My roommate scored this game 4 days ago as he works for Rogers video (kinda like blockbuster video here in Canada) and no other game has seen my console ever since. What Sega had here on their hands was a masterpiece that they let slip away in to being only a pretty good game...
Gameplay is amazing! Its a mix of god of war(but with more realistic combat), Castlevania SOtN, Grand theft auto and a RTS game. You're basically in this open Viking land which has docks, gold mines and anything Vikings would have at that time...and all of those ponts of interest are occupied by HEL forces. You have to collect items, sneak around freeing other Vikings in order to build your army and collect gold to buy special moves and weapons. Once you collected everything necessary for the battle you and your Viking troops can attack the specific point of interest.
Anyone who is used to Dante slashing his way through hordes of enemies will have to change their tactics as I tried attacking their fortress without any soldiers to help me and I got owned.
The problem with the game is the production… presentation is like of a PS1 game. Seriously, its that bad. Come on sega...this is a good game... something you used to make before...spend some bloody cash on it.
Most games these days have utter shit gameplay mechanics but they include everything and the kitchen sink so people believe the games are actually good. This game is the opposite. Core gameplay is extremely solid, but there are no mini games in the vikings village, no side missions just for the sake of side missions, no CGI or in game cut scenes... I would have loved to go back to the Viking village after a hard battle and play a drinking mini game or something similar...but no...
Its an open world where you can only fight the enemy and that defeats the purpose of an open world.
In any case, I hope sega learns their lesson with this game and adds co-op support to it along with better production values and calls it golden axe.
