Viking: Battle for Asgard Hands-On Preview (Xbox 360)

Sega gave us a chance to spend some quality time with Skarin and his pals in Viking: Battle for Asgard, and we came away with smiles on our faces from our brief exposure.

What’s clear right at the start is that it’s a bloody good time—emphasis on bloody. After all, when the main character carries a sword and an axe, and uses them in tandem in many cases, you’re going to have more gore than Bill Clinton had in his eight years in the White House.

At the start, it’s also a button-mashing swordfest with some breaks for opening treasure chests, doors and such (with the B Button). The A Button delivers a quick slash, while the X Button charges up a bigger attack (with more oomph in the swing the longer you hold it). Using the A Button in combination with the Left Trigger, which offers you a defensive block, also lets you hammer your opponent with a hard shoulder. These basic combos will have you pounding the controller when you encounter a group of bad guys.



The X Button attacks are also where some of the most ghastly entertainment will come, but it’s not for the squeamish. If you’ve managed to get an enemy in a dazed state, a large X indicator will appear over him, and if you hit the X Button, you’ll be treated to an often elaborate fatality move, such as slicing your opponent in half, leaving his legs to stumble a bit before they drop; or chopping his head off, which also causes him to stagger around brainless for a few moments. In some cases, the action will slow down to about a quarter of normal speed, enabling you to revel in your carnage.

Once you start exploring the world, though, the map starts opening up with more locations and details…as well as quest opportunities, but more on that in a sec. One of the early spots I found was the Battle Arena, which offers you the opportunity to learn some advanced moves by executing them in the damage-free arena. If you’ve accumulated some gold—and it’s everywhere, believe me…some people are being very careless with their sacks of riches—you can purchase the training to get these moves into your arsenal, and that’s when you can slow down the game a bit more during combat, pace yourself and drop the blades down hard when there’s an opening. If you forget a move you’ve bought and learned, hitting the Back Button and using the bumpers to navigate through the menus to the Move List, which documents all of the moves and how to trigger each one.

Platform:
Xbox 360
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Publisher:
Sega
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Developer:
The Creative Assembly
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Genre:
Action/Adventure
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Release Date:
3/25/2008
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Game Features:
Offline Players: 1
EDTV 480p Support
HDTV 720p Support
HDTV 1080i Support
Widescreen 16:9
Dolby 5.1 In-Game

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