This game is made by it's combat "system" - if it can be called that- and multiplayer. It has the baseline "feel" of an FPS (specifically, Unreal) - no wonder, since it's made in the UnrealEngine* - but is played in third person. Whilst it might sound like it, this is not a bad thing; on the contrary, it makes it feel very tight and precisely controlled. The combat is where this game shines. With such tight controls, running, jumping, and swinging around just feels incredible. It's tight, it's fast-paced, and it's - above all - precise. The controls are also exceptionally simple; one button to swing, one to block, and... That's about it. Ok, technically, there is also a button to throw your currently equipped weapon, and one to activate your weapons powerup, but that's it. That might sound weird, but it is a third-person melee-based game that essentially runs like a first-person shooter. It runs on FPS sensibilities; weapons and powerups are placed around the maps, you spawn with one, not very good, weapon, and have to run around picking stuff up to increase your arsenal. For those that might have played it, it essentially plays like Quake III Arena in the multiplayer. At a higher level, map-awareness is key, but individual combat-skill wins the day. The combat is visceral, fast-paced, and feels excellently "heavy". Various weapons have various properties; e.g., mace-type weapons are excellent for smashing shields, whereas swords, not so much. Every weapon has it's own, unique, powerup mode, as well; this can be activated by way of finding "rune power-stones" that are scattered about the map (this is essentially "mana"). A fun little detail, is that you can also dismember players, specifically, chop off their arms and head; you can then pick up these body-parts and use them as weapons. They are not particularly good as weapons go, and doesn't have any special powerups, but it's a nice little touch. It is still possible to play multiplayer online; there are a few small communities dedicated to the MP part of this game, and it's easy to why; it is still, to this day, quite unique as far as third-person hack-and-slashers go, at least from an engine/"feel"-perspective, and the MP is excellently realized, with several interesting modes (one interesting mode in particular is essentially football, except that you have to chop off body-parts from members of the opposing team, pick them up, and throw them into the goal). Now, you might be asking yourself, "well, this sounds fun, but this isn't a multiplayer-only game, it's got a singleplayer campaign as well, what about that?". Well, that's the thing - it's mediocre. Not incredibly bad, mind; some of the environments are quite immersive and well-crafted, and there are a few nice moments here and there, but by and large, the SP campaign is nothing special. It's very much a child of it's time, with a Viking aesthetic thrown over it; nothing particularly bad, but nothing particularly gripping, either. The expansion, Halls of Valhalla, actually only adds weapons and maps to the MP-component of the game, and does nothing to the SP. So, do try the SP-campaign, as it might be a fun few hours for you, but chances are, if you stay, you stay for the MP. *And a general tip; out on the net, you'll be able to find loads of new renderers for it; DX9, DX10, a Vulkan one wouldn't surprise me, updated OpenGL ones, everything (and they can add everything from true AA to new lightning-subsystems); the old UnrealEngines have a rather heavy developer-community based around them, and so, you can find a lot of stuff related to them.
