Volgarr the Viking

From your perspective: I lose more than one of my hard-earned powerups when I take damage?! - you've got to be joking! I survived THAT and still MORE coming, yet no checkpoint in sight?! - you've got to be joking! Even though I reached the checkpoint I have to defeat a boss before my state is saved?! - you've got to be joking! The boss killed me, and now I have play through all this again to even reach it?! - you've got to be joking! From the game's perspective: You want to keep your power-ups when you take damage?! - you've got to be joking! You want a checkpoint already?! - you've got to be joking! You want to save your state without defeating a boss?! - you've got to be joking! You want to try the boss again without reaching it once more?! - you've got to be joking! Recommended for those who like atmospheric graphics and music as well as an intense challenge. Not recommended for those living with significant others, parents, kids, flatmates or pets who get scared when you throw Donald Duck fits at the game.

The game basically added artificial difficulty layer by having the save point as far far far away from each other. Admittedly I am not at all good. Took me roughly an hour to get to what seemed to be a check point: A crystal. When I died I respawned at the crystal. I was like 'Awesome! I finally made it to the check point.' After playing half of hour more, I felt I had a good session and wanted to go to sleep. After exiting out of the game, I saw a glimpse of the message which contained. All my progress was gone. Apparently, the save point is given after the boss fight which is more than 3 crystals away. What this game wants you to do is to play only this game for next several days and put countless hours. No, you are going to have to put more than couple hours per session if you ever want to have any hope of beating the game for weeks. It is almost two thousand god damn fourteen. There is a reason why all modern games have sensible save feature. I understand the appeal for some people, but I can't play this because of the extreme time constraint. No, I don't want to solely devote to this game for days. I have other games in my library and I need to play them as well. I almost want to demand a refund, but it is my fault for not checking the game before purchasing.

Völgarr the Viking wants to be a super hard platformer. And well, it IS. However, this is achieved through a few questionable points. These are mainly the unforgiving save-points and the healthsystem that punishes you twice for every mistake. Your health is represented by items that you loose after a enemy hits you. This does not only take away your armor, but also the items associated skill, for example the shield-block , upping the difficulty ones more. While in general this adds positively to the experience, a single mistake right in front of a trap can make it incredible hard to overcome the very same. Also, while in general you can learn enemy habits and traps fast, the small screen and the fast enemies sometimes make memorization the only way to overcome certain situations. This is especially true when it comes to the Boss fights. And still, despite all the flaws, the game manages to be fun. Not least thanks to these very points. Overcoming a level after countless of tries is extremely rewarding and just lets you feel powerful and well ... like a viking. This is reinforced by the games habit of rewarding recklessness by simply punishing very cautious behavior or rewarding a aggressive style through items. If you are searching for a extra hard throwback to the old console platformers or if you are just in search of a hard game in general, this might just be the game for you.

Nice gfx, cool music, good level design, perfect input code... Völgarr The Viking is well made, but the gaming experience is ruined by some issues. 1. The save system is obscure: it is very hard to find that by going left on the main screen you can skip finished worlds. 2. There is no checkpoint before boss: even if you like the die and retry style, like I did, having to redo a long level before the boss kill you in a few seconds is not fun at all. The gamedevs could fix this easily, but from what have read, they won't. That's why I am giving a bad rate to a good game.