Ah Vikings, the manliest men of them all. Pillaging villages, swigging mead, slaughtering all whom cross their path and squeezing in the odd spot of rape. It's all in a day's work for a Norseman.

Often overlooked for the likes of pirates and ninjas, Sega has finally released Viking: Battle for Asgard to fill a void left all but untouched since cult classic Rune arrived nearly a decade ago. Whilst it might be a few years into the future until Australian censors would allow a game including rape to set foot on our fine golden shores (perhaps when hell freezes over?), Viking has covered the more politically correct aspects of Viking warrior's life; namely the family friendly activities of decapitation and dismemberment.

War is waging in Asgard, the realm of the Norse Gods. Vengeful for her banishment from the kingdom, the Goddess Hel seeks to unleash Ragnarok and bring about the apocalypse for both the Gods and humankind alike. As Hel sends forth her legions of resurrected Legion warriors into the mortal realm of Midgard, Freya seeks a champion worthy to defeat Hel and defend the future of mankind. For this, she makes her selection the mighty Viking warrior Skarin, whose youthful naivety is blinded by his own pursuit for vengeance.

Arriving in Midgard, on the island of Niflberg, the land is all but overrun by Hel's forces. With the exception of the Vikings' make shift strongehold, the inhabitants of the island have been all but imprisoned or slaughtered, and the island's supplies captured. It is your duty to liberate the Viking forces, recapture the land, and amass an army strong enough to fend off Hel's Legion. A hack and slash by nature, Viking is set in an open world to explore and conquer as you wish. In the wave of post-GTA3 'inspired' releases that is by no means a unique feature, but Viking truly manages to capture what makes a free-roaming title so enjoyable. There's a deep sense of exploration embedded in the game. In addition to key objectives marked on your map, the rest of the land is waiting to be discovered. In your travels you'll uncover enemy settlements scattered around the landscape and off the beaten path; some are essential to your progress, others are not. No matter where you travel, every enemy seems be given a purpose, be it defending a location, patrolling the countryside (sometimes in groups one hundred strong), or just resting at camp. These factors of purpose and indifference, coupled with your overall experience of discovery, bring a sense of life to the land. You feel like you are inside a living world and not just one made of enemies and objectives.

As you continue to explore, both completing tasks and uncovering new ones whilst forever working towards your almighty goal, it becomes an almost addictive experience. It's the sort of game where I'd convince myself I'd just complete one last task before calling it a night, only to find myself still playing hours later exploring the far reaches of the map. As you liberate a region, the dark skies and thunderstorms that plague the land begin to clear and the sun comes out in full force, bringing light to the lush landscape. It works as a great visual indicator to orientate yourself on the map, whilst forever reminding you of your outstanding greatness. Once you have liberated the land, summoned a dragon and amassed a strong enough army, its time for the fun to really begin. You call forth your troops and wage war head on with the enemy stronghold. The full force of your liberated army run at your side into battle, as hundreds of men, Legion and Viking, engage in a sea of slaughter. These battles are nothing short of epic. The Shaman on both sides continue to resurrect the defeated, so it is imperative that you cut your way through the Legion scum to wipe them out once and for all. With hundreds of men on screen at once, it's just begging for slowdown and the 360 unfortunately falters under the pressure. Even with the integrity of the visuals maintained though, slowdown is surprisingly kept to a minimum, quickly rectified, and only truly an issue in the peak of action. It's a small price to pay for an otherwise spectacular sight.

Skarin is no lightweight in combat. Freya was sure to choose one of the strongest and most brutal warriors to stand forth and defend Midgard. Skarin is equipped with the skills of the blade, with a move set that can be expanded as the game progresses, but also posses the power of mythical runes in fire, ice, and lightning that allow him to power up his weapon, and those of his surrounding men, to increase his might. In battle he also possesses the ability to summon forth dragons to wipe out his foes. If you've come in search of blood and gore you'll no doubt pleased as punch. Skarin tears through enemies like a knife through butter on a hot summer's day. He's the kind of guy that believes that even if you cut off a man's head, you should slice off their arms just to be sure. When an enemy is dazed, an X appears above their head, a sign that they're ripe for the picking. Hit X and Skarin will go straight for the kill in the goriest way possible. Whilst there could be more fatality animations (there is ALWAYS room for more fatalities!), they are implemented fluidly to keep the action flowing. Skarin moves naturally into position to execute the kill. If the enemy is above you on a slant he'll stab up, if they're below he'll stab down. It's fluid, fast and brutally satisfying.

