Expeditions: Viking

This is a fine game, not one of the best but fine. I would consider it at least 7/10 in general and 8/10 if you are into turn based combat, realistic historical settings, vikings, medieval period..etc.
Pros:
+ Game music is great, it really creates the atmosphere of the time and region where the game takes place, and also it is responsive, it affects the players mood in parrallel to plot / game events.
+ I really liked realistic portraits and 2D art of loading screens.
+ Graphics are fine, not one of the best but still beatiful.
+ I really liked the idea of realistic setting. The devs created pretty solid skill system, although it has little variety, I think most of realistic systems would have variety issues, I still liked the skill system and camping mechanics.
Cons:
-The crafting and looting system is based on grinding. It was really tiresome.

-The characters and side quests are not memorable. Although hand drawn portraits are astonishing and really helps to player about imagining the personalities of the npcs, there is a lack of writing. The npcs are not backed with enough text, information and communication.
Suggestion: Lastly, I'd like to mention about language of the game that I am not fond of. Even there are a few mediaval elements in the game, I find the language game uses too modern.
When I look at the text closely, how people talk with each other, what jokes do they make each other, what are their belief system, what are their values.. etc., I realised that all this issues are considered and written in a very modern way of thinking. It felt like all the characters in the game are modern people who are put in medieval britannia.
I know the audience who lives in 2020 may not like the real mind set of medieval man, it might be found distasteful, boring, cruel, repulsive..etc but also a realistic representation of mind set of medieval times would create a truly unique experience. It might be the differentiating factor between a fine game and a cult classic.
I know there is litterally no developer would take such risks but one can only hope ...

Some people never learn. Some, on the other hand, do. If you've read my Expeditions: Conquistador review, you know that I'm not the big fan of the game. To say the least. So, I honestly didn't expect much from Logic Artists' new game. But guess what? Expeditions: Viking turned out to be a pretty nice surprise. Not without its own “buts”, but still. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The first thing about Viking that you'll probably notice is that it feels like a totally different game. The previous Expeditions game was closer to King's Bounty, while this one will remind you about games like Baldur's Gate. It's not like it's a bad thing, or something, just keep in mind that Viking is heavily different from Conquistador and you should not expect the similar experience here.
The funniest thing, though, is that Logic Artists actually fixed everything that was wrong with Conquistador. Here's a quote from my Conquistador review (which I wrote without playing Viking): “Make it faster (even the speed settings in options menu don't help much here), add more optional content, add proper story, make historical part to play bigger role, and this game will have a chance.” And guess what? Logic Artists did exactly that. The game doesn't make you feel like you're wasting your time anymore, there's enough optional stuff to make you want exploring, there's a proper story now, which may be pretty basic, but feels pretty good thanks to a solid historical support... In other words, it does feel like the developers actually cared to learn from their mistakes. Which is rare.
But enough about that. Let's talk about the new game and how it works. Like I've said, it plays a lot like Baldur's Gate, aside from the fact that the battles are still turn-based. You'll explore the world by navigating the 2D map, you'll discover the new places, you'll talk with the NPCs and make the decisions by choosing the certain lines in dialogues. You know the stuff. What's cool here is that there's quite a lot of decisions and most of them are not that simple. See, unlike many other games of this kind, this one isn't only about good and evil. In this game there's more than just black and white and very often you'll need to find compromises. You also can't please everybody. Certain decisions will go against certain party members' beliefs and therefore decrease their morale. In other words, if you like making choices (personally, that's what I like about RPGs the most), you'll love this game. There are also romances (unlike Conquistador, Viking offers you the proper characters to care about) and proper epilogue to tell you about how your actions changed the future. Everything you like about such games is hare. Logic Artists even added crafting that doesn't feel too annoying.
Historical part was utilized pretty well too. Like I've said, it's playing way bigger role than before. See, the main goal in this game is to cross the sea and find some allies to support your clan. Sounds way too basic and, well, it is, but what's really cool here is that Expeditions: Viking makes you feel like you're actually doing politics. I mean, it's still a hero-oriented RPG, but you won't feel like the entire world revolves around you. Quite the opposite, you'll face some rulers, most of which will be plain a-holes, and will need to establish some common grounds with them. Feels pretty good. Especially since usually there's no easy ways. And as for the battle system, it learned a lot from Firaxis Games' XCOM. With proper covers and other stuff, it doesn't feel nearly as dull as it was in Conquistador.
Unfortunately, like I've said, there's still some “buts”. And the biggest one of them is, of course, timer. The same exact timer everybody hated in Fallout. Like in Fallout, timer makes perfect sense here, but it also destroys a lot of the fun. Because exploring the world while having a punishing time limitation is not nearly as fun. You run out of time – it's a game over to you. Enjoy the pressure (“pushing down on me, pressing down on you, no man ask for~”).
Another problem is that the game is bugged. Not as bugged as it used to be during its early days, but still, expect bugs, crashes and other funny stuff to ruin your mood. Finally, the game can still be pretty annoying thanks to its survival elements. Not only your party members can become wounded during the battles, they can get an injury just by walking through the world map. And don't expect being able to treat the injuries by using some items. No, sir! First of all, you'll need to have a healer in your party. Second – you'll need to find a camp. Finally, you'll need your healer to sacrifice his / her sleep time (resting is very important in this game) to heal the injured person. Not the worst idea out there, but since injuries happen a bit too often and there's a time limit that is a bit too pushing as is... let's just say it's not that fun to care about stuff like injuries.
But all in all, Expeditions: Viking is a very solid old school RPG that doesn't try to be like the others. I mean, nowadays, when there's the game that tries to be old school, very often it's something like “Look! Our game is exactly like Heroes of Might & Magic!”, or “Look! We've made a new Fallout for you!” (I'm talking about you, ATOM). Just because nostalgia sells. Expeditions: Viking is different. While using a lot of old school elements, it also tries to be a thing on its own. If Troika Games (creator of Arcanum and The Temple of Elemental Evil) was still alive, I guess this is kind of stuff they'll be making.

