If you enjoy anything and everything related to Vikings, then this is the place to be, as we take a look at the Best Viking Games both on Steam, PC and consoles. Each game contains a ‘to the point’ mini-review, along with high resolution 4K 60p gameplay video, for you to see exactly what the game is all about, before you buy.
I really enjoyed writing this article as the Vikings series is by far one of my favorite as well as watching tons of historical documentaries on YouTube, so being able to play one of these fierce warriors is just next level awesome.
There is a whole array of Viking themed game genres in this list, including RTS, Rogue-likes, Baldur’s Gate style Top-Down RPGs, Turn-Based Story Driven Strategy and of course, the insanely detailed 3rd person games such as Assassin’s Creed, Hellblade, Skyrim and For Honor, that take the immersion and graphics to a whole other level.
I’m super excited, so let’s get started! SKOL!
Best Viking Games 2020
Hellblade II
Release Date: TBA | Developer: Ninja Theory
Senua continues her saga in Hellblade 2, set to release sometime in 2021/2022, teased by one of the most intense trailers I’ve ever seen.
Ninja Theory stated that they will be releasing Hellblade 2 using the next gen Unreal 5 Engine, (which is set to have its full release in late 2021), so we are most likely looking at Hellblade 2 releasing together with it, or slightly after, in early 2022.
I have watched this trailer so many times now that I’ve lost count already.
This is a must watch with a great sound system or headphones to truly experience the great music from a band called Heilung and truly immerse yourself in being right in Senua’s face before you go to battle.
What makes this even more amazing is the fact that this video is all real time, in-game rendered footage of Senua, creating one incredibly intimidating war cry that sends shivers down your spine.
It’s like the girls locker room just took it up to the next level at half time 🙂
Hellblade takes Viking culture and graphics to a whole other level.
So, while nothing more in terms of gameplay has been released, I simply cannot wait for this game, especially how magnificent the first one was, which is also on this list down below.
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Assassin’s Creed : Valhalla
Release Date: 10 November 2020 | Developer: Ubisoft
Assassin’s Creed needs no introduction, as we all know these series of games, comics and novels very well. It has however been 2 years since the last Assassin’s Creed : Odyssey, set in Greek mythology, was released and fans have eagerly been awaiting the next release.
On 30 April 2020, Ubisoft released the official Assassin’s Creed : Valhalla trailer, making the rumors of it being a Viking game official.
Assassin’s Creed : Valhalla takes you back to the 873AD era of the Celtic people, where you play either a male or female protagonist called Eivor, who is a fierce Viking warrior raised on tales of battle and glory.
Assassin’s Creed : Valhalla will take on a similar play style to two previous Assassin’s Creed releases, allowing for a massive, dynamic and beautiful open world, set against the brutal backdrop of England’s Dark Ages. As with the previous titles, this RPG game will be filled with exploration and adventure, as you raid your enemies, grow your settlement, and build your political power in your quest to earn your place among the gods in Valhalla.
You will be able to write your own Viking saga using the advanced RPG mechanics to shape the growth of your character and influence the world around you. With every choice you make, from political alliances and combat strategy to dialogue and gear progression, you will carve your own path to glory.
Combat has always been a major part of the series and this new release will be no different, especially seeing as this is what Vikings loved to do most, next to a good ‘ol mead ale from a drinking horn! Skol!
A visceral combat system will allow for dual-wielding powerful weapons such as axes, swords, and even shields to relive the ruthless fighting style of the Viking warriors. You will be able to brutally decapitate your foes, vanquish them from afar, or stealthily assassinate targets with your hidden blade. You can challenge yourself with the most varied collection of deadly enemies ever found in an Assassin’s Creed game.
Viking were gifted boat makers and sailors, which allowed them to conquer and explore as well as they did. In Assassin’s Creed : Valhalla you will set sail from the harsh and mysterious shores of Norway to the beautiful but forbidding kingdoms of England and beyond.
Immerse yourself in the Viking way of life through fishing, hunting, drinking games, and more.
Prepare for epic sized battle assaults against Saxon troops and fortresses throughout England. Lead your clan in surprise attacks from your longship and pillage enemy territories to bring riches and resources back to your people.
Conquering is of no use if you do not flourish from its victories.
You will be able to construct and upgrade buildings that allow for deep customization, including a barracks, blacksmith, tattoo parlor, and more. You can also recruit new members to your clan and personalize your Viking experience, as well as create and customize a unique Viking raider within your clan and share it online with friends to use during their own raids.