Hack and slash wont get you everywhere though. Running headstrong into battle is often the fastest route to Valhalla, not the path to success. It isn't until towards the end of the game that you will unlock a move capable of attacking multiple opponents and even then it doesn't pose a sure-fire solution for victory. Skarin will have to instead watch his step, with stealth forming a considerable part of the gameplay. Now, I don't think I need to be the one to tell you that radar and thermal vision didn't quite exist in Norse times, so Skarin is left to instead rely on his animalistic instincts for safe passage. It is a mechanic that has been implemented quite ingeniously. If an enemy is afoot within a certain distance and you are yet to be detected, Skarin will immediately crouch so as not to be heard. Continue to proceed with gay abandon and you'll no doubt be spotted, at which point Skarin will draw his weapons, ready for battle in a seamless transition. It's again a great visual reminder without removing the challenge from the actual gameplay.

Unlike other hack and slash titles such as Devil May Cry and God of War, Viking utilises a third person perspective with independent camera control. An independent camera has its benefits as far as exploration goes, but when it comes to combat it can be often be more of a hindrance than a blessing. It means you'll be getting a lot of attacks from behind without warning to jump out the way. In the chaos of all the action, especially when surrounded by enemies on all fronts, the camera will swing wildly as you fend off enemies left and right. It's a disorientating experience needless to say. Coupled with the camera, the game uses a light sense of lock-on to aid your combat. In most cases it works fine, but often it might pull you to the wrong enemy or not quite to your target, often pulling you into danger. In smaller battles it's an excusable hindrance, but in the larger battles, particularly the final fight in a room surrounded by fire, it can be the decider between life and death.

Taking a little inspiration from God of War is no doubt a good thing, but only in small doses. The quick-time event-based fatalities of larger enemies are plucked straight from God of War, are as brutally satisfying as ever. From this, Viking takes it a little bit too far. Every single time you want to open a chest, bust down a door, summon a dragon, untie captive warriors, teleport from a Leystone, pull a lever, ignite a fuse, or even turn a key, you'll be madly mashing the B button to complete the task. I can see why the developers implemented this repetitive nuisance in the game. Sure, it might have been an effort to mooch off the success of God of War, but ultimately it acts as a time buffer. It prevents the player from rushing in past hoards of Legion, completing a task, and then retreating before the enemy can think twice. It takes no skill, it gets annoying, but it is important to the game structure.

After finally amassing your army, summoning a dragon, and freeing Niflberg from Hel's clutches, hours into the game, you are then shipped off to a new map, forced to repeat the same tasks again, on the island of Galcliff. Once again you are liberating distillerys, amassing an army and awakening yet another fire-breathing dragon. Not only that, but you then move on to a third island, with the same range of tasks again. Each Island differs tremendously visually and each is uniquely distinct through other story driven objectives, but the bulk of your experience remains the same. Powering up weapons and magic, doesn't deliver any real sense that you have actually done so. They feel the same from start to finish. There's no visual indication either that you are now actually stronger. Sure you might be causing more damage with each hit, but you'd be hard pressed to notice.This is, perhaps, Viking's greatest flaw. You know you've progressed, you just don't always feel as if you have. You do gain new weaponry and abilities, but overall it just feels like a case of wash, rinse, and repeat. That sense of accomplishment felt on the first island just feels diminished, as the sense of discovery and unknowingness is somewhat lessened. Three separate islands just feels somewhat unnecessary by the end.

Not to spoil too much, but the final boss literally just takes one of the game's giants and substitutes Hel's torso for the head. It's at this very moment I realised how much the repetition affected the game.

In a slew of first rate hack and slash titles from Sony, Capcom and Team Ninja alike, you'd be forgiven for thinking only the stellar frontrunners are worth your time. Where those titles follow each other to a tooth, Viking: Battle for Asgrad strays to find its own path. It mightn't be entirely original, but the combination of hack and slash elements in a free-roaming sphere is one little-explored in the mass of Devil May Cry's, Ninja Gaiden's and the flood of subsequent clones out on the market. The free roaming aspect works well, bringing a real sense of life to the game. The feeling of amassing a colossal army to wage war and then participating in the epic experience firsthand is immensely fulfilling. Unfortunately, for a game so rooted in progression, the game falls into repetition all too soon. For its faults, Viking is one of those games that still manages to be a genuinely fun experience. It mightn't be memorable down the track, but it's a satisfying experience nonetheless.