode,” and while in this state, he is able to walk up on opponents and apply a finishing move. As long as Skarin avoids any kind of “line of sight” (although the A.I. in the game seemed quite blind) he can stay in sneak mode indefinitely while enemies were near.

The combat design is a-typical for action games of this genre. There is a weak and a strong attack and pushing these buttons in a certain order excutes a combo. Early in the game, I found the combat to be frustrating. Combos were constantly being interrupted when fighting multiple enemies. Eventually I adjusted myself to the mechanics and found that the combat was more about the finishing moves rather than pulling off combos. This is probably due to the fact that when in a middle of a finishing move, Skarin becomes invincible. None of the enemies attack you. Pulling off finishing moves is fun, but unfortunately this combat mechanic causes combos to be pointless.

All in all, the game is a solid rental at least. The visuals are quite pleasing and pacing of the game made it a bit addicting. Viking does not provide any ground breaking re-invention of the action adventure genre. But it does provide a great distraction if you are anticipating another game like Too Human.