Sons of Valhalla Review for PC

Sons of Valhalla left a bitter taste in my mouth when I stepped away from it for this review. I wanted so badly to enjoy what it offered, having hooked me with a gorgeous pixel style. Then it threw me into the tutorial. Sons of Valhalla is a side-scrolling adventure RPG with town-building mechanics. You’re expected to build up your mead hall, garner an army, and rush them ahead with basic strategic commands. The goal is to raid England with your Viking band, rescue your kidnapped wife, and get revenge for your father’s murder. Let’s break it down a little.

Sons of Valhalla Review

Title: Sons of Valhalla
Developer: Pixel Chest
Publisher: Hooded Horse
Players: 1
Genre: Strategy, RPG, Action, City Builder
Platforms: PC

Gameplay

Playing as Thorald doesn’t feel very unique. There are shrines that give you new combos to use for combat, but otherwise, you’re stuck with the same light attack, double attack, block, and dodge. I imagine this was done intentionally, as you’re supposed to be leading a small army of Vikings. Though building up this army was rather irritating for me, having to wait a long time for my units to build up which slowed the momentum. Additionally, with enough of the right units, you don’t have to think very much about your approach when assaulting enemy camps. The main goal is to advance towards the right side of the screen and take camps from the enemy. I personally got stuck for a good 20 minutes banging my head against the first camp’s wall because of its massive health pool.

The city-building aspect is quite shallow. You simply wait for the right amount of resources then hit the “upgrade” button. Ultimately, I wish I had more power as my main character. Thorald dies quickly when focused which felt disempowering. You can acquire runes in the game to upgrade various aspects of yourself, your soldiers, and the camp. Though they all essentially boil down to percent increases. You have to sacrifice a rune when you die.

Visuals

Sons of Valhalla’s pixelated style starts out strong, giving the player a delightfully animated cutscene to set the tone of the story. In game, the same quality is displayed for backgrounds as well as characters in play. Though, the graphics stumble a bit when it comes to the sprites that appear during Dialogue. Honestly, every character looks the same, with the same expression. Characters that are depicted with more power don’t display the same strength in sprite mode. Visuals also get very muddy during rain, making it hard to tell what’s going on during combat.

Audio

What brought the score so low was easily the voice acting. The voices of each character feel rushed, out of character, and lacking emotion. I eventually started to read ahead and skip dialogue altogether. Music was very nice, though it had a tendency to be used in the wrong places. Passive music would play while in the middle of combat, and intense music would play while wandering camp. The sound effects are serviceable, though not terribly memorable.

Story

The story takes a heavy backseat to everything else going on. It’s a very simple story to act as a driving force, though it’s not very gripping. Thorald’s father was killed and his wife kidnapped, leading him to England on a rescue mission laced with vengeance.

Thorald is also chosen by Odin in order to come back to life when he falls in battle. However this element isn’t well explored and feels like the game is trying to explain a respawn system. Only, it’s not very immersive at all. When you die, you return to Odin who will say the same line and take one of your tokens. After dying a couple of times, I was even allowed to skip seeing Odin altogether. Which I did, because there was no reason to return to him for any interesting narrative.

Sons of Valhalla Review – Last Word on Gaming Viewpoint

Sons of Valhalla has some ways to go. I’m hoping a couple of updates will ease some of the tedium of the city building and waiting for units. It felt like I was stuck through a lot of my playthrough, having to wait for something or another rather than forging ahead.

I wouldn’t even mind waiting for tactical purposes, but there really isn’t much more to the game aside from clicking at enemies and watching your army take care of business. I died during 2 sieges. When I got back to the camp, my army had played the game without me and took them. It just feels a bit disconnected. With a little push, this game has something special. For now though, I’d recommend waiting some time.

Sons of Valhalla Review (PC): Not Quite a Viking Raid