A belated review here but if you’ve played the excellent Expeditions: Rome and have a little time on your hands, waiting patiently for Baldurs Gate 3 or XCOM3 perhaps, then seeing as this game can probably be picked up for next to nothing in a sale now if you got an itch for a really nice story driven RPG with some kick-ass turn based tactical squad combat which is a trade mark of this studio and some interesting quirky mechanics this is definiitely worth considering.

If you’re sitting on the fence on Rome, consider picking this up on sale and trying it out first. If you like this you’ll love Rome and there is much to like about Vikings.

The big difference between this title and Expeditions: Rome is Rome has far higher production values, is fully voice acted, stunningly well voice acted at that, which Vikings is not and most of the mechanics developed here for Vikings have been broadened and deepened for Rome. Rome is an AA going on AAA experience. Vikings is definitely off-beat indie territory.

The one thing I would warn folks about is that you must prepare your whole team (all 10 of them) for the finale (technically Act 3 but it’s really just a finale sequence) before you wind up your campaign in Britain (which is Act 2 and represents the bulk of the game). You must make sure you have crafted a full set of tactical items as well as decent weapons for them, levelled them up properly for combat etc before you head back to Denmark after you’ve completed the main Act 2 quest one way or another. If you don’t you will be very annoyed as you can’t craft anything in Act 3 and you can’t go back.

The reason for this is the finale is straight sequence of cutscenes and combat encounters you are forced through and for one single battle you will need all 10 of your team saddled up and battle ready instead of the normal 6 you will probably use for the whole of the rest of the game in combat (the other four probably being specced primarily as skill monkeys). Just one battle, but it matters.

The other major issue with this game is time limits. Yes, there are time limits in both Act 1 and Act 2. However you should not concern yourself with this. Unless you completely screw things up there is ample time to complete each Act within the limit, like twice as much as you need. There is also no benefit in messing around travelling around unnecessarily from camp to camp on the map because you don’t get either XP or loot from doing so.

Highly recommended for those that like story driven RPGs with good writing and hard core TB tactical combat. A criminally overlooked gem basically.

A belated review here but if you’ve played the excellent Expeditions: Rome and have a little time on your hands, waiting patiently for Baldurs Gate 3 or XCOM3 perhaps, then seeing as this game can probably be picked up for next to nothing in a sale now if you got an itch for a really nice story driven RPG with some kick-ass turn based tactical squad combat which is a trade mark of this studio and some interesting quirky mechanics this is definiitely worth considering. If you’re sitting on the fence on Rome, consider picking this up on sale and trying it out first. If you like this you’ll love Rome and there is much to like about Vikings. The big difference between this title and Expeditions: Rome is Rome has far higher production values, is fully voice acted, stunningly well voice acted at that, which Vikings is not and most of the mechanics developed here for Vikings have been broadened and deepened for Rome. Rome is an AA going on AAA experience. Vikings is definitely off-beat indie territory. The one thing I would warn folks about is that you must prepare your whole team (all 10 of them) for the finale (technically Act 3 but it’s really just a finale sequence) before you wind up your campaign in Britain (which is Act 2 and represents the bulk of the game). You must make sure you have crafted a full set of tactical items as well as decent weapons for them, levelled them up properly for combat etc before you head back to Denmark after you’ve completed the main Act 2 quest one way or another. If you don’t you will be very annoyed as you can’t craft anything in Act 3 and you can’t go back. The reason for this is the finale is straight sequence of cutscenes and combat encounters you are forced through and for one single battle you will need all 10 of your team saddled up and battle ready instead of the normal 6 you will probably use for the whole of the rest of the game in combat (the other four probably being specced primarily as skill monkeys). Just one battle, but it matters. The other major issue with this game is time limits. Yes, there are time limits in both Act 1 and Act 2. However you should not concern yourself with this. Unless you completely screw things up there is ample time to complete each Act within the limit, like twice as much as you need. There is also no benefit in messing around travelling around unnecessarily from camp to camp on the map because you don’t get either XP or loot from doing so. Highly recommended for those that like story driven RPGs with good writing and hard core TB tactical combat. A criminally overlooked gem basically.