
While auto-save is good, once you realize you made a wrong decision, you cannot go back. But each profile only has one save slot and the game has an auto-save function. On top of that, the game lets you create three profiles which all have a different progression. So there is a definite end to the map if you let them starve or they die in fights with NPCs (those are the two ways they can die, I think). If too many vikings die, no new ones will appear. If you have 26 vikings and one died, this total is at 27 out of 55 vikings. But the maximum total amount is an important factor here. But there won’t be more than 26 unless you buy another hut. For example, after you build some huts for your vikings to live in, you can have up to 26 vikings on your island. One is the maximum amount of vikings you can have at any given time. What I do find an interesting feature is that each map has a maximum of vikings you can get. I finally reached a map that I could not succeed on. And the single non-campaign maps also had different goals or no goals at all.Ī sacrifice of 10 wheat is needed to calm down the portal guards here. In Cultures, there were story campaigns with maps that usually had at least slightly different goals to achieve (defeat your enemies on the map, gather enough of x resource, find NPC y and so on). While I don’t mind having these achievements in general, I am not sure how much fun it will be to do the same thing over and over again with no change in between. There are even (Steam) achievements that support this “repetitive goal”: “Your Vikings managed to climb the Valhalla Hills x times!” where x is 10, 50, 100, 250. For the first few maps, all I did was build the most necessary buildings, build an altar, fulfill whatever was needed to calm down the portal guards and open the portal to get to the next map. One of the issues I see with the game currently is that it seems to be very repetitive. Only when you start a new map can you build that new building. It’s important to note that the new buildings are not available on the island you are playing on at that time. You get unlocks in the game by playing the game which then give you access to more buildings later on. I said that you only have a few buildings in the beginning. On later maps, there will be enemy NPCs on the islands, too, so you will have to have soldiers to defend your vikings anyway. I chose the peaceful option, simply because it seemed much easier. You can choose between two options: You either build an altar and gather resources to sacrifice for the portal guards to be calmed and let you through or you can instead invest in a small army of soldiers and attack the portal guards instead. The goal is to go through the portal on the island. You basically build up an economy, so your vikings have food and soldiers. In the beginning, you don’t have many buildings available yet. I am on map 9, I think (I would check, but Steam isn’t loading currently). The first few maps (all of them are islands) are really small.

And with that, off to the adventure you go.


You do so with the help of Vikings who get rejected from entering Asgard as well and who, just like you, need to earn more honour before they are allowed to enter. You play as Leko, one of Odin’s sons, and need to earn honour (through building, fighting and so on) to prove to Odin that you’re a worthy son. So, I’ll skip that very basic introduction part and get right to the game. I mentioned in the previous post who Funatics are and why this game even caught my attention in the first place.

Now that this is out of the way, let me get into more detail. Altogether, it has potential and I hope they can fill that potential with more content. TL DR: It feels a lot like Cultures to me, but each map plays very similarly to the previous map which feels a bit repetitive. The timing was also quite awesome, as all of this happened on my birthday. While I have lots of games on my wishlist, only one came to my mind that I really wanted to have and play: Valhalla Hills (and I also got the Contributor Edition from Belghast and not just the regular one! O.o). I was the lucky winner of the grand prize of Blaugust and received a Steam game that I could choose. I’ve previously written about Valhalla Hills and my impressions from the outside, but now you can get an impression piece from me from the inside!
