Dead in Vinland

On sale? Definitely get it. Otherwise, no. I can see what other reviewers meant by the dialogue; that and the art often feel amateur at worst and just rough draft version at best. I enjoyed Dead in Bermuda less than this, I'll give it that, and I enjoyed Banner Saga more; this is essentially a blend of the two. It really needs another pass from an experienced dialogue editor and character artist.

Did not expect this much fun to be honest. Liked Bermuda, but this is a lot better. Too bad there is no community voiceover pack, or innate voiceovers :/
CONTROLLER SUPPORT WOULD BE A MUST!
Other than that, you will sink days into this and then tableflip...

The tactical combat portion of the game is pretty dull, but don’t fool yourself, in reality this is mainly a management game, and a very good at that.
Manage resources, relationships and character stats, and while doing it, solve a mystery involving the norse gods and find a way to beat a bully.
If in doubt play dead in bermuda demo from the save developer, it’s the same recipe.

I like it, but I like games that have elements of randomness in them. While knowledge and skill can minimize the elements of chance in this game, the chance will always be there. If you don't mind some RNG in your game, it's great. If you hate RNG, it will frustrate you. In conclusion, I recommend it for players like me, but I do realize it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

There's no game quite like this one. Turn based survival, extremely fleshed out base building mechanics with a great level up system and good exploration/events.
It does have a lot of luck, and is also quite challenging (you will NOT win your first run, I guarantee it). That will turn off some people, but I loved the challenge and adaptation needed to adjust to luck results.

TLDR: 10/10. Worth its price and more. Great story, not too repetitive (although you will die at least twice).
My Survivor's Village 1/13/25: Blodeuwedd, Eirik, Kari, Shanaw, Gudrun, Moira, Cisse, Solveig, Knut, and Eustache.
Playable Character Tier List (Remember, this is my opinion): Overall, I think the developer did a great job building such rich character backstories, happy/sad endings, and how you encounter them in the quest for survival. This is not commentary on whether the devs wrote the characters well. This is my subjective opinion of each character as if they were a real person. To avoid spoilers, I will not be elaborating.
Useful and enjoyable: Blodeuwedd, Moira, Shanaw, Kari, Gudrun*
Not useful, but enjoyable: Solveig, Cisse*
Not enjoyable, but useful: Knut, Eirik, Lady Tomoe
Neither useful nor enjoyable: Eustache, Yaghoub, Parvaneh
Kill on sight: Angelico
* = testing my patience
Gameplay: You absolutely can beat survival mode, even if you're a bit dumb like me. It's a well built story and you need solid strategy to survive.
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Nothing special
☐ Okay
☐ Bad
Graphics: Accessible to the modern (if not specifically designed for gaming) laptop. Artistic choices made give the game a very immersive atmosphere.
☐ Masterpiece
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Will do
☐ Bad
☐ Awful
Audio: Excellent musical soundtrack
☐ Amazing
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
Audience: I would be very hesitant to recommend this game to someone at or under the age of 12...If I had my own child who was 12yo, I would not hand them this game and walk away. IDK if I would "supervise" them, though. Know your child's personality and maturity level. People older than 12 should be fine. Most of the mature topics are written, not depicted graphically. There is some blood. It is a survival game... meaning the goal is to avoid death. Avoid this game if lots of different types of death would be distressing to you.
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Everyone
Story: The lore for this game runs so deep. Even once you've beaten the game, there are endings for each character that you might not have anticipated...and I might have restarted a Survival run solely to rescue one specific character from her bad ending. You sort of form relationships with these characters, or at least form strong opinions about them and react accordingly.
☑ Lovely
☐ Good
☐ Average
☐ Not great
☐ None
Difficulty: Straightforward control system and game rules. Survival is a completely different story.
☐ Just press a bunch of buttons
☐ Easy
☐ Significant brain usage
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Not so easy
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
Game Time: You will not master this in a few hours. There is enough variety built into the game that you won't feel bored no matter how many times you die and restart.
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ Depends on you
☐ Endless
Price: Very reasonable $20 full price tag. Buy it before the devs realize they could charge more!
☑ Just buy it
☐ Worth the price
☐ Wait for sale
☐ Maybe if you have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended

I really really like this game. It's sort of sadistic but not in a negative way, you can set your limits and savescum if you really object to the way something turned out but if you let it the game will give you a bounty of narratively meaningful/character defining nasty little surprises in addition to the rng survival surprises which all add up to a deep sense of satisfaction if you're able to overcome them and build a (mostly) stable community in this hostile world. Even when you aren't able to overcome them there's usually (at least for me, I might just be weird) value in accepting some of its seemingly random/unfair outcomes because they add that bite and viciousness to the game that makes whatever payoff you reach hit harder. Having poked around the forums a bit it seems like at launch the game was significantly more brutal and random and openly unfair in certain instances but with player feedback they toned down many things and outright removed certain run-ending mechanics that weren't telegraphed very clearly so I feel like my assessment that the game is trying to be harsh but still fun is relatively accurate and that it isn't just fucking with you for no reason.
Having said all that, the dog dlc can absolutely snap the game balance in half if you invest enough resources into him (and he's fucking adorable and adds a little to the narrative so why wouldn't you) so big recommend if I've made it sound too daunting and big recommend the "Norse side stories" dlc so that the optional characters will talk to each other at night instead of only the core family, having played the game with and without it makes a massive improvement to the feeling that you're building a village and providing stability for people and the writing is pretty universally excellent.
The game isn't really something you can get a sense of whether you will or won't like it within steam's refund window so if you're unsure after reading this maybe wait for a sale.