viking!

I told myself at midnight last night that I'd just clear the one Viking dungeon that had been giving me problems. Then I did another, and another, and ended up at the last boss. At 2 a.m. I was not the most rational player, so I ended up re-doing the stage 6 or 7 times before realizing that the adrenaline was going to keep me from sleeping -and- fatigue was going to keep me winning. The former condition might change, but the latter wouldn't, so I called it a night. Morning. Whatever.

As of this afternoon, Viking's done. The last sequence ended up giving me a little better appreciation for the fighting system than I'd had to develop over most of the game. The last fight sequence ended up being satisfying. The final boss, not so much: I'm not a fan of QTEs.

There are some camera management requirements in the march up the final tower and the end. In many instances the camera doesn't know what to do with itself. Essentially, the indoor third person camera, with cheap fire barriers bounding three of four sides in the final battle means situational awareness is key. Dodging has not had consequences at any other point in the game. Suddenly the player can dodge backward into flame... which was off camera when the control was input.

Overall, it's a fun game it isn't something I'm likely to play again at any point, and the "open world" stuff is iffy. It could have easily been a sequence of simpler missions with no unified world for easy wandering around. The wandering is limited to a few simple paths between major areas. I didn't feel like I was ever exploring. The fighting was fun, it was less glitchy than THQ's Conan action game, and the last boss was at least manageable. Man, I'm still hating the last Conan boss...