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Lost Viking: Kingdom of Women
Release Date: 2020 | Developer: Forestlight Games
Lost Viking: Kingdom of Women is an indie crafting and survival game using a polygon shader art style.
As the fleet of Vikings travel East in search of new adventures, they are ambushed by flaming arrows from ashore. Almost all the men die, except for Ragnald, who is saved by his accompanying wolf Raga, while his village’s women and children are abducted.
Ragnor and his wolf companion set out to find and save his remaining loved ones, but survival will not be easy as they have to craft shelters and food, while fending off nature’s threats. The Viking and his companion are forced not only to survive, but properly manage time, space and energy to achieve the goal.
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Best Viking Games 2019 & Older
While 2020 is certainly panning out to be a great year for some epic Viking Games, there are plenty of superb games from 2019 and before as well, so let’s take a look.
Bad North : Jotunn
Release Date: 16 November 2018 | Developer: Plausible Concept
While very simplistic in both its graphics and gameplay, Bad North has surprisingly been one of the most enjoyable RTS/Tower Defense games I’ve played in a long time.
On top of being a RTS, Bad North is in essence, based on a Rogue-like system.
You basically start the game on a small island, surrounded by water and two generic militia squads at your disposal. Your mission is to stop the invading Viking warriors from raiding your island and burning down your houses.
If all your houses are burnt to the ground, or all your warriors die, the game is over and you will need to restart from the beginning again.
After defending your island from the waves of attacks, you achieve victory and get gold, depending on how many militia and homes are still standing. You then spend this gold to upgrade your default militia members to more specialized combatants, such as sword/shield infantry, archers and poleaxe men.
Each of these warrior groups can also be upgraded further to become stronger. As you progress, some islands will also reward you with items drops that have special abilities, which you can equip once per squad and also upgrade using gold.
Don’t let Bad North’s simplistic art and gameplay deceive you, as it actually starts to get very challenging from the mid game onwards. Most importantly, it’s a great Viking game and certainly deserves a place on this list.
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Northgard
Release Date: 7 March 2018 | Developer: Shiro Games
Northgard is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game similar to the likes of StarCraft and Age of Empires, except with a touch of Civilizations game mechanics thrown into the mix.
Northgard has a lengthy single player campaign as well as its main focus, which is multiplayer.
You start each game within a designated area (which I will chat about in just a bit) with your Town Hall and 3 villagers. Unlike StarCraft and Age of Empires, you do not create new villagers manually, as they actually are automatically created by the Town Hall, until it reaches the max cap, based on how many houses you have built, with each house adding 5 extra villagers.
Northgard is also unique in that you don’t build any other units either. In other words, you don’t build warriors from your barracks like you do in StarCraft and Age of Empires. Instead you take the current villagers and send them to the special building, where they transform into the new unit type, based on the building.
So, if you send a villager to the woodcutter’s lodge, he/she becomes a woodcutter, if you send him to the Training camp, he/she becomes a Warrior and so forth.
One of these buildings is the Scout Camp, which is a very important one.
Once you convert one of your villagers to a Scout he/she begins to automatically explore. This is where the Civilizations style game mechanic comes into play. Once again, unlike StarCraft and Age of Empires you can’t simply send out a scout to explore the entire map as you start the game.
In Northgard you are surrounded by unconquered areas, much like the hexes in Civilizations which you cannot move onto. In order to move to an adjacent area, your scout first needs to spend time exploring it. Once done you need to pay food to Colonize it.
Only once you have Colonized it you can start building on it.
If there are AI enemies (such as wolves or monsters) in the area, you first need to defeat them before you can Colonize it. If you are playing multiplayer, your opponent can steal areas from you, so it becomes a power struggle over land.
Each of these areas is also limited to how many buildings it can house, which is 3 at its base level and 4 when you upgrade the area. This limits rush builds like in StarCraft and Age of Empires, requiring you to first explore areas, then and build on them, before you can really move onto the next area to Colonize, which also increases in price (food) each time.
You also cannot just build farms in any area either. There needs to be a specific resource point in the form of Deer, Cultivable Land or a Fishing Lake, in order to build the correct builds to farm food.
I actually really like this mechanic, as you have to pay special attention to what you build on each area. If you fail to build enough food, wood or Krowns buildings, you cannot expand further once they run out and will eventually starve to death, without your opponent even having to kill you.
This becomes even more challenging with the seasonal mechanic in Northgard as well, in the form of winter, which when it rolls in, your resource product as well as your military attack power become lower. This can be passively upgraded using Lore points on the small tech tree.
Lore point can be obtained by converting a villager in at the Circle of Stones, which can be found on randomized areas, or by building a Longship Dock with a ship to send warriors to raid. This ship also brings in Krowns as well as Fame instead of Lore.
