Hour of release is approaching. Hype thread. Feel free to discuss, while waiting before toring this game asunder.
It’s releasing today? 
The game does look like it was developed with consoles in mind. So i don’t expect much in customization side of things, however, should still be fun to play trough it once.
Waiting for reviews. Distrustful of this one.
To me this seems to be similar to Sacred 3 in that you have a limited skill tree that is based around improving your weapon type and more action based in having ‘roll to avoid being hit’.
Nothing wrong with that in my book, I found S3 fun enough if you go in expecting a deeper Gauntlet rather than a shallower S2. Most of the hate it imo got from S2 fans that expected it to be in line with the S2 direction.
Not something you will play forever because there are not really all that many builds (one char and two NG+ are enough to get them all), but more an action HnS to pass the time while waiting for the GD expansion 
Watched some dev streams where they showed gameplay and such and…i’m not really interested. Seeing we got plenty norse themed games I’ll just skip this one entirely.
So it finally has arrived on my PC. Going to test this thing a bit and write a more comprehensive and full review tomorrow.
So far, it’s an arcade slasher, though, not ARPG. Oh, and the reviews on Steam are mixed, heh.
The game in it’s current state is an atrocious piece of shit. More to come later. Goddamn, this is so bad.
Yeah well everyone has their opinion and I am going to counter yours for anyone who’s interested. Been playing for a couple of hours now and imo it’s nowhere near as bad as you describe it. Takes a bit to get the hang of it but now that’s I’m starting to, it’s quite a bit of fun. If there is indeed a demo then I would encourage folks to try it for themselves.
If you’re looking for something new as I was then this might fill the bill until something better comes along. Going to play more now and if my opinion changes, I will update. It’s no Grim Dawn but then I didn’t expect it to be. I am enjoying it every bit as much as Van Helsing if that comparison works for anyone. VH is no Grim Dawn either.
van helsing though is a decent rpg 
Yeah on 2nd thot maybe don’t waste your money guys. Although a bit 'o fun it is far too predictable to last for long. Play the demo and you will prolly get your fill.
Played for a bit as well. It’s decent, though not for me, it’s very clear it was meant for consoles. If there is a demo, give it a shot. Otherwise, wait for a sale. The asking price is a bit too much for what it offers, GD is a waaaay better bargain
Also to any folks that own a 21:9 monitor like myself, don’t buy. Overlapping text, UI is way to big and you can’t scale it down and so on.
I want GD with such graphic.
I think it’s correct, but nowhere near the depths of GD’s character customisation. It’s more like D3 in that regard. I’d even say it’s D3 with nordic Mythology.
I think it’s better played with a friend than solo, that’s what i do and from what i see, i would be bored alone.
Alright, from the get go we have…
- A Norse mythology setting which is kinda nice and rich. Developers weren’t lazy in this regard and incorporated many different names and creatures, rarely seen in such settings.
- Good-looking graphics and pretty detailed character models.
- They ACTUALLY listened to people in introduced LAN mode. Now at least this game won’t die through multiplayer.
This is where it gets grim and dark. Prepare yourself.
First things first, it’s a console game. It literally plays easier with a gamepad than with a MKB. Not only that, you can’t bind keys to WASD and such. As a result if feels wonky and highly unpolished.
Animations are absolutely terrible. The camera is too close to the character, so I can’t see shit around me.
Combat, albeit quite satisfying, feels clunky. The character reacts slowly, and this can often prove fatal. Bow characters and mage characters are absolute dogshit. Mage is actually a melee class, which makes zero sense. Bow char is handicapped due to again, clunky combat mechanics and the fact that the arrows hit a lot of obstacles on the way to the enemy. Some bosses don’t have the animation, which can predict it’s next blow, so your char receives a full hit in the face without ability to react in time.
Plot is incredibly cliche. You basically save the world from Ragnarok, while wasting time on some matts grinding. That’s it. Quests are uncreative. Most of them is go there, gather this type of quests.
