Recent reviews by Agent

I really, really want to recommend this game. Sweden has always been Norway's big brother in the gaming space, but "our" one niche has always been story-driven games and in that respect, NORSE: Oath of Blood delivers. The story's premise is simple: you play as the brother and sister, children of a jarl who gets betrayed, killed and lands taken from him, and your job is to gather helpers on your journey to reclaim your rightful lands. The story follows a very traditional Norwegian story structure by having the main character pretty much indiscriminately recruit the people he comes across, usually people who have also been driven from their original homes, much like the classic story of Ashlad and His Good Helpers. Everything feels very authentic, from the clothing, to the environment to the archetypical characters themselves. My only minor worry is that some of the translations seem to prioritize direct translations rather than finding more appropriate and commonly understood terms. i.ex. 'Asstrolls'(tadpoles) doesn't really make sense to the common English speaker, 'rascals' might be more appropriate for the subtitles. Volva being translated to both "seer" and "witch" at different points doesn't really make sense either. Also, that's not an elk, that's a moose.

But that leads us into the more severe issues with the game. Combat is a lot of fun and offers a lot of tactical decision-making, when it works. Mid- to late-game you'll constantly run into fights where the AI seems to either freeze completely or make incredibly shallow decisions. Melee enemies will frequently stand still and skip their turn, stand in one spot and spam defensive skills or alert and end up blocking multiple other units from getting to you, or just straight up use their entire turn to run next to your back line, exposing themselves to multiple attacks from your main damage dealers. And that's not getting into all the technical jank. On three occasions I had enemy units that were supposed to enter the battle remain outside the battle arena and prolong the fight indefinitely.

Which leads us into what seems like at least two months lack of polish that the game suffers from. The optimization of the game is downright atrocious. Cinematics will stutter and turn into slideshows and the general graphics of the game are ok at best compared to the hardware required to run it at reasonable frame rates. The deforming meshes that appear from time to time only punctuate the lack of polish. Moving around in between battles feels incredibly clunky, your characters will constantly float/slip around (especially apparent when you climb a rockside, and you'll sometimes fall straight back down) and trying to pick up items can be a whole ordeal of positioning your camera just right. It's especially frustrating because there are often alternative paths to take or even ways to enter battle, but it's drowned out by the frustrations of having to deal with more of the movement in the game.

All that being said, the actual gameplay loop of the game is a lot of fun when it works. Base building offers a lot of tinkering, optimization and planning if you want to unlock key pieces of gear and while it's fairly easy to unlock everything by the end of the game, some fights become significantly harder or easier depending on what you've prioritized. However, as it stands, a lot of the potential difficult decisions you'd have to make are completely nullified by the sometimes broken combat AI. i.ex. I didn't get a single wounded combatant until turn 40-something, making the wound-time reduction building line completely useless and the spinner much less valuable. I don't need armor if I barely ever get hit. There's also the matter of the berserker class being incredibly strong and able to wipe out five units in a turn and then getting another turn while your tank is still stuck in the deployment zone.

So while I intend on finishing the game, I very reluctantly cannot recommend this game. Which is a huge shame, because with another pass or two of polish and optimization, this game could be a solid addition to the small pantheon of great Norwegian games. As it stands, this game remains a bit of an asstroll.

Having played Crusader Kings 2, with all it's DLCs and put way too many hours in Crusader Kings 3, it's safe to say that this is by far some of the strongest content Paradox has released for the franchise in terms of tying systems together, creating an atmosphere and giving the player(s) agency.

The Iberian struggle itself is a great way to showcase not just old mechanics and giving them new purpose. For instance diplomatic characters have been given a significant new purpose with how befriending ruler characters drives the struggle in a conciliatory direction. This also undermines the tendency of making only non-vassal characters seemingly having much impact in terms of what players themselves might want to play as. In general you can have an impact regardless of your highest title, it more depends on the capabilities on your character(s), which I thoroughly enjoy. Royal Courts and Northern Lords did this to some extent as well, but in general I'd say this pack adds a whole new level of involvement for vassal counts and dukes that wasn't there prior, that can tip the balance of how an entire region develops without doing much, if any, conquest.

As for the atmosphere, everything from the music, to the new clothes, to the new cultures and religious feel very appropriate and are a very welcome addition.

Overall, I'd say this is a must-buy for the game, as it not only fleshes out old mechanics, but everything it adds is great.