Trial by Viking released for Linux, a 2D platformer with minor puzzle elements, some thoughts

Trial by Viking is a new platformer available for Linux that has over 100 levels, I checked it out and these are my thoughts.

Disclosure: I received my key from the developer.

I've actually become more of a platformer fan recently after playing some really good titles that have renewed my interested in the genre, so I was hoping Trial by Viking was a worthy game to take a look at.

The story behind the game seems to be rather loosely based on Norse mythology with characters like Odin and Loki and your character being a Viking. I say loosely as it uses the characters, but the story is obviously unique to the game.

The game claims it's a Metroidvania-like, but honestly I didn't really feel it was. The levels aren't really connected in any way. It felt much more like a standard action/puzzle platformer.

You go from level to level picking up gems called Sunstones, with these you're able to unlock a variety of weapons and passive items to help you on your journey. Your able to select what to use before you start each level. I like it, as it enables you to play each level differently if you wish to. There's a pretty good variety of items too!

There are no checkpoints, no in-level saves, you just need to play each level and complete them to have the game save for you. The levels all seems quite small, so I don't see it being an issue.

The main thing that bugs me about the game is your character and the enemies have a vastly different art style to the environment, it just looks weird.

It's another game that gives you a Steam achievement right at the start for doing literally nothing. This bugs me, as achievements are supposed to be earned, not just thrown at you.

I played it on Hard as opposed to the standard setting to give myself a little challenge, but even then it wasn't all that challenging as nearly all enemies can be taken out easily from a distance and doing a few jumps here and there. A lot of enemies have static locations that they don't deviate from too, which makes things easy to predict and overcome.

Boss battles are different story, they have more health and more powerful attacks and it ends up feeling like playing a 2D dark souls for a moment due to the completely different difficulty with them. I actually found the boss battles to be a real nuisance, especially the first one which seemed impossible with such low health. The slightest touch from the boss takes down rather a lot of health and sometimes he's so fast he pins you against the wall and then death comes quickly. His movement seems totally pre-scripted though, so once you realise that it's actually quite easy to do.

While it tries to be a puzzle/action platformer, it also tries to accommodate speed-runners too as each level gives you a "new best time!" indicator.

Personally, I don't see having hundreds of levels always being a good thing, seems like it drags on a bit. If the developer cut the number of levels down and spent more time on each of them, it could have been a much more interesting experience.

Overall, it's quite nice, but it doesn't really offer all that much to hook me in. It doesn't really set itself apart from all the other platformers out there and that's a shame. I'm not saying it's bad, it's good for what it is, but nothing special.

You can find Trial by Viking on Steam. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.