Krowns are used to create warriors as well as upkeep buildings.
All in all, Northgard is not only a fantastic Viking game with beautiful cartoony art style, but also a game with very balanced and original mechanics, that break away from the age old RTS games we know so well.
It offers a great single player experience and if you are into multiplayer, you are able to purchase additional clans, each with their own unique abilities and buildings.
Definitely give Northgard a try, you won’t be disappointed. Skol!
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Expedition : Vikings
Release Date: 27 August 2017 | Developer: Logic Artists
Expeditions: Viking is a turn based RPG game, much like Baldur’s gate, filled with exploration and conquest but with Vikings! The setting, the story and the ambiance are as accurate as you’d expect that era to be, with harsh winter living conditions making survival, an everyday struggle.
Unlike other fantasy RPG games in this genre, there isn’t an abundance of loot in every basket, chest or dead enemy. You really have to fight to earn even a simple axe, which really takes the survival aspect to another level.
The story and dialogue are superb, quickly engrossing you into a tale of deceit and vengeance right from the get go. Our main character, Agnarr is set to be the next Thegn (leader) of your village, Skjern, after the death of his father Grankell. Grankell was a great warrior, but unfortunately not the best ruler, thus leaving a wake of resentful clan members behind, for you as Agnarr to deal with.
The turn based combat is well made and challenging, although not without its flaws.
The enemy AI seems to always have first go for some reason, in which they all focus on one of your characters, resulting in you being one man down before you even get to have a turn.
Enemy archers seem to also be world class as well, hardly missing extremely long shots from the other side of the screen, whereas your archers seem to shoot as though they have never picked up a bow in their lives before, as they constantly miss enemies a mere 2-3m away from them.
This becomes aggravating and tedious, very quickly.
This flaw basically makes archers pointless in Expeditions: Viking, and you might as well make all your party members melee, as melee characters never miss attacks.
Healers cannot heal from a distance and thus have to also be right next to the party member that they want to heal. I have no problem with this, as this is not a magic casting game, due it trying to be real to life.
However, at the same time you cannot disengage from an enemy, in order to run to a party member, when they are next to you. Even when they are facing away from you (you are facing their back), the enemy are always able to quickly turn around, hitting you before you can move away, which again is incredibly annoying and unrealistic.
Once you know these few combat flaws exist, you learn to play around them though, so it’s certainly not a deal breaker, but could have been better implemented.
Other than that, Expeditions: Viking is absolutely amazing and was more than pleasantly surprised that I have never played or really heard of this game previously, especially being an avid fan of the Dungeons and Dragons style RPG genre.
If you are like me and love games like Baldur’s Gates and Divinity Original Sin, then you should definitely play Expeditions: Viking.
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Hellblade : Senua’s Sacrifice
Release Date: 8 August 2017 | Developer: Ninja Theory
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a game that is really difficult to categorize, as it’s so much more than just a game. If I were to try to classify Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice into a genre it would be a dark fantasy, action-adventure, dark souls like hack and slash, puzzle solving, psychological horror, story game. So yeah as you can see, this game refuses to be put into one stereotypical box, and rightly so.
What really sets Hellblade apart from almost every other game is its level of immersion.
It was created using state of the art facial and body motion capture systems by Ninja Theory, the developers. Unlike other games that hand animate characters, Hellblade used real life actors to enact the in-game character movements and moody cinematics using the Unreal 4 Engine.
Combined with some of the best graphics seen in a game and insanely good audio effects and Norse style music, this high end production work really shows, as it often becomes difficult to remember that you are in fact watching 3D characters and not real life ones.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is at times more art than game quite honestly.
The immersion is truly next level on a large 4K TV with quality headphones, but if you want to take it up one more level of immersion, then plug in your VR headset and prepare to become a Viking, just don’t forget that it’s not real 🙂
Inspired by Norse mythology and Celtic culture, you play as Senua (acted by Melina Juergens), who is a female Pict warrior, that must make her way to Helheim by defeating otherworldly entities, while facing their challenges, in order to rescue the soul of her dead lover, Dillion, from the goddess Hela.
The game is gracefully divided into puzzle solving using Senua’s ability known as “focus”, in reference to her tendency to see things differently from other people due to her condition, to trigger puzzle-related events and solve them, by manipulating reality. When she is not solving puzzles she is busy with intense souls like combat action, with some of the scariest Viking demons, figures and gods I’ve ever seen.
