War of the Vikings is faster than War of the Roses, but otherwise makes all the same mistakes. Almost fun, but if I want to stare a bunch of gauges, I play flight simulators. Copy melee from Dark Souls, please. [June 2014]
All in all, War of the Vikings does an admirable job on all fronts. Although the combat is fun, battles can often end up as swing fests particularly when the servers are full and the battle is being played out on one of the smaller maps.
This game received a lot of bad press and reviews and hate. Honestly, I can't understand why. It had a suboptimal start with some bugs and netcode-issues, but in it's current state it's an amazing game. I'm a dedicated gamer with over 300 games on my account, I'm gaming excessively for 25 years now and I would go as far to say that this is the best multiplayer-game I ever played. The graphics are the most beautiful I've ever seen in a game, a true piece of art. Actually the game in motion looks much better than the screenshots. The maps are extremly well designed and detailed, setting a new standard. You can literally see the great amounts of love that the devs put into them. Also sounds and music add nicely to the atmosphere and complete the great presentation. The gameplay itself is simple in it's elements but is in result very deep and skill-based. Easy to understand, but hard to master, like it ideally should be. The combat is fast, tactical, uncomplicated and satisfying. All upgrades you can unlock are purely for prestige and visuals, which is great since it doesn't create disadvantages for new players while it's still rewarding. Only drawback of this game is the small community, which makes it difficult to find other players early in the morning and in the middle of the night, but it doesn't bother at the rest of the day. Another little issue might be the beserker-class, which rewards spamming a bit too much. The game would be better without them but I don't see it as a serious issue since berserkers have very limited potential. In conclusion I got to say it makes me really sad to see that such a beautiful game doesn't get the attention it deserves, while millions of people pay 60 bucks for CoD every year. Makes me honestly question the future of gaming, it's industry and it's consumers. I guess the low success is a combination of bad marketing and the fact that most players today get frustrated by a game which requires a few hours to develop decent skills in, compared to CoD where you just need to know how to pull a trigger. And surely this game had a tough start, but every major multiplayer-game has these days. In this case community and publisher/devs were sadly very impatient, which is disappointing. But even more I'm disappointed by the market (respectively consumers), since it apparently doesn't reward an elaborated, ambitious, well-designed game which hasn't an advertising-budget of billions and in which you will get killed many times in the beginning since it's really skill-based and requires some learning.
A very good follow up to War of The Roses, TRY IT!! :
+ : fast paced combat, more balanced than WOTR, Arena and Pitched Battle modes are awesome, graphics/sounds are great, a unique multiplayer combat experience. Lots of choices of class and interesting gameplays since v 1.2!
- : some stabilities/optimisations issues, can be hard for newcommers, hitboxes sometimes feel weird.
My group of friends bought this game and I was skeptical of this genre due to the imperfections of chivalry and others like it. Sadly our game industry has fell to where everyone gets instant gratification. Jump in and disregard the learning curve, and trust me it took 5 hours to get this game down and im still getting the hang of it. Once you get past the clunky sword system its actually alot of fun. In my opinion the sword system forces the user to think and position oneself alot more than games such as chivalry and there is a good amount of strategy when engaging in a sword fight.
This game requires skill, patience, experience and living in a country which isn't too far from the servers.
I say the worst thing about it is the lack of servers in some regions of the world, and the regular connection problems (which now are less frequent). I think Fatshark is working on it.
The key to this game is to parry effectively, to be able to mislead the opponent when attacking and to move wisely.
This game is all about "reading" the opponent. Each player has favorite movements, most of the times he will attack and defend following a pattern (or a combination of favorite patterns) , that's a weakness that can be exploited, all you have to do is to remember and anticipate those patterns, so you can counter them. Your shield is only good at blocking projectiles, in combat you'll need to use your weapon in order to parry. Shields are nearly useless in hand to hand combat, don't rely on them because they don't block sword and axe blows most of the times.
To become a good WOTV player, you'll need to translate your ideas into movements flawlessly and instantly. You'll notice that movements in this game are triggered differently from most other games, since you have to click first and then move your mouse towards the desired direction. This can easily become a problem. It's very easy to move your mouse a little bit to the left or to the right when trying to move it up, or when trying to move it towards any other direction...this usually means death in War of the Vikings, so it's very important to be precise with your mouse movements.
You'll also need to make sure that your internet connection is working at maximum performance (fast connections are recommended). Your distance from the servers is also important, the farther you are from the server, the worse. I recommend to use FRAPS in order to monitor in-game fps, if your fps drop under certain conditions (too many players around), lower your video settings and resolution and turn off vertical sync (in my case, vertical sync caused important fps drops under certain conditions, so I turned it **** have never dropped since).
Now let's talk about what's good in War of the Vikings.
Do you like the idea of enemy squad members running away from you after you've cut down all their mates? Do you like the idea of chopping heads off using massive two handed axes and other weapons? Do you like the idea of coordinating with your team mates in order to kill enemy squads or to take control points? Do you like the idea of being able to customize your characters, their weapons, outfits, perks and shield paints? Do you like skill-based games where performance is everything?
If you like those things, you'll probably like War of the Vikings.
Well it's not a perfect game but if you are in to skill-based hack 'n slash games it's actually pretty fun, I especially like that the games unlocks are purely cosmetic as this means that everyone is on the same playing field.
War of the Vikings is a major step back when compared to its predecessor. This game is buggy with very little customization and latency problems. It is no surprise to me that this game is dead. War of the Vikings is just a waste.
It's a lot of fun if you're into the Mount and Blade-style combat system, and it is indeed a nugget of enjoyment if this period of history interests you. However, the game is still buggy; it's a clone of War of the Roses; and most importantly, good luck finding a server that's not located somewhere in the arctic circle with an elderly bearded man in a row-boat carrying information packets inscribed in whale blubber between you and multiplayer. Because apparently that's what everyone's latency would indicate.
SummaryDeveloped by Fatshark, War of the Vikings is a new standalone entry into the War-franchise that will pull players into the brutal and bloody Viking Age, challenging them to design a personalized warrior and sack England as a mighty Norseman - or defend it as a brave Saxon.