Review: Vikings of Midgard

Originally posted on CP...

Introduction
What happens when a team of talented individuals decides to create an introductory game? You have the makings of a classic game geared towards introducing people into the gaming community.

Storyline: 8/10
Synopsis taken from the game page:

The viking Gods have been too lax in their rulership of the world, and a shadowy menace prepares to usurp power from them. It will take all your strength, courage, and wits to stop this dastardly plan!

This is pretty much it. Then again, this game was geared towards introducing people to the community.

Graphics: 10/10
Graphics in this game are top notch. Maptiles are all well defined, and colored/shaded to perfection. Enemies are well detailed and gorgeous, especially some of the later boss sprites. Hero sprites aren't as exciting as the enemies, but are still of the highest quality.

Gameplay: 8/10
A few balancing issues, inside and out of battle, is really the only thing holding back the otherwise perfect gameplay.

In the beginning, battles are balanced well. For my party makeup, I chose Berserker, Shaman, Missionary, and the Warrior. They all have unique abilities which come in handy at certain times. However, after Ironwood Forest, things were pretty unbalanced. I don't know if my party makeup was to blame or not, but the Berserker and Warrior pretty much overpowered everything by themselves up to the last boss. HP Strike and Dark Cut + Power = Overpowered in my opinion. With that combo, nothing was really a challenge until the last boss.

Also, the shaman. She seemed to hold her own pretty well in the beginning. Soon, however, her magical attacks never seemed to hit, and when they did it was usually nothing compared to the Berserker or Warrior. Meteor and Flare are pretty awesome...if they hit.

In fact, if I had it to do over with, i'd probably picked two warriors, berserker/shaman, and missionary. Missionary rocked, and I have nothing bad to say about that fatty.

I also think the difficulty transition from regular Midgard to Helheim is a bit steep, at least for my party. I go from one-shotting everything (3-4 shotting bosses) to being one-two shotted by enemies. Challenge is a great thing, but I think it could have been introduced a little better, especially for this type of game.

Battles set aside, I think money was too easy to come by, or things were to cheaply priced, or both. I personally thought that the herbs and honey should have been more expensive, and not allow me to have stockpiled several stacks of 99 of each before the last fight.

There are random boss fights at certain points in the game, which I don't really understand. It is nice to have a challenge or unexpected attack, but I don't think it was delivered how it should have been in this case.

The final boss was fairly challenging, which was nice for a change. I died and had to gain a few levels several times before I could beat him.

The map designs were fluent and easy to follow, for the most part.

Music: 9/10
One word: fantastic. All original from what I hear, and every piece really brought each area alive. My favorites were the normal battle theme and the remixed Catacombs song used in Midgard Timestop.

Great stuff guys.

Conclusion
It is an introductory game. A GREAT introductory game at that. Despite some balancing issues, it is well worth your time to play it whether you are a newbie or a veteran of the community.

Final Grade: 9/10

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Cornbread Chemist