The upgrades are shallow. It’s a very simple and limited system. Basically, you sacrifice your blood to the gods and then you can have a bonus to a certain type of weapon, you chose at the beginning of the game. The thing is, those +1% to something won’t do shit. So to compensate for this, the game also has runes, which can help you in battle. Your weapons also unlock some special abilities in time, however these charge a big amount of time, so you’d better off with a simple attack.
Moreover, by the end of the playthrough you can only max 2 types of weapons. So if you were upgrading, say, 2H swords, by switching to bow in the middle of the game makes you a complete and utter noob, thus, every stat suffers.
You can also upgrade your village to a certain extent. But, you only get 4 basic buildings like forge, some new NPCs… that’s it. Nothing much, just a small something.
Customization is non-existent. Only 3-4 types of hair/face, etc. Granted, it doesn’t matter that much, really.
Music is fine. You get some epic choir in the menu, war drums during the battle. Your standard stuff, but it’s decent enough.
Optimization is fucking horrendous. I have quite a beefy PC, it can play all recent games like Mass Effect at least on hight settings. But here it struggles to maintain solid 60 FPS. It always lags, the entire screen stutters like mentally ill madman.
And yeah, there is no loot. Well, at least not that much. You can get some stuff from enemies, it can even be quite good. However, the point is, you will always craft something better in the village using your matts. It’s just how this game was designed. I fear they simply left a little bit of loot because of the complaints, but still it didn’t help at all. Most of the cool and interesting stuff you will get can only be ontained through crafting.
This is basically the gist of it. Make any of it as you like. I consider this game unpolished, raw piece of meat, which was definitely not roasted enough for the restaurant to consume.
However, it does have potential. Not, not an ARPG-like potential. Forget about similarities with Diablo, it’s nothing like it. More like a slasher-type game, with some role-playing elements. So yeah, if they actually finish it, it will be… well, good enough.
Damn, i was expecting it to be like Diablo but with Norse Mythology. Welp, back to waiting for an ARPG set in Norse Mythology.
Agree with pretty much everything Autentist says although I don’t seem to have the performance issues. The game was very definitely designed for console first with a PC port along side.
Oh with the ranged class problems: try switching to the 2nd keyboard layout where movement is left mouse and skill use moves to the the right one. That way you can actually control where your toon goes.
Edit: OK just hooked up my 360 controller. The game just loves it so give that a try if you have one.
have no gamepad, but other than the two shieldmaidens of the 2nd (?) boss I had no trouble with the mouse. Rolling makes it easy to take no damage
Animations are absolutely terrible. The camera is too close to the character, so I can’t see shit around me.
absolutely agree, max zoom out is a joke. Can’t rotate the camera either to compensate, never had I needed this more than here
Combat, albeit quite satisfying, feels clunky. The character reacts slowly, and this can often prove fatal. Bow characters and mage characters are absolute dogshit.
I chose bow and have no issues yet, maybe that will change further in (level 8 now and have not spent points or upgraded gear (at the smiths) since level 5 and still have no problem with that)
Will stay away from staff as second weapon then just to be sure 
Bow char is handicapped due to again, clunky combat mechanics and the fact that the arrows hit a lot of obstacles on the way to the enemy.
hitting everything left and right with the bow, I agree. Usually it at least is breakable, so the problem solves itself, but sometimes I literally cannot move because I shoot at something unbreakable until I reposition the mouse (esp when trying to cross narrow bridges)
Moreover, by the end of the playthrough you can only max 2 types of weapons. So if you were upgrading, say, 2H swords, by switching to bow in the middle of the game makes you a complete and utter noob, thus, every stat suffers.
it is shallow, no doubt. You could level both weapon types in parallel though, I certainly have more points than I can put in one type due to investments being level locked. At least enough to progress the second type along the way, not really in lockstep
Optimization is fucking horrendous.
