[h1] Raider or Trader? You Decide... [/h1]
You're a viking, and you set sail for Britain. Why? Because your tribe is in trouble. Neighbors want to take over. So you gotta find resources to help your tribe.
So you set off to Britain to find allies, riches, and resources.
And it's your choice how you go about getting these resources you take back home to protect your tribe.
[h2 ]What Makes This Game Stand Out [/h2]
It's a top-down, point-and-click, turn-based tactical game.
And combat is slow-paced (which is good if you suck at twitchy action games and you need time to process what you wanna do).
You have a party of 5 people in your group. And each person specializes in a weapon type: sword and shield, axe, pole, knife, and bow.
So in each fight you gotta figure out where to place your members depending on their weapon type.
But what makes this game different from other turn-based tactical games, is its setting and theme. There's no magic, no monsters, no aliens.
It's a historical game that throws you into a bunch of political stuff that I honestly skipped through. But if you like political intrigue and figuring out the best way to handle politics between 3 or 4 factions, then it's there for you.
[h2] Camping Mechanic [/h2]
Another cool thing this game adds is their "camping" system.
So to travel from town to town, you open up a over-world map. And you gotta find camping sites between towns because if you travel too long, then your party will get tired and hungry. And if you're tired and hungry, you temporarily lose skill points. To get your skill points back to normal, you gotta camp and rest again.
And once you set up to camp, you gotta manage your party. Each member can heal, cook, hunt, guard, fix equipment. And you decide which person does what, depending on their stats.
So for example, if a dude got injured in a fight, the only way to heal them is to to camp and have a party member who has stats put into the heal skill.
And as you level up, you choose which party member does what during camping (i.e. heal, cook, fix, hunt, etc.).
This is a fun little mechanic that adds a bit more depth to the game. But later I'll tell you why this gets tiring.
[h2] You Have A Time Limit To Finish This Game Or It's Game Over [/h2]
Oh jeez. The game is on a timer. If the timer reaches the end, it's game over.
This sucks because it limits exploration. So you can't just faff around. You can't just look at the map and go "hmm, let's explore this area". Nope. You'll be like, "hmm how can I optimize my travel so that I finish all the quests in this area so that time doesn't pass to fast".
And some people like that extra pressure.
But what happened to me is... I had 2 weeks left. So I had to skip a bunch of quests and I rushed things because I didn't want my 38 hrs to go down the drain because of the time limit.
I'm telling you this because if you're like and hate time limits in games, then now you know.
I honestly would not have bought the game if I knew about the time limit.
[h2] Fights Where You Have 5 Turns To Eliminate All Enemies Or You Lose [/h2]
There will be battles where you have X amount of turns to eliminate the enemies. Some people like this system because it adds another level of difficulty.
But if you're like me, and you play turn-based games because it's more slow-paced action, then adding a timer to combat just feels frustrating. That's because you're no longer fighting the enemies, you're just fighting the clock.
[h2] Mechanics I Hated After 32 Hours Of Play [/h2]
This is why I only review games I've beaten: what's fun in the early game becomes frustrating and boring in the late game.
Let me explain...
[b] Random Events That Penalize You Because Of Reasons [/b]
After you leave camp, there will often be a random event that will penalize you. You could get food poising, lose rations, a party member gets sick or injured.
This system was fun in the first part of the game. It added another layer of difficulty and something to manage.
But after 30 hours of play it just got boring seeing the same events happen over and over again. And it just got in the way of progression.
What I mean is, say I'm travelling to my next quest. I setup camp. Leave. And I get injured because the RNG said so. So the last thing I wanna do is to have to camp [b] again [/b] to heal my party because I don't want to be injured going into the next mission.
[b] Boring Combat Because The "Arenas" You Fight In Are All The Same [/b]
At first the turn-based tactical point and click battles were fun. But after 30 hours of play, it was the same repetitive fight over and over again.
I think because there's very little variety in the maps (or arenas).
For example, in XCOM there was more variety in the terrain -- and you use the terrain to your advantage.
But in this game you don't really utilize the terrain. And you hide behind the same log over and over again. And yea, there's a cave you fight in, and sometimes you'll be in a town... but still, you're not really utilizing the terrain. And combat gets boring because the "arena" always feels the same.
And I know this is a small dev. They don't have the resources like a AAA dev has. But still... I rather play a shorter game than a game that is padded with the same environments over and over again.
[h2] Raider Or Trader? Actually, It Doesn't Matter Because Your Choices Don't Matter [/h2]
I spent a lot of time trying to make alliances, getting riches, using the resources I found to help build up my town... but all of that didn't really matter.
I admit that my comprehension sucks when it comes to political stories and deep complicated plots. So I could be wrong here. But it seemed that the ending was rushed and it didn't align with anything I really did.
Or it could be because I had a time limit and I got a bad ending because I didn't have time to properly do all the quests.
[h2] But Overall: Great Game [/h2]
Despite all my gripes, I give a lot of credit to the programmers, designers, artists, and writers who made this game. They are a small team and they pulled off a great game.
