Vikings and their exploits have long been the stuff of legend, and in terms of video games, these famous seafaring people function as both charismatic heroes and fearsome opponents. Here are the 5 best games you should play if you are a fan of the Norse Mythos.
1. Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is one of the largest, most beautifully rendered, and detailed open world environments I’ve witnessed. Easy to travel between known locations and especially fun to explore and discover new locations. While there are no flying ponies or twister elevators in Valhalla, movement is surprisingly versatile and often as vertical as it is horizontal.
It’s as easy and as fun to travel along hilltops, treetops and rooftops, or the depths of caves and dungeons, as it is to travel by foot or mount. Combat mechanics are fun and fluid with a diverse range of play styles that can be easily mixed and matched. Tons of content that strays into alternatives and absurdities often enough to keep things interesting. Plenty of diversity in character appearance with plenty of weapons and armor, attacks and abilities to choose from.
While the combat isn’t as difficult to master as say Elden Ring, there is a surprising amount of variety melee and ranged attacks with plenty of enchantments and abilities to spice things up. A single combat encounter in Valhalla, aside from stealth assassinations, will involve a combination of tactics; from dodging, parrying and melee attacks to mid ranged bow and hatchet throwing. And whether you approach an enemy encampment alone or with your clan, stealth or arrows a blazing, ultimate success is attainable almost equally regardless.
2. God of War: Ragnarok
A largely captivating story; Large and varied cast of characters, all of which are brilliantly written and acted; Excellently paced story with the trademark God of War sense of scale; Healthy amount of bosses, minibosses, and set piece moments; A number of incremental improvements make for a massively improved combat system; Excellent enemy variety; Progression and loot feel much more rewarding; Exploration feels consistently rewarding; Tons of engaging side content, including plenty of endgame challenges; Looks absolutely gorgeous.
When a game is as good as God of War Ragnarok is though, its issues become much easier to ignore, and that’s certainly been my experience. Ragnarok is better than what I was expecting it to be, and I was expecting the world. It’s a stellar game that perfectly captures both, the scale and bombast of the older entries in the series, and the heart and grounded nature of God of War (2018). From beginning to end, it’s an exciting romp that delivers a steady stream of thrills, whether you’re going through its captivating story, engaging with its massively improved combat, or getting lost in the endlessly explorable and wonderfully designed Nine Realms of Norse mythology. It might seen like an iterative upgrade on paper, but it’s much more than that- not for the first time, a new God of War game has come along and set a new standard for the medium at large. Anyone with a passing interest in games has to play God of War Ragnarok.
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
In Skyrim, the gameplay loop is one of the most satisfying I've played. I always found it kind of silly you can only level up in RPG's by completing quests and being given a set amount of XP. Skyrim continues the Elder Scrolls tradition of doing away with that. You have a variety of skills open to you, focused on three main styles. Warrior skills include your standard blocking, one and two handed, heavy armour and smithing. Mage skills have an array of defensive and offensive magic and there are thief skills like sneaking, pickpocketing and lockpicking. You level up by just using these skills, allowing you to invest perk points in your chosen skills.
The skill system is something old school Elder Scrolls fans didn't like, as they felt it dumbed the game down. I like to call it streamlined, and I actually think this system is better than the old, tired and archaic skill and leveling system found in its predecessors. Instead of being forced to use certain skills to boost certain attributes, you simply could use what you wanted to level in, assign some perk points that enhanced that skill, and put points in three attributes instead: health, magic and stamina. Gone are the usual strength, endurance and intelligence for this streamlined system. It works, and although I would have done it differently, I do think it's better than the old.
The world is one of the highlights of Skyrim, and is such a wonderfully crafted open-world. Completely free to explore after the opening mission, you can go anywhere and do anything. Feel like being a better warrior? Go clear out some dungeons. Want to join a guild? Do that and finish the guild quest-lines. Fancy some powerful artifacts? Do the Daedric quests. Want to pick a direction and see what you find? Do that. The world is packed with stuff to do and places to see. It's the game's biggest strength and I simply love exploring Skyrim.
4. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Hellblade is a third person action game where the player controls a Celtic woman called Senua, who is fighting through Hell to rescue the soul of her dead lover from the Norse gods.
The melee combat system is really enjoyable. You’re armed with a sword, and you’ve got four basic moves – quick attack, strong attack, dodge and parry. You can also charge up a focus mode, where time slows down but you still attack at normal speed. There are a few different enemies to fight including one armed with a sword, one with a mace, another with a mace and shield, one who dual wields small axes, and a big dude with a massive two handed axe. And of course there are a few unique bosses.
Hellblade has a kind of permadeath mechanic in place. You’ve got an unspecified amount of lives, and each time you die, a dark black “rot” grows up Senua’s right arm. If it reaches her brain, she dies permanently and your save will be deleted. This adds an intensity to the combat, and makes you want to play cautiously instead of just rushing in and button mashing.
5. Valheim
Valheim is currently extremely popular for a reason. While I don't think it's perfect, it does a lot of things right that other survival games don't. It's surprisingly well thought-through with many elaborate systems in place which make a lot of sense in the context of a survival setting. Valheim is a single or online multiplayer co-op survival game that combines elements from Minecraft, Rust, souls like games and even Elder Scrolls and adds a lot on top of it, to round out everything into one game which makes it feel ‘whole’ and well designed. It constantly makes you think about how you want to approach each of the game’s aspects, whether it’s building, combat or exploration.
Unlike many other survival games, you're not only progressing through your equipment, but also directly with your character, as almost all in-game actions correspond to a skill that you can level up by simply doing it a lot. You need to be careful though, as deaths become increasingly punishing, because they will set you back a percentage of your skill progression (and drop all your items in the place you died in).
The base or home building game is another aspect of the game that I think the game does really well. While the game offers you the ability to build strictly grid based, you can build nearly anything however you like, should the grid as well as the half size options not fit your needs.
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