This game is exactly what an (uhhhhuhhhh) "old school" RPG gamer, like myself, misses in all the other games these days. It dosn't have to look fancy, it dosn't have to be "groundbreaking" - a simple but good narrated story, exellent soundtrack and the, by now, legendary and ofter misinterpreted "immersion" is all we want and all we need!
I mean, I own this game (at the point of this review) for maybe 38-40 hours and I already sunk half of it into the game and I'am not even on the halfway mark... Few games manage this these days!
Also: The absence of a detailed wiki for this game means you f*ckers actually have to think for once to 100% this one!

Wow, just WOW. What a fun, immersive, well-thought and intelligent historical game about vikings. I had no idea. The story, the beautiful music, the plot with REAL choices and consequences, the combat, the companions with their unique personality... This is truly an hidden gem. If you like games like Divinity Sins but set in a realistic world (like I do), don't hesitate. I can't wait for Logic Artists next project. They definitely are on my radar.

This is probably my favorite game of all times, and I'll definitly be honest and say I have a bias towards Vikings and the setting, that's not why it is my favorite game of all time(though it's a great bonus, no question!). I'll split things into sections to make it easier to read:
Map\Travel\Exploration
The game is an isometric turnbased RPG, you travel between locations on a world map, and in\on the locations you have a local area to run around in, Like in Fallout, Wasteland, etc. Unlike Fallout there are no random encounters, but instead random events(often bad, but sometimes good), where you are given some sort of decision to handle(when sailing it could be a companion falling off the boat, or a storm closing in etc, dependant on your ship and resources depends on the effects that'll happen and what decisions are avalible).
The areas are diverse and interessting to go through, and there are quite a lot of them, many of which are optional(i.e tied to side-activities, rather than mainquest).
Combat
The combat is pretty much a simplified X-com combat system, which works really, really well in my opinion. You have an "move" action and an "attack" action, which you can use in whatever order you want(attack first, then move, move then attack, etc). Move action has a certain move range(dependant on stats and penalties) which you can move. Say you have 5 moves, so you move 2 hexes, then attack, you have then 3 hexes left. Or you could use your attack action as well to do an additional 5 extra moves for total of 10 hexes.
Some abilities require you to use both actions, which means you can't do anything but use that ability at the start of a turn(such as an aimed ranged shot). Also like xcom you can select any of your companions\allies to use at your turn to do whatever synergy you want, there is no initiative system.
Cover is in the form of full and half cover, half cover works the same as full cover but it can be negated with certain abilities or items(like a torch, or spot ability), allies also work as cover so a shieldwall is an absolute valid tactic against archers(to protect your non shielded allies).
My personal preferd composition was 3 shield users, 1 support(heal, leadership), 1 ranger(with back up heal\leadership) and spear user, primarily positioning them behind the shield users for cover from ranged enemies, this worked really well on insane.
You also have the option to toggle between lethal and non lethal attacking. non lethal disables critical hit, but ensures people will live after you beat them, which can be both good or bad, but essentially you can do an passive playtrough if you want!
Quests\Story
The story itself is very hit and miss, however what I feel is important to point out is just how choice based it is. The last part of the game will always happen, and always come to be(apart from the game-over sequense), however this is fine(in my opinion, and make sense because of the story and theme), what changes is all the things around it. Such as what allies do you have, what kind of village did you build(A strong trade hub? A power house of strong fearfull warriors?), etc. But apart from that and the different endings(and a few smaller things that might come to pass), I am mostly talking the immediate things.
Almost every quest in the game have a couple of ways for you to solve them(some require you to have done certain events previously), and there isn't ever a "wrong" choice, just a different choice. I'd put the choices in this game in between Witcher and Bioware games, with a bit closer to Bioware(immediate consequense, rather than long lasting ones). Losing is also not the "end" of all things as in many other games, it's simply unfolds the quest in a different way(up to a certain point), which makes ironman a far more enjoyable experience, as losing doesn't mean reloading your save a lot of the time, but simply playing trough with a different consequense.
