Expeditions: Viking

It is a roleplaying Viking game, that doesn't want you to roleplay a Viking. 5/10 The first part in Denmark is good and polished story-wise. I recommend buying this game on sale and and playing just for that, When you leave on an expedition, everything goes downhill fast and screams unfinished. The content and story feel disjointed, the role-playing aspect is shallow and poorly done, and the game mechanics are not suitable for an open-world game it tries to go for. I restarted the game many times, trying to overcome its many shortcomings because I love the Vikings atmosphere, but this game falls apart once you set sail, and no matter what kind of mind games I try to play with my head to roleplay the mess the game gives you, I couldn't make it work The game doesn't want you to play as a Viking raider and will punish you with poor barebone content if you choose to go that route. The game wants you to befriend the English and the Scots, and maybe later attack them, but it lacks raiding content and everything that happens just doesn't make sense, there's no continuity to the narrative events, no weight to your actions. Females make half your enemies' armies and it ruins immersion. Classic games like Baldur's Gates, gave females more suitable roles for their strengths such as thieves, clerics, druids, mages. I liked the first expedition much more. Blackguards, a similar game is a better game because of its better narrative and non tedious gameplay. As far as historic games go, Kindom Come Deliverance does a much better job, while Viking Expeditions feels more like a poorly executed fantasy game. Pros - Good voice acting when its there, likable characters, the atmosphere in the first part. The combat is decent but the abilities bar gets messy as the game progresses. I rate the Danish campaign 6/10 and the messy British campaign 1/10 Falrinth's spoiler post sums it up "So i have landed on Britain coast, slaughtered and pillaged all i could, killed the King's champion before entering the town for the first time, walked into the halls of the King and having no option to pillage the place the King told me to go away, and game forced me to do so. So i made my way to the door only to see king's champion standing by the door and explainig me why King might have declined me as his best bro. Seriously, all atmoshpere falls apart with such errors in scripts. I was told i may choose to trade or raid. Yet game seems to be made only for more or less diplomatic aproach. What will be next? The king's champion Leofric (who i have killed) gonna tell me how i have to do something for the king (king who i want to kill) to be able to dock in his port (i want to claim as my own)? The risen from dead character error should be fixed, and there should be more explanation shown as why i am forced to do stuff. Like "You are surrounded by hundred men" or some explanation why the hell game forces me to make deals with foreigners i want to rob? edit: Oh God... Now the guy i killed in combat tells me he want to practise with me to see how we fight. Guys. This is horrible, shamefull display of poor writing and project managing. Let alone quality assurance and testing. So, now, when the whole athmoshpere vanished, can i have a refound? I dont feel so entertained by this product anymore. Its broken."