haven’t checked FPS, but I never had screen stutters yet
And yeah, there is no loot. Well, at least not that much. You can get some stuff from enemies, it can even be quite good. However, the point is, you will always craft something better in the village using your matts. It’s just how this game was designed. I fear they simply left a little bit of loot because of the complaints, but still it didn’t help at all. Most of the cool and interesting stuff you will get can only be ontained through crafting.
probably true, so far I only crafted my weapon though and for the rest use what I find, to save up the resources to upgrade the city
There are common, magical, rare and unique items that can drop, but the whole system is rather limited. Not sure how much better crafting is eventually, so far it uses the same common item and results in a magic or rare item that probably could also drop (the base might be ahead of what I currently see dropping though)
However, it does have potential. Not, not an ARPG-like potential. Forget about similarities with Diablo, it’s nothing like it. More like a slasher-type game, with some role-playing elements. So yeah, if they actually finish it, it will be… well, good enough.
yeah, as I said earlier this is more a complex Gauntlet that an ARPG, much like Sacred 3 was. In fact to me it is very similar to S3, same principle of upgrading a weapon type and mostly collecting resources, roll to evade. Vikings at least has gear drops as well.
I liked S3 enough for what it was, all the hate imo was for it not being a true successor to S2, not because the game was actually that bad (the story was tho…)
Same, controls aren’t as bad as people are making them out to be. Maybe it’s better with a gamepad but by no means is it anywhere near unplayable. If you want WASD controls just use a controller anyway…
There were a few moments where I wanted to rotate but zoom was OK imo. I don’t play GD fully zoomed out either, I feel like it zooms way too far.
I’ve been using the staff and while yes it’s melee, it’s certainly not the ONLY game where staff is melee. I think TQ is one of the only ARPGs where the staff is ranged. I mean if D2 and D3 can make staves melee why can’t Viking? Sure it’s melee but it does quite good damage. The spells… they are mediocre so far. I’ve only gotten the first two, the frost orb clone, pierces/hits in an aoe and does cold damage, so far it one shots every non-hero/boss mob. The flamethrower skill is cool but the damage is just slightly better than a staff attack. It has less range than the orb, less damage, so not really worth using over the staff in that case. Maybe with levels it will get better but atm it’s kinda lame.
Depending on your control setup you can hit lmb or rmb to ‘move’ instead of attack. Don’t have this issue with staff since it’s melee.
Pretty sure that is what you are supposed to do. I have 4 points remaining and I can’t even spend them on my current ‘weapon class’, only option is to save them up for god knows how long or spend them on another weapon type.
I have had no stutters either. FPS is a constant 45 for me though. Not great but neither is my machine and it’s stable fps.
IMO you cannot even compare it to S3, sure it’s an arcade game in the same vein but the gameplay is pretty different and I couldn’t bear to play S3 at all, it was terribly boring. Vikings at least has SOME depth to it.
Tried the demo…definitely feels more like an arcade / console hack n slash. I really want to like it, mainly for the lore, but some of the design decisions seem really odd - i.e. levelling & skills progression, crafting focus / lack of loot, interface (seems clunky with a mouse/kb) etc.
Looks like it might be good, mindless fun in co-op though.
I am not staying away because it is melee but because he said staff and bow are the weakest choices, don’t want to find out he is right
Depending on your control setup you can hit lmb or rmb to ‘move’ instead of attack. Don’t have this issue with staff since it’s melee.
my rmb is roll, I don’t use the keys for that
Pretty sure that is what you are supposed to do. I have 4 points remaining and I can’t even spend them on my current ‘weapon class’, only option is to save them up for god knows how long or spend them on another weapon type.
same, for now I keep them to see if I can spend them after upgrading the altar
IMO you cannot even compare it to S3, sure it’s an arcade game in the same vein but the gameplay is pretty different and I couldn’t bear to play S3 at all, it was terribly boring. Vikings at least has SOME depth to it.
a little more yes, but to me they are both more arcade HnS than ARPG