Vikings Wolves Of Midgard Xbox One

There haven't been many alternatives to Diablo Iii on Xbox Ane until recently. Now, Vikings: Wolves of Midgard from Kalypso has come to Xbox and PC, adding Norse mythology into the familiar activity-RPG loot-hunting formula. But does it have the bite to take on Diablo?

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Gotta stop Ragnarok

The story in Vikings: Wolves of Midgard is based on Norse mythology and Viking lore. In the realm of Asgard, an aboriginal conflict between the Norse Gods the Aesir (which includes Odin, Thor, Baldur, and others) and the angelic Vanir (Freya and others) has created turmoil among the nine realms.

The Frost Giants of Nifleheim take advantage of this conflict and offset their ain war confronting Midgard – Earth. The Fimbulwinter (a catastrophic global freeze) they release threatens to wipe out humanity. It as well portends the coming of Ragnarok, a climactic battle that will destroy the gods of the 9 realms. But one person tin stop this calamity – a Viking.

This narrative comes to life by and large through narration earlier and later every story level. It's suitably atmospheric, but a far weep from the big-budget cinematics of Diablo Three. That said, its afterwards levels have more in-engine storytelling to motility things forth.

Build your own Viking

Before starting the game, you'll customize your Viking protagonist. Vikings doesn't offer a ton of customization options, only hither'southward what y'all tin choose:

• Male person or female gender
• seven hairstyles
• 7 jewelry options
• 3 pilus colors
• 7 tattoos
• vii clan symbols

Notably absent is the choice of peel color. Indeed, real-life Vikings were all Caucasian. Only this is a fantasy video game, and it would be so easy to throw in some skin choices in the name of multifariousness.

Having chosen your Viking's appearance, y'all'll choose his or her chief deity. This choice determines weapon specialization. Thor provides hammer skills, Odin the staff, Tyr sword and shield, Loki dual wielding blades, and Skathi the bow.

This choice is important since the abilities and bonuses (called gifts here) you unlock from one god are merely usable while wielding the matching weapon type. But Vikings allows players to switch between ii weapons at will, then yous're encouraged to at to the lowest degree develop a 2nd god's abilities. I chose the Mighty Thor as my primary god, but I tin can switch to Skathi's bow when the situation calls for it.

With your graphic symbol created, you're gear up to kickoff the game on the difficulty of your choice. Vikings offers iv chief difficulty levels, plus the selection to play any of those on Valhalla mode. Valhalla is the equivalent of Diablo's Hardcore way; die, and you'll exist unable to continue.

Hail to the chief, infant

Equally the game begins, Jotan (Frost Giants) have invaded the hamlet of Ulfung and killed its chieftain. Our hero must rescue the surviving villagers and defeat the sole remaining Jotan and its army of Tomte (goblins). After driving out the invaders, the townsfolk evidence their thank you past making the thespian the new master of the hamlet.

The newly rebuilt village serves every bit Vikings' hub earth. Players will return to the hamlet betwixt raids (missions) to interact with NPCs and purchase upgrades. Initially, our hero has access to an altar, a Skald (medic and poet), and a smithy. Every bit the game progresses, the hamlet will grow and offer new services to our hero. All of these shops tin can be upgraded, allowing them to sell better goods.

The village includes such of import details as a mead hall, the dwelling house of the chieftain, where peachy feasts were held. Ane item that disappoints, though, is the non-histrion characters. The non-shopkeeper NPCs in the hamlet can't be spoken to and don't say annihilation on their own. They're lifeless window dressing.

The village also features a neat altar where your Viking makes sacrifices to the gods. Rather than earning experience similar in Diablo, you lot actually collect blood and hearts from fallen enemies in this game. Once you've acquired enough claret, you can level upward. This lets you choose one stat to ameliorate (from a rather patently-looking menu) and two gifts (abilities or bonuses) from the god of your choice.

Every bit for those hearts needed for leveling up, you actually accept to walk right over one to get it. It takes them a lilliputian while to fall afterward killing enemies, so I often have to backtrack a few steps just to get those tasty hearts. This hurts the pacing a bit; they actually should be magnetic, and so we don't take to weave around for them all the fourth dimension.

Viking Combat

Vikings' combat feels very much like that of Diablo III on consoles, which is a good thing. You lot start with only a bones assault and the ability to curl past hitting the right analog stick. The gifts purchased when leveling upwards will unlock additional attacks, each assigned to its own button on the controller. Naturally, these have cooldowns to forestall spamming.

Our hero tin equip various healing charms that provide a limited number of healing charges between uses, and sometimes general regenerations. To refill a charm's charges, yous'll have to visit one of the claret shrines found throughout each level. This mechanic works similarly to refilling Estus Flasks in Night Souls.

