Bierzerkers
I’ve been playing Bierzerkers off and on since early Alpha - I bought into early access all the way back in July. Adding features to what was almost a perfect vanilla game has been a struggle for the devs, and it looks like they may have had some internal setbacks and personnel changes. BUT it’s still a very very fun game (think TF2 with drunk vikings).
If/when they bring back the “Domination” (cap and hold) mode back, I can easily see myself playing this a lot. The current flagship mode, which is basically a slightly more entertaining version of American football, is especially hard to balance and features some ridiculously small maps.
– Real player with 53.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action Multiplayer Games.
Ok so you’ve looked at the game and think it looks fun, but you also notice the mixed reviews. You look down and see people saying it’s pay to win and that it’s not optimized well. These arguments do not hold weight. Here is the truth about the game, while it does have one major problem that’s being worked on as we speak, I would like to show you how this is a good game that is worth your time.
First we’ll start with what the game is. It is essentially a a mix of Medieval Team Fortress 2 and rugby, and yes that sounds weird. You have a team of five, with different classes, carry and throw sheep into the other teams goal. It sounds strange, but it’s a fucking blast. This is a game where good team work really counts. The game also ran really well for me, it did crash once but I was right back in in under a minute.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game
Kyn
Remember Dungeon Siege? That cool looking RPG by Gas Powered Games (currently known as Wargaming Seattle)? It was pretty slow game, but there was certain something in it that makes people remember it even today. Even more so because the third installment in Dungeon Siege series was completely different from previous two and was more like consoles-oriented action game than what everybody used to enjoy. Why am I telling you all that? Well, the thing is, Kyn is a lot like the very first Dungeon Siege. Actually, you can even tell that it’s a Dungeon Siege III everybody wanted. In a way.
– Real player with 107.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action RPG Games.
Review updated after 80%+ completion.
TL;DR? Scroll down to pluses and negatives.
Visually Kyn resembles Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (though less polished), which I’m going to admit I find very pleasing. The music sounds at times like it could have come straight out of Torchlight 2, generally it has a fitting Celtic vibe. The atmosphere of the game is, therefore, highly satisfying.
Gameplay-wise, this puts me in mind of an MMO more than a typical hack&slash. You hit space to slow the game to a crawl, issue commands to your fighters, then hit space again to see the commands executed in real time. You don’t need to keep clicking to attack. You cannot pause for long, which gives the game a more intense feel than others with a Real-Time pausable combat system.
– Real player with 16.4 hrs in game
Trial by Viking
This is one of my favorite indie platformers. It starts off relatively easy and then becomes gruesomely difficult over the course of 130 hand-crafted levels. You run around collecting Sunstones which can be used to purchase better stuff - magic axes, a grappling hook, double jump, etc - which you’ll need to take down tougher challenges. Levels can be repeated to collect Sunstones or bonuses you may have missed, or just to get a better time (the game is speedrun-friendly). There’s a lot of level variety: bosses/minibosses every 5 levels, mobility challenges, puzzles, lots of new mechanics being introduced throughout the game, hidden areas, etc. Impressively, the whole thing was put together by pretty much one guy.
– Real player with 69.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action Platformer Games.
After 25+ hours of playing this on normal, I’d say this is a very good, almost great game. My attention span for games seems to be around 15-20 hours but this kept me interested the whole time, up through about level 103 out of 130. And I’d still be playing it if it weren’t for the dark holes.
They are not fun. At all. They are like gravity holes that suck you in and spin you around them. They are highly annoying and hard to escape without falling to your death. It was a ton of fun for the first 100 levels but I lost interest after fighting dark holes for 30 minutes.
– Real player with 25.8 hrs in game
Viking Brothers
Plays similar to 12 Labours of Hercules (just way more simplistic; 12 Labours is superior in several ways). Good time waster. I’d like it a lot more if it didn’t constantly freeze up in the middle of levels.
The main challenge in the game is finishing each level quickly; I haven’t seen any other real goals. Collect resources, build resource buildings (farms, quarries, etc), defeat savages (barbarian warriors), help the gods, save the world. Graphics are simple; I turn the music down to watch Netflix so I can’t comment there.
– Real player with 14.7 hrs in game
Viking brothers is fun. It’s not the most challenging game, and of course there are some things that could be improved, but I find myself playing level after level, and will keep doing so until the game is complete.
