Land of the Vikings is just yet another strategy game that delivers the experience without changing anything.
Strategy games are the pinnacle of trying to grow your little settlements to conquer establishments and sometimes even worlds. The sense of starting small and ending up being a massive force that is reckoned with is astonishing, and I honestly catch the drift of those players. Not only do you get to rule everything, but you become the reason why you are in that situation, and taking huge risks is a nice touch of strategy games overall.
That being said, is there any real-time strategy game that follows the different ways of approach? Of course, there is, but if the same formula gets repeated over and over again, then there wouldn’t be a reason for your own creation to be picked up. Sometimes, you have to be unique in order to draw attention. That is what Land of the Vikings struggles to accomplish in the end and, unfortunately, becomes a dull, generic city-building strategy game.
When taking a general look, the unique part of Land of the Vikings is how it mentions the rise and fall of the Viking tribes, which I find to be quite fresh. I am pretty much interested in the Nordic culture, especially Icelandic, but sadly, the game could not handle that part of the theme properly either. I will mention how Land of the Vikings somewhat fails to deliver those said thematical touches.
Land of the Vikings starts with a cutscene explaining the legends and unforgettable tribes of Vikings. How they became one of the most barbaric and ruthless tribes, and how their overambitious way of living made them miss the biggest problem that could occur. After being demolished by other tribes and cults, Vikings needed to scatter. And frankly, this is where taking care of your tribe begins.
So far, the only Viking-related mention is the story; it can’t be said the same for the rest of the game. The settlements you are given are basically the same as any other tribe living in the same condition. For example, in my way of starting, I was given a settlement next to the beach. It all sounds fine and dandy; however, the Nordic settlements are usually rough despite spring and summer existing. The land was covered in grass and full of trees. Now, I assume the story takes place in Iceland because some Vikings were pushed to live there instead.
Considering we are in Iceland, the surrounding places do not match what Iceland is known for. Let’s just disregard that fact for a while and see what else Land of the Vikings has to offer. Before starting your story, you can make your banner and map to build your tribe. Maps differ from very easy to hard depending on the resources and the size of the map. Once you drop into the settlement of your choice, a tutorial starts.
This tutorial is completely barebones, teaching you basic information such as wood, stone, herb, and food gathering. For these, you need to have their specified buildings; obviously, they require stone and wood. Luckily, we have a carpenter already settled, which means we can start building the rest of the buildings.
By acquiring sources, you can build structures to care for your residents. Herbalists, which act as a hospital and houses to reside in, are the most important. There are also markets, piers, and lounges to build to keep your residents healthy. People can purchase needs from those places to keep themselves full and stocked so that it will keep them safe when the rough weather arrives.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the first things to go through while starting your village in Land of the Vikings is gathering resources. How you command villagers to cut wood or mine stones is quite peculiar, though it’s nothing new. UI at the bottom consists of a few buttons regarding cutting trees, mining stones, creating buildings and roads, and removing certain entities. Once you click the tree-cutting button, you can drag it along the areas to let residents cut specified trees. It’s the same with rocks, too.
What’s nice is that carpenters have dedicated areas for you to decide, so trees regrow, and villagers automatically cut them. For stones and rocks, you get mining capabilities later on that allow you to do the same action with stones. Stones create almost all the buildings and form the base, so mines become a huge part of your gameplay as you progress.
Land of the Vikings’ residents are quite intelligent to get a hold of since they have their actions to keep themselves safe, but there were a few factors that kept them away from what they were supposed to do. For example, while attending people for certain roles in different areas, it is better for you to choose ones that lean more towards their personalities. Hunters must be strong, and herbalists must have high intelligence. But since you do not get to pick who does forestry or mining at the beginning, you can find your dedicated citizen doing something unrelated just because you ordered your town to get rid of a forest.
I am afraid that not everything has been considered a solid showcase to me while playing Land of the Vikings. When I first booted up the game to learn the controls, I was fairly far from where I was supposed to start my journey to creating my Viking town. Instead, I was spawned over the mountains, not knowing what to do most of the time. The Land of the Vikings, despite their 1.0 release, still has a lot of ground to cover. I have not encountered any major bugs that would ultimately end my playthrough, but there were annoying ones that would stand out regardless.
The loading screen tip suggested getting roads for the residents as they would form a better line and do their tasks quicker, but I always saw them taking shortcuts for some reason. For best results, it is just better to use the fast-forward buttons. These buttons are actually life-saving due to how convenient they are.
The beginning of the game is quite sluggish and unbearable as your residents keep getting sick or have work-related injuries. Building a basic wood or stone storage would take quite a lot of time because of that. Thanks to fast-forward options, which is actually pretty much a mandatory mechanic for strategy games, you do not have to wait an agonizing amount for your projects to finish.
The UI tends to keep a nice and clean job of where everything is, but even then, I found it more lacking occasionally. The bottom side of the UI is quite big and explanatory; however, the top side tends to be more missable due to its tiny icons and fonts. Unlike other strategy games where you get complete movement with your mouse, Land of the Vikings uses both of them, and it might take some time to get used to it. Your basic WASD is the movement keys, and using the mouse takes the job of looking around.
The game does not end with you taking care of your residents, though; there is also the fact that enemies are nearby. Once you build enough experience within your time, train soldiers, and create forts, you can stop enemies from conquering your land. To get more people, you need to create more housing and keep your residents healthy enough to get them to marry. Sense of time also exists in the Land of the Vikings as some infants get older with time and start working on jobs. Every detail about your village can be read through the notifications tab on the bottom left.
Skill tree is an interesting way to add some spice to your gameplay. Once you build enough points to spend on the skill tree, you start building special abilities related to your biggest weaknesses, such as overall happiness, mining, naval defense, and so forth. It is not explained properly how you get those points, or there was no showcase of the skill tree option. It would have been completely better if they snuck into the skill tree part of the tutorial from the start, to be brutally honest.
Overall, the quality of Land of the Vikings is all over the place. Sometimes, it provides quality game design; sometimes, it falls apart without noticing it. The generic gameplay with a Viking theme is a bit lackluster, too. I wish they focused on the Viking aspect by researching their proper ways to live in the Northern areas rather than just giving the theme of Vikings and turning it into any other city-building simulator with strategy elements. I see a lot of missed opportunities for the title, but I am sure the developers will start taking action when feedback about the 1.0 release starts rolling in.
