Here's my prediction for the near future: Vikings are going to be the next 'big thing'. No, I don't mean that the worshipping of Norse gods and raping, pillaging, and plundering are coming back in - I'm talking about the entertainment industry! Fantasy has come back strong thanks to The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter among others, and Greek epics have been popular lately, with the likes of Troy and 300. Then of course there's the pirate revival, courtesy of one Johnny Depp (okay, a few other people were involved but let's face it, Captain Jack Sparrow steals the show every time!) But when was the last time you saw a really great Viking flick? With CGI effects being what they are today, I'll be amazed if we haven't had an epic Viking movie by the end of 2010. It's not just Legoland getting in on the act early though, because The Creative Assembly and SEGA have teamed up to release Viking: Battle for Asgard, which it turns out is a pretty enjoyable action adventure romp.

Things aren't looking good for Asgard since the undead legions of Hel (yep, that's the name of the game's female antagonist, who is the Norse Goddess of Death) have risen up from the underworld and invaded en masse, slaughtering the population and enslaving the survivors. What we need now is a hero with a mysterious past who's guided by a god and has an affinity for wading through hordes of fiendish soldiers, infiltrating encampments and running errands for all and sundry. Enter Skarin, who for a change doesn't have to take on countless enemies single-handedly... at least not for the entire time.

Battle for Asgard doesn't make the best first impression - at least it didn't for me. Its opening cut scenes (and indeed the few brief snippets throughout the game) reek of laziness, as comic book style cut outs tell a back-story that would have been far more interesting in gorgeous, rendered CGI, while the narrator is such a hammy over-actor that he gives the Crane brothers' childhood theatrical hero, Jackson Hedley, a real run for his money (and in case you haven't seen the classic Frasier episode The Show Must Go Off, Derek Jacobi's performance was wonderfully horrendous).

Indeed, even when the game begins, the luscious graphics and atmospheric home camp where you start your journey is spoiled by such daft inconsistencies as being told there's no mead to drink when there are several tables full of Vikings drinking merrily away, and being able to buy maps that show you the exact location of every bag of gold, urn (to smash, Zelda style) and treasure chest, making you wonder why instead of selling maps for a nominal fee, the guy in question didn't just collect the gold himself (and indeed why no one else has picked up these obvious, flashing items since). Other such classics as you progress include wading into the rather impressive waves on the beach only to nonsensically drown, being told that there are Vikings tied to poles left out on the beach to die by someone who's about two hundred yards away from them but for some reason is incapable of loosening a rope, and having to pay a fortune to an undead Norse warrior to learn new combat moves - apparently there's a use for cash in the afterlife after all. While it might seem like I'm being harsh about very minor issues, this illogical silliness does slightly detract from an otherwise convincing, fully formed game world.

Thankfully, the word of import here is "slightly", because once your adventure gets underway you'll discover a huge, sprawling world to explore, rendered with loving care and attention, complete with some distinctly next-gen visuals. Each of the several isles you visit on your campaign, while fairly similar overall, is filled with distinctive scenery that fits the time period of the Vikings in every respect. On your travels you'll be liberating camps, lumber mills, mines, watchtowers, ruined temples and full scale cities from Hel's legions, and each looks very convincing. In between these pockets of civilisation you can wander down to the coastline to search among the wrecks of Viking longboats for mead that's washed ashore, explore many dark caves for gold and prisoners to liberate, look out over the vast oceans from high cliff tops and saunter through picturesque areas of countryside, dotted with trees, paths, flaming torches, derelict buildings and more. The amount of detail on every texture and object is impressive, and combined with the ambient sound of the wind, singing birds, the waves lapping on the shore, your footfalls, and the weapons on your back clinking together, the result is an atmospheric world to venture through.

The main problem however is that Skarin is very slow - painfully slow, in fact. Admittedly he's a hulking brute who you wouldn't expect to win any sprinting competitions, but given how huge each isle is, an alternative method of transportation would have been very much appreciated. Riding a horse, transforming into a wolf or a bird, or even calling upon your dragon allies to swoop down and drop you off at the location of your choice would have made such a huge difference to the exploration aspect of this game. However, other than the leystones, which are dotted around each isle and allow you to travel instantly from one to any other, you're stuck with the slow, monotonous trudge as you meander about the place, moving towards the next encampment to liberate while looking for gold, mead, and Vikings tied to poles along the way. It can be frustrating and it will be a big turn off for some gamers, but if you can cope with Skarin's lack of speed then you should enjoy the rest of what the game has to offer.

