I,Viking is an interesting game by Next Dimension Games. The game is a mixture of resource management, unit management, and real time battles. You play as the jarl of a group of vikings and train them, equip them, and then engage in online battles racing to pillage a town. You set up teams of warriors with different abilities and can switch between them as needed.
The graphics are pretty good. The 2D art that is in the loading screens is really well done, and the character model for the 3D battles make it easy to see who is on your team and what role they play. The hometown map is nicely done, but the buildings are not labeled clearly to their purpose and everything is a snowy grey so it can be hard to tell what needs to be done or where to go do it.
So far in the online battles the map has been the same, a basic village, and there is a minimap to track your progress. You can order characters to pillage houses, attack, and move just by tapping the destination on the screen. Often, a golden trail will appear giving you hints about where to explore. While in combat you can switch between characters. If you open access to a fire, you can carry a torch down to burn the opposing team’s ship, which will then cause them to pay you a bounty.
The music is done very well and is fitting for the situations. There doesn’t seem to be any intrusive ads.
The main problem with the game is the learning curve is very high. Even in the tutorial there is a ton of information thrown your way and because of the different game modes it becomes a little overwhelming fast. You follow tasks in the tutorial without really knowing what you are doing. Hiring, leveling, equipping, training and learning the backstory of characters are all explained very quickly. The battle system is simple, but can still be confusing until you learn the types of characters and memorize the map.
All in all, I think anyone who wants a detailed game with many online battles and free time will enjoy this game. Nothing stood out as being frustrating other than simply learning how to play. I, Viking is a nice game that can be played casually once the gameplay is learned, but requires a lot of time up front.