Vikings were known for their berserker rages, represented here past the Rage mechanic. Equally you fight, the Rage meter rises. Once filled, you can unleash your Rage at volition. The screen goes stake as your warrior'south senses become heightened from the bloodlust. Raging provides a harm boost and other benefits, but it only lasts for a short time until you've upgraded information technology with more than gifts.

The biggest gameplay difference between Vikings and Diablo is exposure. Some (but non all) of the game'southward levels take place in freezing climates. The longer yous endure it, the greater your exposure meters fills. In one case it reaches critical mass, your hero will have constant damage.

To avert freezing, y'all'll take to approach 1 of the campfires helpfully dotted throughout the landscape. The freezing mechanic creates a welcome sense of urgency, as y'all'll often have to forego fighting until you can reach the next fire and its life-saving warmth. Many levels don't have place in the cold, so the freezing mechanic doesn't overstay its welcome.

Online Co-op

Vikings doesn't quite stack up to Diablo III in the multiplayer loonshit. Dissimilar Diablo, this ane has no local multiplayer and only supports ii-player online co-op. Four-player support would have been nicer, but playing with a single friend is still plenty of fun.

Co-op makes the game a lot easier, peculiarly if you lot and your partner wield complementary weapons. Loot, gold, hearts and collectibles driblet for both teammates, only you each need to pick your stuff up on your own.

This is a drag when it comes to collectibles, as you basically have to stick together to avoid missing them. I'd much rather be able to divide and conquer. And speaking of collectibles, the game only tracks them while you lot're on a mission. Complete the mission, and yous have no manner of knowing whether y'all missed anything.

My partner and I too encountered a issues in which our collectible progress reset during the middle of the second story level, presumably preventing us from getting credit for collecting everything. Kalypso definitely needs to fix that bug, simply I likewise hope they add a manner to rails overall collectible progress in time to come updates.

Achievements

The Xbox I version of Vikings: Wolves of Midgard offers 38 Achievements worth a full of 1,000 Gamerscore. These include completion-based goals similar unlocking all of the gifts (abilities) from each god, buying every upgrade for the shows, fully upgrading the alter, etc. The Achievement for collecting ane million Claret (XP) volition take quite a while as well.

You'll need to beat the game with one grapheme of each gender, complete the Game+ afterwards finishing the game one time, beat the game on the highest difficulty, and – most challengingly – trounce Valhalla mode (which has permadeath) on the highest difficulty. The latter will crave lots of skill and do, though playing in co-op will make things significantly easier.

Overall Impression

Vikings: Wolves of Midgard isn't quite every bit good as Diablo III, only information technology could never have been. A smaller publisher like Kalypso only can't match the budget of a top-tier Activision Blizzard game. That doesn't mean Vikings isn't worth playing, though!

The Viking setting and Norse mythological themes make for a perfectly interesting alternative to Diablo'south standard holy-warriors-versus-demons setting. The game looks neat (though the frame charge per unit could exist a little improve) and it plays just as well. This kind of activity-RPG is perfect for relaxation, though the higher difficulties will provide a challenge if you want it. Throw in some enjoyable online co-op, and you lot accept i of the meliorate Viking games in recent memory.

Pros:

• Slap-up use of Norse mythology and Viking civilisation.
• Relaxing and addictive gameplay in the fashion of Diablo.
• Unique exposure mechanic keeps you on your (frosty) toes.

Cons:

• Collectibles aren't shared between co-op players and are incommunicable to rail between levels.
• To change difficulty levels, you have to offset a whole new character.
• Your character is rude to everybody he or she meets for no apparent reason.

Although I do recommend that fans of Diablo-way games selection Vikings upward, the console pricing is somewhat suspect. The Steam version of Vikings sells for $39.99 – a off-white price for an AA-level game. On Xbox Ane and PlayStation 4, the game costs $59.99. Given that information technology launched on all iii platforms simultaneously, there's no skillful reason for such a big price disparity. If yous play games on both panel and PC, the lower price makes the Steam version the one to get.

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Paul Acevedo is the Games Editor at Windows Fundamental. A lifelong gamer, he has written near videogames for over xv years and reviewed over 350 games for our site. Follow him on Twitter @PaulRAcevedo. Don't hate. Appreciate!

24 Comments

• Diablo looks fun. I haven't played information technology since the original. Every bit for this game ill boycot it until the pricing is the same on pc and Xbox. This ripping off gamers needs to cease. I support the for accolade gamers.

• This looks like something my wife would really bask, I'll be sure to permit her know about it.