The game is basically a puzzle game click fest. You are presented with a map, often designed in a way to confuse the eye, with tunnels interlinking sections, etc. You gather resources, activate or upgrade buildings, to gather more resources, and use those resources to complete varius objectives. The story is amusing, but you can skip the dialogue if you don’t care about that aspect.
– Real player with 10.0 hrs in game
Viking Squad
Do you enjoy classic “beat em' up” games such as Final Fight, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and so on??? Are you a fan of cartoony styled art like those found in games such as Castle Crashers and Gang Beasts??? Well you’re in luck, because the devs at Slick Entertainment got you covered with their latest entry into the world of indie gaming with Viking Squad. A co-op brawler that is as much fun to play solo as it is to tackle with a band of your buddies. The plot is pretty simplistic within it’s self: Choose a viking (from four playable options) and see how much treasure you can plunder from the enemy’s clutches. Stylistically, the game is extremely colorful and vibrant. Lead Artist Jesse “The Drawbarian” Turner gives you amazing aesthetics similar to the “cutesy-chibi” art style of The Behemoth’s Dan Paladin, but with more of a comic book feel. As an artist myself, I have to rave about the art direction in this game: Jesse’s work is just too awesome for mere words to convey. This title is worth the price of admission on visuals alone…
– Real player with 54.7 hrs in game
This game is good. DAMN GOOD.
Just a refreshing take on the beat em up genre with new ideas, but solid arcade gameplay.
Every character has a different play style in this game and the combat depth is decently deep. You’ll need more than mashing buttons if you’re going to make it to the late game.
The gameplay goes as follows.
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Go through a level bashing as many enemies as possible
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Survive and bring back treasure/loot to upgrade your character stats, and buy gear
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Use money to buy potions and keys for treasure chests (any unspent loot is disgarded)
– Real player with 28.4 hrs in game
Gimle: Archlikvake Saga
Ragnarok has come …
On the ruins of the old world destroyed after the clash of gods and giants, Gimle is created - the place where humanity was reborn. The New World was described in the prophecies as free of wars, hunger and suffering. For thousand years it has been struggling with the forces of evil for an unknown reason. Meanwhile, another disturbing threat is coming - death will be only the beginning of the suffering of the fallen. Norse warrior Brand arises as the last hope of mankind - will he stand up to the fight and uncover the mystery of an unfulfilled prophecy?
Gimle is an isometric RPG inspired by the classics of the genre, enriched with beautiful pixelated graphics.
Begin your journey!
Explore the dark world of Gimle based on Norse mythology. Discover forest thickets and mountain trails, explore evil-ridden towns and villages, and mysterious tombs full of dangerous underground tunnels.
Defeat your enemies!
Master the dynamic combat system and face the threats of the New World using a wide variety of weapons - swords, spears, axes, bows and much more!
Tame the mighty power!
Learn unique abilities that are so much more than ordinary magic. Use your powerful gift and solve the mystery of an unfulfilled prophecy.
Collect unique items!
Use the possibility of gathering resources and trading, get powerful items and artifacts that will prove useful during your journey through the Dark Lands.
Improve your skills!
Become the legend of the Viking world! Achieve mastery in many areas through an extensive system of statistics, science and attributes.
Write the story of the New World!
Experience a ravaged world full of difficult, ambiguous choices and face their significant consequences.
Zombie Vikings
Only 6.1% of players have completed this game, and there are reasons for that. While this review is ultimately negative, it definitely qualifies as one of those mid-line negatives. (Thanks, Steam. -_-) My wife and I enjoyed the game overall (she more than I), but there are so many problems with it that I couldn’t recommend it in good conscience. The following are some of the more prominent problems that we encountered throughout the game:
- A game-breaking bug in the Tomb of Bork. We were unable to exit giant mode because the sign wasn’t there–twice. We were only able to complete the stage on our second attempt because the game glitched again, causing us to fall in a pit and consequently exit giant mode.
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
Status: Completed (played in 2-player co-op)
A truly fantastic game, which deserves much more attention than it got.
Presentation
Top-notch, gorgeous to look at hand-drawn graphics. You can practically make some screenshots during cutscenes and choose any of them as your wallpaper, they’re THAT good. Never wanted to skip a single cutscene (skipped only if needed to replay the level again). It’s like watching a cartoon, a really good one.
The levels are extremely detailed and unique, never felt like going through the same thing all over again.
