Expeditions: Viking

I love the storyline and gameplay fo this game. The fact that the decisions you take matter for the development of the story is a great plus. The story itself is good, combat is entertaining, the characters are well developed and the graphics are good enough. However the game is riddled with bugs. It crashes during quests, during battles and even while walking through towns. I am currently stuck in the last battle because the game always crashes at the first turn. It's a shame because otherwise this would be a 5 star game, but to release a game in this condition and charge 18 bucks for it seems like a ripoff. Just wait some time before buying it, perhaps with future patches they fix all this.

Avoid, run into game ending quest bugs. You may end up not being able to progress / wasting enormous amounts of time.

I really enjoyed this game. Interesting story and characters. Good music. Challenging but rewarding turn-based combat. Camping is a balancing act of managing your characters' skills with the current conditions of your party and needs. Fun leveling up system. Good length at 61 hours playtime. Multiple endings. Native 21:9 support. I didn't encounter any major bugs and it ran pretty smooth. Choices that matter in the game. A realistic setting for the most part. So why not 5 stars? Very little voiced dialog. I know it's a small studio, but other small studios have managed to include full voice acting and it makes a big difference. Also, some of the gameplay mechanics need a little bit more description, particularly building your homestead. You really need to focus on either power or prosperity when upgrading your homestead,not both, but this isn't explained to you at all. It's possible to completely screw up a character by leveling up the wrong skills at the wrong time, making that character useless in combat and no way to undo that mistake. A high cooking skill won't help you much when someone's about to plant an axe into your forehead. Your characters all have an affinity system that affects how they perform in combat based on how much they like your main character based on the choices that you've made. However, there's no way to tell which characters have what personality types, so you can't really know how your decisions will effect anyone. And lastly, wolves are the most dangerous enemy in the game. On multiple occasions, a pact of wolves wiped out half my party in the first round of combat. Those random encounters with wolves were the most frustrating part of the game for me. All in all, it's a great but not prefect game. If you enjoy rpg's with turn-based combat, give this a try.

I just finished this gem today. The start was a bit cumbersome but once you understand the mechanics it makes fun. Similar to Expedition Rome especially the first fights can be really challenging. + Historical setting - no fantasy bullshit. I think the game is almost as historical accurate as it can get. + I really got the impression they first created the story and the branching tree of it and than they built the world. This is so much better than many modern open world RPGs which have just large world without any soul. + Real choice and consequences. I had the feeling I had more of them than in Expedition Rome. + Good crafting and skill system + Beautiful graphics for an indie game and absolutely sufficient + I am rather a completionist and it took me ~ 60 hours to complete all quests + Latest version (I am talking about steam version) had no game breaking bugs for me. - The first hours were a bit frustrating because I didn't understand some of the mechanics right away. - The timer was ok for me, but it can be a bit stressful. If you create from time to time saves you can avoid bad suprises. - The menue is ok but can be a bit confusing at the beginning - Almost no voice over - but for me ok, it increases the immersion. - Sometimes longer loading screens. But never more than 3-7 seconds on my PC - I wish they had produced a story add on how the vikings fought against the Franks. I can only recommend this game to everyone who likes Wasteland 2/3, Expeditions Rome, X-Com, Fallout 2 or Dragon Age Origin (even if it has no turn based combats)

I waited for a year after the Bugs bugs bugs review and this still crashes in dialog a lot. I am writing this because I want to talk to the witch but if I engage her while she is giving advice on a garlic enema I will get sucked into a dialog I am not part of so I will never be able to exit it. I am still going back to play after though, because this is a pretty good game.