Preview: Expeditions: Viking
In August 2012, the Kickstarter campaign for Expeditions: Conquistador was launched by Danish studio Logic Artists, a studio unknown to me at the time. I discovered the project and followed the campaign, but never actually backed it, as I was hesitant to give money to something that sounded good but might not turn into a good end product. Closer to launch, I read some impressions of this turn-based, tactical RPG with CYOA and survival elements, and decided to take a gamble. The game turned out to be a huge surprise for me. Not only was its gameplay great but so was the writing, with an interesting setting in Mexico and Hispaniola during the Age of Discovery. Naturally, when I saw that the Codex was trying to find someone to preview its sequel, Expeditions: Viking, I immediately pounced on the opportunity.
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Final Thoughts
My overall impression of Expeditions: Viking's preview is positive. The writing is solid, but needs to be supported by slightly more interesting quests. I think one reason why I would rate Conquistador a bit higher in this area is that I never got to see any CYOA sequences. As stated, the developers have confirmed they'll be in for the final game.
Another thing that I preferred in the first game is the exploration. It just doesn't feel the same now that they've tossed away the 3D world map for a 2D map with the locations being separate instances.
The game's combat mechanics are solid and the story battles are fun, though I suspect that the feeling of repetition will eventually set in just like it did in the first game. I like the character progression system, even though many skills and abilities were unavailable in this version. It seems to me that Viking is going to have a little bit more in the way of character customization than its predecessor. I also like that you gain skill points for finishing quests.
I can't really offer any further thoughts about the village upgrade system, but I do know that it will play a more important role as you progress further into the game.
I encountered many technical issues and bugs during my playthrough. My characters would become invisible or unable to move. NPCs would become invisible as well. I had a couple of freezes. Unintentionally sequence breaking a particular quest broke it, making it impossible to complete. Another quest I completed and was then offered it again. I'm not too worried about this though, as the preview build appears to be an alpha version. I had no problems with the first game when I played it, and I expect all of these issues to be ironed out for the final release.