– Real player with 10.7 hrs in game
Rune Classic
First thing I want to say is I have played this game A LOT before I got it on Steam so keep that in mind.
Now, there were a handful of games that me and my brothers played together a lot in my childhood, and every single one of these games brought many hilarious and awesome memories that I still remember.
Rune was one of these games.
My and my brothers played over LAN quite a bit, so I recommend playing this game with friends over private servers or LAN.
Its a blast to play this game with others, especially if you know the people your playing it with well. The fact that this game is so old makes it even more fun for me to play even now. It’s hilarious when you chop your enemy’s weapon arm off, because now thay have no arm, so all they can do is run! In a multiplayer match you can start to feel super awesome as you find things on the map with high damage and other items that increase your health, and so on and so forth.
– Real player with 107.2 hrs in game
This review contains events of the very beginning of the game and names a few enemy types. Other than that it is spoiler-free.
Rune Classic is a re-release of the original hack&slash game called Rune. You play as the young Viking Ragnar who just gets into the status of a warrior as the story begins. Ragnar’s village is one of the villages that are built around special rune stones. Those stones were created by the god Odin to keep his son Loki in his prison and thus preventing the great cataclysm that would follow if Loki was to be released. The warriors of Ragnar’s village belong to an order called the Odinsblade. It is their duty to protect the rune stones from all harm. When Ragnar is just accepted into the Odinsblade the people of Ragnar’s village learn that an allied village guarding on of the rune stones is being attacked and immediately set out to intervene. On their way they run into the viking Conrack who was responsible for the attack. Conrack is in league with Loki and is hellbent on destroying every single rune stone to release him into the world. Due to the powers that were granted to Conrack by Loki the people of Ragnar’s village are no match for him and he sinks their ship. Ragnar gets rescued by Odin and makes it to an undersea cave. With nobody else having survived the battle it’s on Ragnar to keep Conrack from destroying the stones. But to do that he has to make his way back to the surface.
– Real player with 35.1 hrs in game
Viking: Battle for Asgard
Looking at the quite bad ratings this game has received, one thing should be made clear: at its core, Viking: Battle for Asgard isn’t a bad game.
I do understand the reason behind the mostly negative reviews however, the game had a lot of unused potential and does seem like a rushed product. It’s a shame, because the graphics are nice, the islands (where the game takes place) are fairly big and the mythological Viking setting seems good enough.
So what’s wrong with the game then? First of all the environment (as beautiful as it is) feels empty: no wildlife, no random events. The landscape with high cliffs, ghost ships near the shore and small groves looks exciting, but it quickly degrades into emptiness as we progress. Still the game is worth to take a look and even a playthrough.
– Real player with 54.2 hrs in game
Well. So many mixed feeling I have for this game.
Some time I cannot decide a thumb up or thumb down because the game was so plain with no particular good and bad attribute. But for this game it’s the complete opposite. There are way too much Pros and Cons to consider and made rating of this game super difficult.
Let’s talk about some of the good first.
There are some massive battles in this game that so many units will be involved like a tactical battle of Total War title. (no wonder it’s in the total war bundle). Insteady of controlling your army in squadron based combat you still only just control your main protagonist. Even the smallest enemy can put up quite a good fight against you if you are not careful so it’s not super-fast paced like Dynasty warrior or Fate Extra.
– Real player with 48.3 hrs in game
Vikings - Wolves of Midgard
I’ve been playing this game on and off for quite a while now so I thought why not write a review:
Visuals:
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beautiful handcrafted maps with multiple points of interest
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multiple environments from northern forests, to sandy beaches, lava castles and medieval villages
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enemies often have different skins depending on their environment
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great lighting and shaders
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particle effects aren’t as over the top as in most other H&S games (I’m looking at you Diablo III)
- The camera is a little too close to the character
– Real player with 129.1 hrs in game
| SCORE |
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5/10
| “more Action than RPG”, which suffers from redundant, shallow and uncharacteristic gameplay that ultimately boils down to being an endurance test, full of weird difficulty spikes, and tedious pacing |
[i](a 7‐point scale)[/i]
[b]overall[/b] [b]achievements[/b]
⌛ time to finish: 20-25h ⌛ time to 100%: 60h
🔥 difficulty: 5 🔥 difficulty: 4
🍫 fun-factor: 3 💨 missable: yes
– Real player with 63.4 hrs in game