NORSE: Oath of Blood Review

When a turn-based tactics title is good, it’s really good. Jagged Alliance 3, XCOM 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Divinity: Original Sin 2 are truly fantastic, even if they’re not for everyone. When an entry in the genre isn’t quite amazing, though, it’s entirely forgettable. You probably don’t remember the Shadowrun franchise, Civilization VII, or Hard West 2 unless you were particularly invested in them.

‍It’s unfortunate for the latter group that they use the same type of gameplay as the former, because it means comparisons between them are inevitable. And while a good video game will always be able to stand on its own, the same is seldom true for mediocre ones. Unfortunately, NORSE: Oath of Blood is the very definition of mediocre. Everything about it works, but nothing about it is unexpected or great. It’s a decent game in its own right that ultimately pales in comparison to the all-time greats.

In case it wasn’t obvious by the title, and the previous paragraph, NORSE is a Viking-themed turn-based tactics game. In it, you play as Gunnar, a young warrior who is forced to become a jarl after his father is killed during the game’s introduction. He, or rather you, consequently build a settlement from scratch while amassing an army to take revenge on the man who dethroned the late Jarl Gripr. That goes exactly as you’d expect it to. You follow a predictable plot while going on 20-minute-long combat missions. You also assign skills to your warband as they level up, give them new gear, et cetera, et cetera. 

I’d say the gameplay is the proverbial star of NORSE, but truth be told, nothing in the title is exemplary. Instead, everything about it feels uninspired. You spend the majority of your in-game time in combat. That works almost identically to how it does in almost every other turn-based title. You start each encounter by selecting which archetypal members of your village you want to take into the fray. Then you guide them through mostly linear environments, stopping occasionally to deal with generic goons with overinflated health bars. None of that is bad, mind. 

‍NORSE’s core systems are functional, and never actively frustrating, which keeps it comfortably above the genre’s true low points. It’s also a mostly mindless affair, though. The title does little that its competitors don’t do better. Consequently, it never creates the kind of tension or tactical problem-solving that defines the genre’s best moments. There’s no magic in the game, nor properly unique abilities. Instead, combat encounters blur together, playing almost identically to one another. 

The game’s village building element doesn’t spice it up, either. You’re rewarded with resources after every raid, which you spend on improving your settlement through a menu. However, the buildings you construct don’t actually change anything. If you make a blacksmith, for example, you’ll be able to forge swords. A tailor can sew armor, and a healing hut helps your troops’ recovery times. None of these bonuses actually impact combat, though, at least not in any meaningful way. Instead, they all offer meagre percentage point increases for your party’s stats. That makes it barely worth bothering with, while serving as little more than an item on a to-do list that you can check off if you’re a completionist. 

‍NORSE’s narrative isn’t much better than its gameplay. That’s because it, too, is insipid. The story is, to its credit, exceptionally well written. It’s one of the better pieces of Viking-related media to release in recent memory that’s full of fun dialogue. But there’s nothing structurally interesting about it. The story is bog standard. You’ll see all of its twists coming from a fjord away, and all of its characters are one note. Despite having cool factions and a unique location, NORSE’s narrative does nothing out of the ordinary. Everything about it is exactly what you’d expect from a title set in the golden age of longboats. The game rarely offers you any opportunities to influence how it progresses, too. So you’re forced to sit through what boils down to being little more than a toned-down version of the Vikings show. It’s mostly a blessing, then, that the game can be beaten in 10 hours.

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‍NORSE is not a bad game. It’s just not a good one. It has a serviceable story, acceptable gameplay, and absolutely gorgeous visuals. The problem with the title isn’t anything that it does wrong, but the fact that it exists within a genre that’s packed with functionally similar titles that are better in every possible way. If you’re one of the four people in the world that wants to play a Viking-themed and linear-ish CRPG, NORSE is the game for you. Everyone else is better off spending their time — and money — on something more distinctive. There’s nothing wrong with mediocre games, and there’s nothing especially wrong here either. It’s just hard to recommend when the alternatives are so much stronger.