NORSE: Oath of Blood – Viking Retribution [Review]

The Viking saga NORSE: Oath of Blood is here, and it’s primarily a bitter tale of revenge—fitting for the historical theme of the game. When I tried the demo, I came to like it, but it was clear to me that it needed a lot of polish and optimization. Did they succeed? Not quite, in any real sense to be totally honest. I was expecting a Viking X-com, but instead got a very linear experience with a heavy focus on narrative and cutscenes.

Viking HQ
Focusing on telling this specific tale is fair enough, but it undermines one big mechanic of the game, namely, the base-building (village). While you do collect resources and build up different functions of your base (village), it’s purely out of a story reason. The expected sandbox never shows up and as I understand it—every mission is a “main” mission. These elements seep into the gameplay as well, as certain characters are not allowed to die until it’s time for the story to demand a blood sacrifice.

My best two-handed axeman died due to this, and it was played as a noble moment of self-sacrifice in the narration, but I couldn’t help but go “lame”. If he died in battle thanks to my own poor tactics, I wouldn’t mind, but now that it was a forced scripted segment, it just took me out of it. NORSE: Oath of Blood is filled with characters and missions like this. 

Sweet revenge
The story of looking for good old sweet revenge is fine, yet after a while, it started to bore me, and I couldn’t wait for it to be over. It has no real highs or lows or any kind of interesting revelations, and your part in it as a player is minimal, except for the killing, that is. It’s one of these autopilot titles, that through a few added mechanics makes it a step above a visual novel. This might sound harsh, but as mentioned, your only input in the story is through the fights, some segments of the base-building, and equipping your men with loot from the battles. This added gameplay eventually becomes tiresome when you come to realize this, and just want to go through the final five battles without faffing about too much.

Viking combat
The turn-based combat is pretty entertaining when the game decides it’s time for a challenge. Even on the hardest setting, it’s way too easy in general. But at points, NORSE: Oath of Blood will throw you curveballs on missions by dumping bosses or additional reinforcements on your head, when you are already bloodied from battle. However, I can easily see how these moments can turn it into pure frustration, like when the game forces your main (Gunnar) into a one‑versus‑one against a giant wolf as the final stage of an already tough skirmish.

Overall, though, the fighting is pretty well-thought-out, with a lot of synergies through skills and classes with different functions. My favorite through the game was just the normal shield push, as this could start some serious chain reactions. For example, pushing an enemy into a friendly, will force the man on your side to attack, and it can end the most fearsome enemy Viking in one swift brutal move. It looks absolutely hilarious, too, like turning a man into a ping-pong ball of suffering. 

Unreal 5 strikes again
NORSE: Oath of Blood looks pretty good in cutscenes, but when it comes to exploration and combat, the performance is typical of Unreal 5. It never feels really smooth, even when the FPS counter shows 60. It has these micro-stutters, with textures taking its sweet time to become crisp—crisp in the sense that the blurry antialiasing allows. Animations, I would say, look good. But thanks to being a buggy game, the same animations, graphics, and even gameplay mechanics have this incredibly janky and unpolished feel to them. Like you are playing a really early Early Access title. One example of this was how important loot had a tendency to duplicate itself… thanks Odin, I guess?

NORSE: Oath of Blood will never really impress in any way, and if you found something you didn’t like in the demo like a bug, it’s probably still around in the full game. I asked for a way to walk during the exploration phases, and once again, I was denied. Why is it so hard to add a toggle for walking? My autism demands it! The voice acting and music are good though, but it becomes a tad tiring hearing people speak “Saga‑speak”—when everything has to be epic, like it’s written for the Edda poems in realtime.

Conclusion
NORSE: Oath of Blood is a disappointment for me, especially coming from the demo. I expected way more X-com and way less strict storytelling. It’s even listed as an RPG on Steam, and I fail to see where this genre applies. The presentation is fine, and it’s clear, beyond the narrative, this is where the focus went—so if you want a “cinematic” turn-based game set in the Viking Age, NORSE: Oath of Blood might be enough. If you want more than that though, well, I’m sad to say, it’s better to look elsewhere.

Thanks for reading.

– Thomas