Sons of Valhalla Review (PC)

The enemy fortress looks mighty, with the classic barricade backed by a watchtower filled with archers. Behind them stand two catapults and a big group of other warriors, some of whom are probably archers ready to fire at my forces over the walls. It will probably take two assaults to eliminate them all and finally win this battle.

It would have been harder earlier when I did not have access to my own siege weapons and the big burly blacksmiths. But now I have a solid group, boosted by two mercenaries, and I’m not afraid of launching an all-out attack. We advance, I put everybody in a shield wall formation and then draw in the enemy forces. Some arrows find their target, but my hero quickly heals, gets back to his own lines, and helps slaughter all incoming enemies.

One of them helpfully drops a run but I ignore it while I deal with another group of incoming fighters. Then I give my Vikings the order to advance while I equip the green upgrade, which gives me some health regeneration. Helpful but something to boost damage would have been better. While my forces fight, I fast-travel to my two settlements to recruit more swordsmen and archers. I then get back to the bloody task of leading the line.

Sons of Valhalla is developed by Pixel Chest and published by Hooded Horse. I played it on the PC using Steam. The game combines individual combat, group commands, and base management built around Viking themes.

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As the name makes clear, this is a game about pleasing the gods through combat and conquest. The intro lays out a pretty classic revenge scenario and players get to meet Odin right after. Thorald Olavson is our protagonist, a proud warrior who is seeking to find and kill a rival who fled to distant England after stealing his fiancée and burning down his village.

The player’s tutorial advice from an elder but this is not a game designed to tell a complex story with deep characters. The Viking warband needs to move forward and all enemies that stand in its way have to be destroyed. Odin does not have too many lines but it’s nice to pet his massive hounds.

Sons of Valhalla combines individual combat centered around Thorald with base management and group commands. The idea is to slowly build up forces, get needed resources, expand a base, deal with enemy groups, take more ground, and finally defeat an opponent by pushing into their own base of operations.

Our big Viking hero cannot jump but he can dodge roll, covering quite a bit of distance while doing so. He can use a quick slash and a heavy attack that deals more damage, as well as moving his shield around to block blows and arrows. Thorald will even fire his own bow at incoming enemies, weakening them before close combat. Mead and meat allow him to recuperate health and stamina to stay in the fight for longer periods.

But the biggest trick up his Viking sleeve are runes. This he does not socket into weapons or equipment. Thorald wears a unique belt that can hold them and each one (colors denote rarity) has a unique special effect. Players can get improved health, deliver more damage, and gain a variety of other positive effects (sometimes balanced out by negative ones).

Our protagonist might be a legendary warrior, but he can still be killed. If that happens, he meets Odin again and has to sacrifice one of his runes to return to life and battle. It’s a nice way to balance the game but the sequence, even when skipping the Valhalla interactions, is too long. Make sure to eat and drink and call the retreat as soon as health starts dropping.

Going into a big fight solo is a recipe for failure, a quick trip back to Valhalla and Odin, who takes a run as an offering before giving players another shot at revenge. It’s a much better idea to train and order some fighters to follow along. Everyone, from lowly swordsman to blacksmith to shaman, has a role to play. The shield wall command is a little overpowered and archers upgraded with fire arrows can deliver a lot of damage.

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Players also need to develop their towns, putting in fishing huts and woodcutters to produce resources. The mead hall, which can be upgraded three times, also holds upgrades for our hero. Invest in them as soon as possible and then create a strong rune setup to boost damage and, if possible, add stun to weapon strikes.

Paying one rune to Odin on death is a good idea. But it is pretty easy to keep the hero alive, as long as players remember to eat and drink and roll away from an engagement as soon as they have no more rations. Also keep recruited fighters on the defensive, even if the group includes siege weapons and capable mercenaries, until Thorald himself significantly softens enemy defenses.

The game tries to introduce variety by giving players another character to play as, with a focus on stealth rather than direct combat. It’s easily the least engaging section and I couldn’t wait for it to be over. As players become more powerful, the game also fails to find ways to introduce interesting new challenges.

Sons of Valhalla is a pixel art experience that never shifts perspective. The Viking motifs are used in a pretty traditional manner, with limited experimentation, although there are some nice visual touches for some of the special enemies. Color coding the runes simplifies the process of choosing one to sacrifice when Thorald dies. The rest of the game’s interface is intuitive, especially when it comes to giving orders.

The music is suitably epic, although not particularly Norse and combat mostly sounds good, with the effects offering players a way to tell how an engagement is going. But I soon got very tired of the clinking associated with the dodge roll, which is much too annoying given how useful the move is.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion