Viking Survivors – Review
It’s almost impossible to keep track of all the Survivors-like titles that are getting released. It’s getting even harder to recognize those games that are mere cash grabs and those that actually bring something fun and unique to the table. We recently took a closer look at Nordic Ashes: Survivors of Ragnarok and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. Both titles gave an original spin on the original Vampire Survivors formula and added interesting new mechanics, making them stand tall on their own. The latest game to hit the stores is Viking Survivors, which also dons the same Norse theme as Nordic Ashes. The game ends up being a bland by-the-numbers affair that feels like a massive downgrade compared to the original it copies from.
Story
There is absolutely no story present in Viking Survivors, which is actually a shame. We realize this is a staple for the Survivors genre to be thrown into the gameplay with no overarching narrative. We, however, hoped that Viking Survivors would have at least added something in terms of story, as it now ends up being a mediocre clone at best. As it stands now, you pick the mode you wish to play, the stage, and the difficulty level, and you’re good to go.
Graphics
All in all, the pixel art isn’t too bad when looking at the different enemy models and the character designs. Sadly, the game only has a handful of different enemies and characters, and the stages themselves look rather awful. The three maps in the game are simple different color schemes with a few small texture changes to signify the theme change. There is no clutter to be found on maps, the chests and barrels that spawn look out of place, and everything looks extremely cheap as a result. When reaching the border of a map, things look even worse, making it feel like the developers never expected players to reach the edge of a map. Most of the weapon effects look fairly okay, it’s mainly the death animations, menus, and overall quality of the character animations that look underwhelming. It feels as if the developers figured out the baseline for what they wanted this game to look like to then stop polishing their work halfway through. It’s a shame really, as the theme of the game lends itself well to something more epic than what Viking Survivors currently is.
Sound
Sadly, the sound design doesn’t fare any better than the graphics. While the tracks used aren’t bad per se, they loop incredibly fast and there are awkward silences between the end of the level’s track and when it starts playing again. The sound effects of the weapons aren’t too bad either, but the atrocious sound of picking up experience crystals becomes horrendous after a few runs. Again, it feels like a functional foundation was worked out, but it sadly was never fleshed out properly.
Gameplay
Viking Survivors is a very cheap Vampire Survivors clone that tries to jump on the bandwagon and cash in on the success of the critically acclaimed action title. In the game, you’ll pick the character you wish to play and then play through one of the three modes available. These are the Survivors mode, the Roguelike mode, and the Infinite mode. These modes are straightforward, as the Survivors mode simply requires you to survive half an hour before a boss spawns. There are only three levels to play through, and the last stage actually doesn’t even have a boss fight. The infinite mode is more of the same, and it just ends when you kick the bucket. The Roguelike mode is a more original addition that has you play through several shorter levels to progress on the map in-between these levels.
While the gameplay will instantly feel familiar if you have already played a few other Survivors-like titles, Viking Survivors sadly does nothing really original, and it plays things way too safe. The game only offers a handful of different weapons with very unclear stats and cooldowns, and you’ll be hit with a certain fatigue only minutes into a single run. To make this feeling worse, there are only three stages, with varying difficulty levels, which all offer the same enemies in the exact same order. The game truly has no content at all, and even after beating two stages on the easy difficulty, you are able to buy every passive upgrade in the entire game. This means the progression curve is nearly completely gone after playing this title for only an hour. Of course, there are new characters to unlock by beating the different stages with different characters, but these are just reskins of the base character with a small passive skill variation and base attack variation. The weapon skills you unlock during your run are sadly also exactly the same as the starting character. There is absolutely no incentive to keep playing after a few runs.
Even in the game’s fairly decent foundation, however, we noticed issues with hitboxes and damage registration as a whole. The enemies can hit you non-stop, meaning, they just come in contact with your character and you will receive constant damage. When you get swarmed, that might just be the immediate end of your run. The other way around, however, things don’t work the same. When, for example, you have the rune weapon active, the damage of said runes doesn’t always register. You’ll see a rune damage a stronger foe, for the next rune to pass through without any damage registration.
Conclusion
Viking Survivors is, for lack of a better word, boring. The game has a solid foundation but sadly never utilizes its potential. You’ll be submitted to a cheap Vampire Survivors clone that hardly has any content with an unsatisfying gameplay loop, bland graphics, and disappointing sound design. This title feels like a demo for something better to come, but as this is a full release already, we assume that this is it. We don’t see a glorious ascension to Valhalla at the end of this game’s life cycle.
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