Senua believes she suffers from a curse, much like her mother who was burned by her father due to his fear of it. Senua hears “Furies”, that are voices in her head commenting on her every action, as well as from an entity known as the “Darkness”.
We later learn that this is actually not a curse, but in fact psychosis that many real life people struggle with. The developers actually worked closely with neuroscientists, mental health specialists, and people suffering from the condition in order to depict it as closely as possible.
You really have not lived until you’ve played Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, so make sure to do so, as you are in for a wild ride to say the least.
Otherwise simply watch my playthrough.
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For Honor
Release Date: 14 February 2017 | Developer: Ubisoft
Another Ubisoft title, For Honor is a one on one medieval action battle simulator game, where you fight to achieve eternal greatness or simply survive to fight another day.
For Honor features a rich story driven campaign, filled with great narrative and thrilling hand-to-hand combat, with tons of blood and gore. This is a must play for its story, as well as doing a great job of introducing you to the four civilizations being the Knights, Vikings, Samurai and Wu Lin Warriors.
The Viking characters include Berserker who wields a dual axes, the Raider who slices enemies in half using his massive two-handed axe, the shield/sword wielding Warlord and lastly, the agile spear/shield wielding Valkyrie.
For Honor has one of the most simplistic, yet innovative combat control systems, which you use to attack, block, dodge, parry or counter your enemy. The combat mechanics are easy to pick up, but very difficult to master, quickly setting the great warriors apart from their dead foes in a multitude of multiplayer modes, including 1v1 (Duel), 2v2 (Brawl), 4v4 (Dominion, Skirmish, Breach & Elimination).
There is also an Arcade mode, which is a single player mode against AI enemies, but this only comes as part of the Marching Fire expansion.
If you want to further sharpen up your skills before heading into multiplayer, you can also play though the two training modes, being the Apprentice and Warrior Training.
Ubisoft had a bit of a rough time following the game’s initial release, but seemed to have listened to their player base and fixed many of the issues since then. The game is now in a very good state, with some of the best character models, graphics and animations around. If you are a 4K graphics nerd like me, this is definitely a game to play, even if it’s just for the beautiful single player experience.
If you are a multiplayer fan, then For Honor will give you everything you desire and more. It will throw you in right into the deep end, leaving you with sweaty palms, and your heart racing from the intense battles.
Other times you will rage quit due to the intensity of losing (some call it a glorious death), in a way that not many other games are able to do, which just shows how immersive the experience is. Never fear though, as I guarantee that you log right back moments later, in order to get your revenge, because once For Honor gets a hold of you, it’s difficult to escape its grasp of achieving ultimate victory.
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Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim Special Edition (Modded)
Release Date: 26 October 2016 | Developer: Bethesda & Modding Community
Skyrim, Skyrim, Skyrim. Where to start really. This is probably one of the most amazing games both graphically and gameplay wise, but not because of anything Bethesda did, all credit goes to the many amazing modders on Nexus. They have truly turned a decade old game on a very dated game engine into something truly spectacular.
I had never played Skyrim until making this best Viking games list, even though I have owned it for a few years already sitting in my Steam library. I am however actually very happy I didn’t, as the game has really matured over the years and after spending a lot of time modding it, it really has become a work of art that I almost feel I have created.
Initially I just ran the game as a vanilla experience for this write up but was nauseated by the dated graphics and was about to toss it aside as a has-been, and move on. Luckily some commonsense came to being, as I knew it had a reputation of being one of the most modded games. So, I decided to check out how to mod (which I had never done prior to this) and see what difference it would make.
Man oh man! Little did I know what I was getting myself in for.
I spent over two solid weeks for about 18 hours per day, learning how Vortex from Nexus Mods works, as well as all the other extra scripts and installs you need to get mods that involve elements such as animation skeletons, physics and lighting up and running.
What I also learned the hard way, was how some mods conflict with each other, while others are so fragile to load orders, and most importantly that there is in fact a hard limit of 254 mods.
I suffered through many days of the game freezing at the start up, thinking that the mods were to blame, when in fact I just had too many mods installed, causing others to not be able to load all their necessary files correctly.
My noob-like ignorance was to blame here, which if I had known better could have saved me days of pointlessly troubleshooting my mod list back and forth, almost resulting in me giving up multiple times.
I am very glad I didn’t though, as the end result has been nothing more than mind blowing.
As you can see, all I have spoken about until this point, is modding as I haven’t even begun to speak about the game itself. This is the nature of Skyrim, as modding the game is almost a game in itself, which if you don’t tread carefully, will quickly suck you in, consuming far more time doing it, than actually playing the game.
What makes the modding stage so engulfing, is that you are in control of the experience you want to play, as though you were creating a game using the assets (mods) given to you.
