RPGWatch Feature - Expeditions: Viking Review

Originally Posted by Hastar
My question is this, will I enjoy Expeditions Conquistadors as much as Vikings? I would give Vikings a solid 4.5/5 or as PCGamer used to do in the magazine a solid 90%.

As mentioned before the design of travel is a little bit different. Conquistador has more of a HOMM or Eisenwald Feeling regarding that.
Besides of that, I think Conquistador is better in every single aspect, though I only played Vikings at release.
Expeditions had a more coherent story, better balanced fights, and one of the best soundtracks in any game.
The only issues I had with Conquistador was the lack of quick travel (which apparently was fixed) and the resting menu - which is the same chore in Vikings though.

I found Conquistador to be, in my opinion, perhaps more of a strategy game than a true role playing product. It was certainly more playable upon release than Vikings was, and I enjoyed both for vastly different reasons. Maybe Vikings was a bit superior in the tactical combat sense, at least I thought so, but both games are quite worth playing.

I think that's mostly because of the presentation and what we are used to regarding RPGs.

Example: Viking starts with lots of dialogues and your personal character.
Conquistador let's you put characters together which seem to just have some flavor texts.

Turns out these flavor texts have some impact in the game (a bit like jagged alliance characters) and you have several personal decisions regardless.

Vikings is played on "conventional" Zones to explore.
Expeditions is most played on a world map.

Turns out Vikings "Zones" are extremely boring, and looting every crate is tedious as hell.

But yeah, I can see why Vikings "looks" more like a RPG than Expeditions. But I'd say it's mostly the presentation and standards of what we percieve as typical for RPGs.

In Conquistador the main char doesn't participate in combat. That was a flaw for me.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
In Conquistador the main char doesn't participate in combat. That was a flaw for me.

Yeah, I can see that. You >are< still an entitiy in that game though (storywise). You can marry for example.

Thanks for the info people. I will get Conquistadors when I finish Vikings.

Originally Posted by Hastar
I'm playing Expeditions Vikings for the first time now and about 35 hours in. I love the game and glad I waited. Playing on hard difficulty. The battles can be pretty hard to keep everyone up.

Glad you are enjoying it Hastar! Wow, I finished the whole game ~37 hours in medium difficulty, sounds like it's a lot tougher in hard difficulty. Do you think the combat is still getting easier as the game progress or is it much more balanced now?

Vikings is way tough in hard mode, that I can attest to. Some of those battles can last a very long time, and if luck is truly against you, odds are you'll find yourself reloading and trying it again.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
Glad you are enjoying it Hastar! Wow, I finished the whole game ~37 hours in medium difficulty, sounds like it's a lot tougher in hard difficulty. Do you think the combat is still getting easier as the game progress or is it much more balanced now?

I'm 39 hours in and have completed the Northumbria quests and just entered pict land. There is still over 2 months before I have to return to Daneland. Some of the battles have been hard. I had to reload the battle in the forest that has you fighting 3 waves of the kings troops. Had to reload 2x but one was my mistake with a miss toss of a fire bomb

I will reload some battle if I have too many people drop but will play thru if only 1 or 2 characters bite it. Combat seems perfect for me. If I play smart, I can get thru them but if I do something dumb, like charging an archer with no shield that is behind cover, I pay the price in blood.

The newer patches make it so you can't get the lvl 3,4 or 5 combat skills until later in the game. You have to round out your characters with other skills first. I like that. At 39 hours played my group just got their lvl 4 fighting skills. Some battles have gotten harder. The last battle I was in had to be reloaded 2x against some pictish farmers and hunters. They had me bottle necked where I couldn't get to there archers and they got some critical hits on my healers and spear woman. That angered up my blood and Woden demanded I crush these Christians

My final play time was 54 hours purpleblob. I enjoyed the game very much and I would like to thank you for the review. One of the reasons I tried the game.

Thanks, @Hastar ! Means a lot to me! Hope you found my review informative