Expeditions: Viking out today, the raven will feast
Would you know yet more?
Hey videogame folks. Expeditions: Viking [official site], the tactical Norse follow-up to historical plunder sim Expeditions: Conquistador, is out this very day. Thursday. Thor’s day. The day of thunder. The day of might. Axe-time draws forth, long the wolf howls. Out from the ground the Nithhogg sups at the ankles of warriors. Hel calls to you, wretched cravens, Valhalla awaits only the bloody, only the bold. The hammer blow comes, look high and see the ships above you. Your land is drowned beneath the worldserpent.
Whoa. Excuse me. Don’t know what came over me there. Expeditions: Vikings is out today and it is twenty five pounds.
“Sail to Britain in search of wealth and glory.” Already dunnit, mate. But maybe in this CRPG meets hex-based tactical battler I’ll do better. Heroes come with abilities and skills that come in useful during a fight, like the ability to hook shields away with an axe, or spear your enemies from multiple hexes away. But there’s also some parleying with the chiefs of the lands you’ve come to raid, so it's not all murder and pillaging. Alec had a play of an earlier version and said it is “not exactly glossy, but it’s refreshingly grounded.”
I do enjoy a bit of Viking-ing, myself. There’s just something that feels weirdly familiar to me about it all, something strangely alluring… it’s as if I have seen these beards before... Touched these shields. The sheathed sword, it screams to be released. Crows cover the worldtree, the bloodtide rises. Bone-time, axe-time, the burning of battle. Fall away into the first seas, enemy, you are unworthy of the Valkyries. You shall not see the all-father, but languish with the head of Vathruthnir, defeated by the Gods. The sole wisdom you seek is delivered in death.
[blinks and remembers you are here]
Expeditions: Viking is available now on Steam or GOG.com.