You can really make it almost anything you want. After my two week stint and learning a massive amount about modding, it was finally done and I jumped in to experience my creation, although still tweaking mods as I went.
As I was after an immersive Viking experience, my goal from the start was to focus on mods that would be as far from magic and fantasy as possible, staying as true to real life history as possible. Skyrim is a world with spells and cat creatures, so you cannot achieve a 100% non-fantasy experience,but you can negate it in some areas, as I did.
To tie in with the above, I wanted a true to life survival adventure based on the harsh winter of Skyrim and what the Vikings lived in in their daily lives. I found a ton of superb mods that track your health, food, water and rest, cooking and fire making skills, as well as weather mods that interacted with each other directly, which I found to be brilliant.
I also wanted a realistic combat system to go with this survival aspect, so I installed combat mods that allowed my character to bruise, bleed and even break bone in combat, rendering the broken limb useless until i could get hold of some wood to craft a strut and gather some sleep, waiting days of in-game time for it to heal.
But, as you can see in my gameplay, when you adventure alone and your shield and bow wielding arm breaks in the middle of a deep dangerous mountain cave, there is no time for struts. You are alone and there is also no one to come and rescue you.
You have to fight your way out of the cave, using your one remaining good arm to swing your sword while playing a slow and strategic game against your enemies, who are all able to one kill you in one swipe should you lose focus for even a second.
No leniency, no mercy – it’s amazing!
I finally found my way out, but just barely! As I exited the other side of the cave. I was just there in sheer bliss and unbelief that sunlight still existed and I made it out there alive. I have never experienced such a sense of achievement in any game before, it’s really difficult to put it into words.
Graphic wise, I also wanted to really push my current RTX system to its max, so I installed many high end graphic mods, running mainly 4K textures, some even up to 8K. New landscapes, trees and mountains in abundance for some of the most glorious environments I have seen in a game.
Characters received new custom animations, weapons, armor, texture reskins, as well as some cloth and hair physics to really bring them to life, and man do they look glorious!
All of this encapsulated into ENB lighting, a day/night cycle system together with weather effects that allow for rain, snow and even thunderstorms, leaves you with a game so graphically stunning that it seriously rivals 95% of current gen games.
The only game that I think comes close to my modded Skyrim at this point in time, is Red Dead Redemption 2, which speaks volumes as that game is of the utmost graphical and immersive experience, made by a cohesive team of veterans, using a far more newer and capable game engine.
The fact that modders from all around the world are able to come together and make something that rivals this is groundbreaking.
It is really difficult to truly explain the experience you get from modding Skyrim and then playing the world you created. It’s just something you have to do for yourself to really understand, but I cannot recommend it enough even though you will get frustrated in the beginning if you have never modded before.
Keep going!
It’s something every gamer needs to do, even if it’s just once in their life.
There is a reason that this game is played by hundreds of thousands of people a decade later and continues to grow stronger and stronger.
Just something so magical about it all.
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Jotun: Valhalla Edition
Release Date: 29 September 2015 | Developer: Thunder Lotus Games
Jotun has some really great and unique hand drawn art, as well as an original Scandinavian voice over that really sells the Viking experience and mythology. This does however all fall short when it comes to the gameplay.
While the world is well illustrated it still feels empty which is evident from just playing the first 15mins of the first level.
Not much to see or do other than a flat green plane and some trees, with a few thorny vines to fight.
Jotun cannot seem to decide if it wants to be an action RPG or a puzzle game, thereby not really reaching the full potential in either genre. The character movement immediately feels very rigid as you are only able to move in one of 8 directions and cannot rotate in a fluid 360 degree motion.
This causes fights to be very annoying as you have to first meticulously move your character in the right position and direction before swinging, often causing misses that should not happen if the controls and movement were not so limited.
Having played other games from the same camera perspective such as the Children of Morta, controlling Jotun’s character feels like I am driving a tank compared to the ultra smooth experience from other games.
While the eventual boss fights are enjoyable and artistically great, the in between areas are simply bland puzzles with little to no direction. These either bore you or insult your intellect as you feel like it was designed for a 7yr old.
While Jotun is extremely well established and illustrated in terms of a Viking mythology, it simply couldn’t keep me playing for more than 30mins, as the puzzles just became far too tedious to plow through in order to see some action again.
Great concept and art style, with bad execution unfortunately.
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Best Viking Games - Conclusion
Well guys, that’s it from me and my list of the Best Viking Games. I will continue to update this article, as more great games become available.
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Happy Gaming
Ozarc (¬‿¬)