An early example of the games choices: In Denmark you'll have to visit some ruins, to get access to these ruins you can either just go right up to them, beat\kill the guards guarding it and go in, problem solved. Second option is to talk to the Godi's son, he'll help you get access to he ruins for a split in the profits(you don't have to give him the split of the profits if you don't want to at the end either!), Third option is to talk to the Godi, he'll require a sacrifice to give you entry. You can then chose to sacrifice some of your slaves(if you have any), a companion, or the Godi's own son!
The biggest issue is there is a time limit(can be disabled, but disables achivements as well, at least some achivements*), however it is fairly generous and unless you're arbitrarily forcing time to go by you won't reach it, but if you want to hunt down every occupied camp, do absolutely every side quests in an unoptimal order etc, you might get close to, if not overpassing the time limit. Time limit being the absolute biggest complains people have\had.
Companions
Companions have their own personalities, and their own lives. Sometimes certain things will happen because your companion(s) have their own reasons for it, an early spoiler with Gunnar: Gunnar will meet his own shipmates at the docks of Ribe, and will instigate a fight with them, this fight can be avoided if you're given the option to talk, but with Gunnar in the party this won't happen, as Gunnar has his own reasons to talk to them, and instigate the fight. This kind of thing continues throughout the game, though it's rare.
The companions also have their own interjections through quest dialogue, and sometimes do minor actions(like holding hands). The reason this game is my #1 favorite game of all times, is because of how well the companions and the interaction they do through the story work. Something as insignificant and simple as having your romantic interesst hold your hand at a wedding just adds to the immersion and the illusion of these being actual people, and not robots you control.
Issues
I could've mentioned some of these in the other sections, but felt it'd be better to use it's own section for it.
The biggest issue imo is the looting, the game is balanced around you aquiring as much resources as possible, which isn't bad in and of itself, but a lot of the resources you'll find\get is found on each map in containers\nodes, so every time you go into an area you'll spend the first 10-15 minutes just running around and clearing the map to find all the nodes\containers to loot. It feels like they should've put an optional check in the difficulty screen for "auto gather all resource on map", as it's just a time waster and pulls down on the game.
The other issue is game balance(using insanity as a reference point), the beginning is fairly difficult, defending the village from the raiders but even though it is fairly difficult, the difficulty is the most balanced through the entire game. It is hard enough you'll potentionally lose a couple times, but not impossible and with proper planing and strategy(and knowing the combat system) you'll pass at least 2 of the 3 required fights.
After that event however, and the game opens up, is when things get a bit more scetchy. The first few following fights will be very difficult(so items are heavily encouraged, like barricades etc). Same, when you get to britain the first couple hours will be difficult, and you'll rely on using items, but after that, it'll all be an absolute cakewalk. The game just loses all sense of difficulty, which is a shame.
Closing statement
All in all, I highly recommend trying the game if you enjoy multi-choice RPGs, and enjoy turn-based tactical combat. I definitly recommend playing it on ironman normal, as again losing isn't necessarily a loss, just a different way to experience things!

I love this game! One suggestion though, one that I've seen elsewhere. Make a character, play the first part of the campaign (before you leave Denmark) and then start over, putting into practice the things you learned from the first time around. Going to England with a sub-par character and hird will land you in the situation I initially ran into: having a great time, invested in the game play and story, but getting beaten like a red-headed step child (which I am, BTW). There are also some excellent resources online with suggestions on character builds and combat. Well put together characters will be able to handle the challenges thrown at them, making play much more enjoyable.

I can't believe I missed this game at launch! A good old school isometric turn based CRPG, where you can be an (authentic) Viking! The creators have put a lot of effort into trying to be as true to the history and the cultures represented as possible.
The combat is fun, and sensible tactics are actually rewarded. A shield wall with spears and archers behind actually works!
No combat magic, there are buffs and debuffs from invoking the favour of the gods. The crafting system is pretty good, and you can make end game quality gear with enough experience and resources.