Pixel Chest, the dev of Sons of Valhalla , was so kind to give me access to the beta of their game for reviewing. And it is up on Kickstarter now .
Of course, The Stinkiness has more important things to do and Tagonius is “really busy” tweeting, so our humble Librapus spent a few hours* playing the game.
Warriors of the North—The story
While he probably was busy elsewhere, another viking named Valgard Varinsson pillaged and burned Thorald Olavson’s village. Additionally, he had the audacity to steal Raija, our protagonist’s love.
Thorald—and thus us—follows Valgard into England in his own ship. However, the sailors never got to see the castle they seem to be searching for, as we’re swiped off the board by a storm. We are wrecked or beached and all supplies have gone down with the ship. Therefore, the vikings will need to loot and pillage in order to gather an army capable of fighting Valgard.
The Way of Vikings—The gameplay
We start with a couple of warriors and an empty settlement. As we all know from our RTS -days every new settlement needs to figure out which building to concentrate on. Every building offers one kind of resource and only one kind of building can be built at a time.
I realize that I am just telling you the very basics about this kind of game. The reason for that being that I had it Skunksplained to me before.
“And this is how you play RTS games”
So, we sat down in the tent and the Indie Skunk started to explain to me, thug ignorant minion, how to play this new video game. I must say now, the goal of the game is to create an army to be able to move round the map and plot. The first map, the one that comes with the beta, has two enemy villages we must conquer. Every village and ours have a flag in between to make us be able to reinforce faster.We will be able to consider all the units available for our army, two kinds of foot soldiers, two of archers and three types of siege weapons. The enemy will of course try to ransack our village. The enemy villages also have walls and are defended by a Hirdman guarding the garrison.
First, I must say, we will command all this through Thorald Olavson . This is probably the best part of the game.
We will fight, be it by ourselves or with our men. We will have our own bar of health and another bar for stamina. We may choose between three kinds of attack plus dodge and block. Because what we will learn as the most important as we advance in that first map is to block. So, there you are. Any time we or our men are involved in combat, we will advanced day after day everything now suddenly looks to have more sense. Up to our fight with the boss and our death. I will not tell you more on this matter. And we will be able, of course, to order our men. Go with us or stay where you are, run away, or better still, charge ahead with us and stop for a shield wall.
Thorald and the guys posing. Vikings also knew how to be cool.
There is also a nice RPG touch to the game. We can find runes that we can exchange for new skills and improvements, not only for Thorald but for our minions and the economy of our settlements.
“Minions? What a waste” said Its Stinkiness.
Rain before seven, fine by eleven—The atmosphere
“Now that there is a storm it’s way more dramatic. Charge!!!”
Last but not least, the atmosphere of Sons of Valhalla is impressive.
Besides the beautiful pixel art, a 24h day & night cycle and dynamic weather the fog is the favourite of this minion , together with the game’s soundtrack and sound design, make the gameplay very engaging and the world a joy to look at. The voice acting, in the parts of the game where it is present, is also well made.
To the victor go the spoils—Opinion rhymes with minion
Since we are sharing this review with you, beloved follower of the Indie Skunk, we obviously recommend this game.
The hours that this minion spent on Sons of Valhalla were extremely satisfying. I am not really into RTS games my Master felt the need to explain to me how they work after all but I really enjoyed it. The resources management is easy to follow and allows you to adapt your choices to your game style you don’t have to build and/or upgrade every single building and unit in order to succeed , and the fighting parts are a lot of fun. The battles feel chaotic and brutal, as they should.
To conclude this review, this minion wants to remind you that Sons of Valhalla is now live on Kickstarter . I put my money where my mouth is, as we don’t get paid, and will be supporting the devs by borrowing Its credit card. I want to play the very best version of the game, and you can too. So, until next time, stay tuned for more skunksplaining and petty theft… and more reviews of the absolute best in indie gaming. Hail the Indie Skunk!