Villordsutch reviews Valhalla Hills…
On first glance Valhalla Hills is the game for me! Vikings? Check! Playing God? Check! Reminds you a bit of the classics Settlers and Populous? Check! Both the developers Funatics, along with publishers Daedalic Entertainment have certainly done their homework when it came to pleasing my initial wants in a game.
Valhalla Hills has recently dropped onto Steam Early Access, and it hopes to bring with it the wave of fans that are being enticed with the new found love of build-up strategy games that follows along the lines of Tropico, SIM City, Anno, Cities Skylines. Daedalic have seen a need and now there rather smartly filling a need.
As you load the game you’re given a brief back story about Odin being mightily unimpressed with his the Viking heroes – currently at the gates of Asgard – and also his son Leko, who is more interested in building than being a mead swigging fighter. Out of anger he dispatches the heroes and Leko down to earth and makes sure the gates are closed tight. Leko and the heroes aren’t overly impressed with Odin’s tantrum and take it upon themselves to make their way back up to Asgard via the long path of walking there. Their route is a busy one however, going up the Valhalla Hills, building, feeding, defending and attacking; using Leko’s construction skills until they are strong enough to activate the Portals – general protected by Frost Giants – to move the next island.
I mentioned earlier that Valhalla Hills appears to remind me of Settlers, this possibly could be due to chief developer of Valhalla Hills being Thomas Häuser, who was also the head chap of Settlers 2 around 20 years ago. Not only this working alongside Thomas is Thorsten Kneisel, for which the graphic design of Valhalla Hills was created under his direction, along with this other professionals like Ralf Marczinczik (Gothic, The Settlers 6) and Oswin Neumann (Risen 2) had a hand in this world too.
Turning to the game, it looks instantly quite brilliant, which could be due to the fact they are being powered by the Unreal Engine 4, but it’s more a case that those in charge know what they wanted on the screen. The Viking character graphics have an excellent Dwarven appearance to them, each looks different from the next and are individually named also; you can – if you wish – examine them in closer detail on the main screen too. The main land mass is relatively small, and the resources appear to be represented quite simply. A sprig of trees indicates a forest; a cluster of animated wild animals mean you would be better setting a hunting lodge near here etc. Nothing is overly fussy on appearance, making the game feel easy to pick up for the newcomer.
However, turning to the controls this is where I started to have a few issues. My problems began with the mouse look movement, I could only seem to zoom in and zoom out, I couldn’t for the life of me get the camera to have a top down view or rotate around the back of the island. This can be a slight pain, due to the fact I could see – on one occasion – a Frost Giant near the portal, but I was sure there were only two. Upon attempting to move my Viking community closer – by building a structure near the portal, – I discovered there was actually four! On top of this I was being barraged by notifications along the top which I read, but then I couldn’t seem to remove; I also discovered if you set-up too many Vikings to build numerous buildings and there isn’t enough resources, they don’t slowly build one building at a time they just stop!? If you then systematically remove all the buildings leaving just a tent and a woodcutters hut they still do nothing at all, meaning you have to quit and restart the level. It’s a pain.
These points are made within its Early Access and already on the graphics side and general gameplay of the fence I’m more than impressed with what’s being delivered, along with the basic story, this game has pleased my happy Viking-like mind very much. I appreciate “God-Simulators” that have a sense of humour, this along with the fact I don’t have you flicking through a 120-page PDF trying to work out how to balance the socio-economic issues within the game, before you can build a gas pipeline to the shopping centre.
Once the control system and other minor issues are mended this game will be a true winner. Valhalla Hills will be a game sung about in many a Mead Hall!
You can purchase Valhalla Hills from Steam here. You can also find more information on the game from their website here.
Rating: 8/10
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&t=1047&v=qvTY7eXXIMg
Originally published September 15, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
