Expeditions: Viking - Review Roundup

Will future patches fix saved games? I can't seem to find the witch 'Hulda' so I can't get any healing for my witch (without getting more skill points and getting someone else with healing) Seriously… she can't heal herself? even a poultice? That makes ZERO sense. Put a bandage on it, you witch!

I also find the lack of a manual or a codex where i can look up previous 'tutorial' tips very frustrating. I have a bad memory. Unless there is such a thing? At least have an in-game codex which explains everything. Anything else is sheer laziness. For example, I didn't realize there was no initiative order and wasted several tactical opportunities in earlier combats. I also assumed 'end turn' ended the 'current character's turn'…again, screwed me over in combat.

I didn't play the previous game, and while I'm mostly enjoying this, there are many indication of lack of polish which mean its' a weaker game than it should have been.

The witch is available only when you leave Denmark. Up healing on some character on level 1, it's cheap.

There is no manual and one is not planned. Dunno if devs will add some info tab in the game.

I enjoyed the game more than this overhyped one I'm currently playing. I guess no trashmob respawns is more important to me than hair.

Manuals, or even a tooltip, seem to be a luxury item with indie games these days. I've had devs (not these devs) tell me, "Just ask on the forums, someone will help you out." Wow, thanks for nothing!

Manuals are in games now and it's not new. I haven't seen a really useful manual since a while, they are just some nostalgia items now.

These devs won't shove you off like that. I've seen threads on Steam with suggestions where they took those as a possible game postpatch enhancement (initiative or starting turn being as one).
If there is enough interest for a manual, I'm sure they'd make one. Don't expect me to post that though, I love this game with or without it.

I'm sure dev get tired to put useful stuff in manuals and in return get players complain about this or that not well explained, and if they answer them, read the manual, they start vote down their game and troll it on forums. The rude life of game devs.

Myself I never ever read manuals since at least two decades.

For the dev answer quoted, it was probably not a precise question but a request for a manual.

I wrote it's in game, but it's not always like this, I see more and more games where in game information or manual is just put in some wiki, which is rather tedious in my opinion.

Manuals are obsolete by ways of players. Players like to learn new things, without applying them.
Changes are brought every two weeks. Even stuff like wikia has given up on providing an up to date content.

joxer said:

The witch is available only when you leave Denmark. Up healing on some character on level 1, it's cheap.

There is no manual and one is not planned. Dunno if devs will add some info tab in the game.

I enjoyed the game more than this overhyped one I'm currently playing. I guess no trashmob respawns is more important to me than hair.

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I've read that hulda should be there and that it's a bug (devs said this on forum)

The other thing, unless I'm wrong, I have to leave my village, (I have already been to another village and back) go to a camping site, and then camp (with all the hassle) just to have healing happen. That costs food, risks attack etc. again, this seems illogical to me. Why can't I heal up in my village? I'm thegn after all...

ChienAboyeur said:

Players like to learn new things, without applying them.

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That players general or majority behavior is definitely a huge burden on games quality. They want fresh rules, fresh mechanisms, fresh contexts, when in fact the most important for the gameplay is how are used the rules, mechanisms, and contexts.

This is... a really fun game. Honestly just took a chance on it having never played anything by these developers before, enjoying it quite a bit. A few bugs, nothing game-breaking yet.

It has a weird combination of homestead-building/fortress-tending that I like along with hex-based, turn-based combat and traditional CRPG dialogue trees, what's not to like?

ElderGnome said:

This is… a really fun game. Honestly just took a chance on it having never played anything by these developers before, enjoying it quite a bit. A few bugs, nothing game-breaking yet.

It has a weird combination of homestead-building/fortress-tending that I like along with hex-based, turn-based combat and traditional CRPG dialogue trees, what's not to like?

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My only major complaint is that it becomes too easy. In many ways it is an improvement over Expeditions: Conquistador but in terms of challenge and resource management it is a step back. Once your party maxes out weapon / shield skills and gets good equipment (which can happen very early on) your party will become unstoppable, even on "insane" difficulty.

I can agree on that, but can't put it as a major complaint.
It's RPG. It's not a platformer or an ordinary phonegame where lack of challenge in one element (in this case: combat) instantly means boredom.

One major complaint of mine would go on looting system. Too many barrels/containers to loot and because of the engine used it's not clicky clicky easy peasy, but rotate rotate till possible to clicky. When a platform or engine is restrictive in some way, a developer should scrap the original idea and adapt it or use another design. IMO.

Another major complaint I've already stated before. At a certain point you get 3 companions that aren't predefined and you can min/max all skills you lack of on those. Maxed crafting, maxed guarding, maxed healing, maxed repair, etc. Not sure why devs did this - IMO these 3 crewmembers should have been treated as "props" needed just for sailing and safekeeping the boat while you're exploring.

Still. Expeditions2 shown you don't need godlike trashmobs to make a good game. A small studio dared to make something that scares shit out of big publishers. And it's fun. It's too early to predict anything, there are more games to appear in this year, but it won't surprise me if this game ends in RPGwatch's GOTY list among top3.

It's already one of my favorite games this year, though I also really enjoyed the Planescape remake and the Numenera "spiritual successor" to Planescape.

I find myself enjoying the combat enough and the "easy" nature of it really isn't that off-putting; it's the roleplaying aspects of the game that I enjoy the most. The storytelling is top-notch without being too "wordy" etc.

ElderGnome said:

It's already one of my favorite games this year, though I also really enjoyed the Planescape remake and the Numenera "spiritual successor" to Planescape.

I find myself enjoying the combat enough and the "easy" nature of it really isn't that off-putting; it's the roleplaying aspects of the game that I enjoy the most. The storytelling is top-notch without being too "wordy" etc.

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That is good to know as I am not a big combat focused person so nice to know it has those other elements and a nice story.