Expeditions: Viking Previews
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For a start, you’re not a wealthy, sprightly sort cruising for glory & gold -although there is a bit of that- instead you take on the role of the offspring of a Viking village leader. As it turns out your pa was rather obsessed with chasing repute over the oceans and left the stead in a bad way. Much like conquistador the game is split into two, with the start of the game taking place in the across Denmark, although mainly -from what I’ve seen- in the region of the protagonist’s homestead on the Western coast of Denmark (directly next to Ringkøbing Fjord). The second section, the Mexico to Conquistador’s Hispaniola, is Britain, with the player following in the footsteps of their character’s father’s expeditions.
It’s not just the era, and the map, that have undergone major overhauls. The story completely leads the game, the combat has been changed to be more tactical, and simultaneously feels more forgiving, and the character-count has been shrunk so much that the developers have had room to make them each vastly more memorable; with each of the new main-companions having their own stories, opinions, and origins with your band.
Yes, yes, a lot of that still touches on the core features list of the original, and in that way the game definitely feels right in continuing the series. This feels like both and evolution and finesse on the qualities which were celebrated in the original. Rather -though- than a turn-based tactics game tied together though a luck-based overworld, Vikings actually feels like a part of the CRPG genre, one that actually happens to feature an impressive, in-depth non-fantasy based combat system.
And to follow that up, we drop by iDigitalTimes for another piece that comes to us from the show floor of last weekend's PAX East. Once again, an excerpt:
peaking of the battle system, I can’t help but note how large the party feels. You have at least six party members to manage if not more, all with a dozen skills that are useful and synergize well with those of other party members. Some skills, stats or weapons are necessary in order to have more choices in dealing with possibly troublesome situations, but at least in the demo, the party size and preponderance of skills felt like extreme overkill. Those bandits never stood a chance. Of course, difficulty options should allow you to adjust your Viking experience.
Viking's gameplay felt very CRPG-standard: meet someone, pick a bunch of dialogue options that will boil down to the same 2 or 3 possible consequences, follow through with the consequences, turn in the quest if you accepted one, explore the town if you didn’t burn it to ashes, see if you can find any other quests if you haven’t subjugated or murdered everyone around you, move on. Viking isn’t shaking up the formula - but I’m pretty happy with that. CRPGs have a damn good formula and sometimes you just want to enjoy classic and comfortable gameplay with solid writing, which Viking confidently promises.
While I didn’t see this in the demo, there will be a variety of factions with whom your reputation may grow or fall, while your party members’ loyalty determines how much of your shenanigans they can put up with before their personality and faction alignment drives them away from you. You’ll also be able to travel between your Viking home and the land of Britain, where you’ll have to make faction decisions that will affect what happens when you return to your home. Your Viking village may be upgraded with various building options that will boost certain stats in the game.