• Wow looks a lot similar Diablo. Might cease up grabbing it down the line.

• As a black male person, I appreciate efforts in diversity. What I don't like is pandering. Yes, its a videogame, but it is based on an actual culture that existed. Offer skin color choices for this is just useless pandering in my opinion.

• Volition definitely check it out. We've been peckish a fun co-op game

• Game looks expert, i'm a sucker for diablo style games. Although the cons make the game unappealing

• I'yard non usually one to comment on reviews just Vikings: Wolves of Midgard is broken on Xbox One. The game is a gainsay-heavy ARPG and barely maintains 30 FPS near of the fourth dimension. Secondly, even after the recent patch, information technology stutters and the gainsay is very jerky and flawed. While information technology'south not as bad equally it was before, information technology'due south even so really bad, specially in the larger levels with a lot of effects. I would become then far as to say that the title is almost unplayable in the kickoff and towards the stop. The review compares it to Diablo III but one of the main reasons why Diablo III is and then loved on consoles is the fast frame rate and solid functioning. I would recommend that people non purchase this game and enquire Kalypso to update the title and so the jerkiness in combat is resolved on Xbox One.

• Lots of games play at 30fps with drops, so describing it every bit broken is an exaggeration. Information technology feels fine to me. I meant to mention the frame rate in the Cons department, but wanted to continue it downward to 3 cons. The game could be optimized better, just as mentioned in the endmost, Kalypso'south a wayyy smaller publisher than Activision Blizzard.

• Vikings: Wolves of Midgard is one of the worst. And I don't call back saying it's broken is an exaggeration. The combat is very poor and clunky, especially if you choose the standard graphic symbol with a sword. Secondly, the developer already put out a 6 GB patch on Xbox 1 just it didn't actually do much. At that place'southward still stuttering and the combat is still hasty. I don't think demanding a patch for a $60 game is wrong. If they can't fix these rather serious issues, they shouldn't be charging $60 for information technology.

• No local coop, no fun for me.

• Would be an instant buy for me if it had local co op.

• The game may not be as addictive every bit Diablo3, but it is still practiced in its own style. Hope the dev would fix those small little bugs here & in that location, perchance add some GUI showing if the quest is consummate or a quest log.

• Not a genre for me, never cared for the mode of play. It's nice that there is an alternative, but I couldn't bring myself to back up a developer with a pricing structure like that.

• Looks like a fun game. Fans of Diablo/Norse mythology would most likely enjoy it :D Will have to go on an eye on this for some co-op fun.

• I do love me some Diablo...toll departure is pretty crazy though.  I didn't even pay 39.99 for Diablo 3 so I'll probably expect and pick this up downwardly the road.

• Is it going to exist available for PS4? Information technology's weird how many ARPGs the Xbox is getting from PC that aren't coming to PS4. In that location's three this year. This would make 4.

• Vikings launched on PlayStation 4 alongside Xbox One. :)

• Ah ok. Good task I asked. Hahaha. Just a chip of a tendency I noticed. Some expert genred games from PC aren't getting releases on PS for some reason.

• but out of curiosity, what are the other ones? I can't recollect of any on Xbox that aren't on PS4

• Question for those who played and the reviewer. Is information technology harder than Diablo iii? I found Diablo 3 was waaaaayyyy to easy and ended up deadening equally a result. Linked up with 3 other friends nosotros never died. Fifty-fifty on the top 13th tier. It was just a case of spamming certain abilities and we could practise information technology with our eyes close. Didn't rate information technology at all. For people who honey just replay after replay to become meaningless loot information technology is probably skillful. But as a challenge and a story it was pretty bad. We enjoyed the story and claiming of Dungeon Siege iii ALOT more. Merely then I feel Blizzard become a free pass in reviews and fanbase. Mainly due to the MMO Wow loving crowd.

• Looks good.  I absolutely beloved these types of games, dating dorsum to Baldur'due south Gate & Diablo.  I recall it's a real shame there is no local co-op though.  These are the kinds of games I think should have that characteristic.  I think playing the heck out of Baldur'south Gate: Dark Alliance on Gamecube with my wife. I have a manner effectually it though.  I tin just double box information technology as I take more 1 X1 panel, simply it should however be in there. Don't get me incorrect though.  After reading your review, I will definitely exist getting it.

• Zippo really good... I hateful it looks quite nice, atmosphere is awesome, but information technology lacks content...

• I kind of object about calculation "diversity" to a game nearly Vikings.  If I were playing a game about aborigines (of Australia), I would non expect there to be any caucasians.  Fantasy game or not.

• No local co-op, no deal. Can't believe they'd get out this out...

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