Expeditions: Viking

First of all a disclaimer:I don't own the game even if i am 20 or so hours of gameplay,i play a friends copy and will buy it if it is fixed. The biggest problems are the bugs.The game is full with bugs and broken quests.Wait to be fixed. The game is really good,the story is interesting with interesting characters that i was genuinely interested in.The choices in the game could make you stop and think what to choose which is rare in most modern RPGs,i did reload a few times to see what will happen if i did take another choice.Also the game is pretty historical and realistic.But there is a few problems too.A main mechanic of the game is the time limit which could be very annoying for inexperienced people and completionists.I found constantly reloading to save a few ingame hours or days and avoiding camping and pointless travelling.Another problem story wise is that a few interesting companions interactions are when you are camping,like romancing and a few which is counter-intuitive with the time mechanic.Another problem for me are some immersion breaking unrealistic things that could rub some people the wrong side.One of them is that there are far too many warrior women in factions that were unrealistic.I was ok meeting and fighting women from the Pictish and Norse factions but it is kind of strange to run in to christian monastery and find a bunch of high level women warriors.Another thing is people with the "sceptical" personality which is basically 21 century atheist,they are getting offended at any mention of spirits or gods and one them is a monk.....yeah a lot of atheists in 8th century. The combat is solid with quite a few abilities and weapons.I personally find use for all of the weapons and skills.The problem is that there is no formations for the party and could endup in messy unorganized combat start where your archer is in the front and the enemy have the initiative.Another problem is that the enemies are too buffy and could take a few more hits to put them down.

The combat and base-building feels like XCOM, which I love, and the campaign is RPG-styled, like Fallout 1 and 2 (the original turn-based Fallout). I think that's an excellent combination and feels very fresh to me even if the individual gameplay elements aren't innovative on their own. I like the story. I like the main goal we're given, and how every quest/sidequest contributes to the goal, so no quest ever feels like some pointless chore. The only thing holding this back from a 5/5 is one specific minor bug that I found very annoying. Occassionally, the hird member's abilities list gets all messed up with duplicate abilities, or some abilities not showing up. It forces me to manually rearrange all the abilities to the way I want every once in a while, which is annoying because we can only do this during combat, and you can't save during combat.

I was looking for a game to distract me from the emptiness left after the Dragon Ages, amongst other virtual worlds and, much to my surprise - bias is a terrible thing - this small dev game actually FILLED that emptiness. I am now a shadow of myself after finishing it, because what am I to do without it ?! I cannot speak about its replayability since I'm a one path kind of gamer, but even without that I counted 50 hours of fun and enjoyed every single minute of it. It is incredibly well-written - and by that I mean that I took great pleasure in reading the text itself, the dialogues, the descriptions. I'd sometimes pause to marvel at how delightful it is to read a game with such quality of wording. Never long-winded, always on point, I'd say that the saddest part is not having even more character-specific events to discover. And speaking of characters ! What great companions to undertake this adventure with. The cultural aspects are incredibly convincing and absolutely fascinating. I don't think I'd had such a moment of wonder at the depiction of social and political conflicts since Morrowind's many houses/political parties and natives. I'm not a historian so I can't speak for accuracy but Vikings feels researched; it feels credible, and that's what matters. Finally, as someone used to real time game fighting, I've alway been unsettled by turn-based combat. Yet E:V was both flexible and challenging enough for even a terrible turn-based gamer like myself to have fun. Tl;dr : GREAT RPG, HELP I'M IN LOVE

You start off as a heir to a fallen Jarl who left to you a mess of a Jarldom that does not have much of a future. Stuck picking up your father's pieces you're beset by conflicts and problems from your nearest neighbours, who view you as an easy picking in terms of expansion so it falls to you to strengthen your lands. As you progress into story it becomes obvious that things in good old Denmark are pretty much set in stone, and you have no hope at carving out your piece without first sailing towards the greener pastures - namely England. TL:DR: Basic barebones story. So what's new? Character customization: standard stuff, a bit old and barebones for a 2017 game but it's indie. Doesn't really matter what features you pick as you will not get to see the face of your character after the creation screen. The only choices that matter are gender, colors and size (thin, average, bulky). Tedium and feature bloat (crafting/party management/task management): I'm of the opinion that they took it too far this time around. Yes Conquistador was barebones as it gets, but that wasn't bad because more doesn't always equal to better, and frankly if I have scroll 5-7 pages of different abilities to spend my points on you have done gone overboard - on top of that most abilities are useless. Real actual RPG settlements with walking and talking sprites and auto-travel via map: Actual upgrade from the first one since world exploration and travel were its weakest parts. Felt really immersive - great job! Followers with better stories and personalities: though they're all cliche and barebones and nothing to write home about. Outside of that it's the same old, subpar class balance - actually worse this time around, and meh AI, but their credit it actually seemed smarter! Obviously you'll still stomp it once you learn the combat intricasies, but it won't rollover in same fashion as Conquistador did once you learned how to properly use the units strengths and weaknesses.

I won't talk about what has allready been extensively discussed with this games flaws but how awesome it could be EXCEPT to mention the dreaded timer. The timer ... Bane of all humanity and rpg games. This timer punishes you for exploration and well taking your time. Go to the wrong area the timer counts down, every action eats away at this thin reserve. If thats the edge you want with your rpg about exploration great???? If you enjoy rpg's as they should be, at your pace and no artificial timer weirdness stay away.