One element of Battle for Asgard that I feel works really well is the stealth. Whenever there are enemies nearby, Skarin automatically goes into a slightly crouched stance and begins to sneak, which not only allows you to creep up upon unsuspecting foes from behind and eviscerate them with a single motion - at least once you've purchased the two vital stealth attacks - but it also serves to tell you that enemies are nearby before you've even spotted them. When it comes to retaking enemy encampments in locations such as mills and farms, there are often dozens of troops, and while you can just wade in and attack, you'll often find yourself surrounded and hacked to death pretty quickly. It's very satisfying to sneak around the outskirts, taking out archers and the very dangerous lookouts who blow their horns to alert the entire camp to your presence - and if you can continue to pick off enemies one by one until you've whittled their number right down, the rest shouldn't be too hard to slaughter in the open. This stealth is backed up by some of the most natural and convincing enemy patrol patterns I've ever seen - particularly in a couple of the fortresses where it's your goal to infiltrate and reach the centre without being spotted. The dozens (sometimes hundreds) of enemies act very naturally; some patrol up and down, others walk the entire circuit of the outer paths, some are standing around chatting, some are sparring or practising with a bow, others still are feasting on the flesh of dead Vikings. It's all very atmospheric and the AI routines for the many enemies are some of the most convincing I've ever come across.

However, once you have been spotted, you're going to need to defend yourself - and while Battle for Asgard's combat system isn't as sophisticated and smooth as the likes of God of War, it's still pretty enjoyable, with enough options to allow you to mix things up a bit. Hammering the quick attack button works well enough but sometimes you need more, and as you purchase combos, following up with a heavy attack produces a range of different moves depending on your combo sequence with quick attack, plus there are jump attacks on offer too. Soon you unlock a second attack mode that either gives you a multiple hit super fast combo that allows you to hack down multiple foes, or a blast of power focused on just one. You can also imbue your sword with the power of fire (setting foes alight for ongoing damage), lightning (added damage with shock value for the enemy) and ice (by far the most useful of the three, allowing you to freeze and shatter foes with ease), powered by the red orbs that come out of almost every foe you kill, although annoyingly once you activate this you can't turn it off, and often end up wasting half the bar that took you a while to fill up. The block move is also very versatile too - while blocking you can dodge (with a nice slow motion effect if you only just avoid a hit) and you can shove, which is highly amusing when you knock multiple foes off cliffs or over piers to drown in the swelling waves below.

By far the best attack on offer though is the super gory finishing move - when an enemy is almost dead, it stands there swaying, often missing a limb that you've hacked off, with an X above its head. Hit the X button and watch with delight as you lop off both arms and then behead it, or thrust your sword through its chest with a squelch, pulling it out again with vigour as the dead enemy slumps backwards, or even slice it in half at the waste, blood and guts spraying into the air. The gore factor is high and very satisfying indeed - watching the legs of a foe whose torso you just sliced off stagger around for a few second before toppling over never gets old! The enemy reactions to your hits are very well animated too - they stagger backwards or are even knocked to the ground in the wake of a flurry of blows, they growl and groan when you lop off an arm or stab them, they block and use their shields to defend themselves, and the interaction is all very fluid and realistic, with some excellent ragdoll physics.

Once you've cleared an area of Hel's infestation, the dark, stormy weather is replaced by sunny daylight (or just daylight in the snowy regions near the end of the game) and you know that you're okay to move on. And this is how you progress - explore an area, discover points of interest (marked on an extremely useful and invaluable map), clear out encampments through stealth and brute force, liberate Viking clans, run a few errands, find treasure... hang on, run a few errands? Yep, it seems that the general population are lazy and cowardly, tasking you with various chores, most of which involve more killing. Sometimes you might need to clear out a nearby enemy patrol or encampment, other times you might have to go to another allied encampment to deliver a message or request supplies and reinforcements. These errands can be tedious and require a fair amount of backtracking, but given that the game world is very open and that you usually have a number of tasks to complete in any order, it's not too much of a chore. The level designs are also really well put together; steep footpaths winding around tall hills, labyrinthine underground passageways, sheer cliffs, bridges, rivers, waterfalls - it all combines to make a landscape that feels like a natural formation.

While none of this sounds particularly groundbreaking so far, Battle for Asgard's tour de force comes in the form of huge, Lord of the Rings scale battles where you invade enemy fortresses and cities. This is where all those Vikings you liberated - and the dragons you've summoned by finding hidden runes - come into play. Activated from the map, the battle begins with a spectacular cut scene and then hundreds of your forces collide with hundreds of legion, the numbers of onscreen enemies giving Dynasty Warriors, except the graphics are far superior without any draw distance problems (and rarely a hint of slowdown, although it does happen on occasion). The already impressive orchestral score, which is reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings much of the time, rises to a crescendo here, and as you wade through the troops, swinging your blades at the myriad foes, your objective is to take out enemy sorcerers who can summon endless legion to their aid. Smashing the five pillars of energy that surround them, while fending off the many troops surrounding you, can be a real challenge - and often you have to help your troops fight their way to the area, to give you some back up. The elemental powers of your blade come in very handy here, as does the dragon - although not taking a major role, you earn points for killing pivotal legion foes such as shaman, then you can command your dragons to swoop in and lay waste to another shaman or a battalion of archers, blasting them into oblivion with a single volley.

Tough legion foes like champions and giants can be found in these sections, and later on you'll be bringing siege weapons into the fray too, all adding to the atmosphere of the battle. Champions and giants take a lot of pounding until finally a B appears to denote that it's time to finally finish them off. Here you go into a God of War style sequence of pressing buttons as they appear onscreen while you watch Skarin perform an impressive sequence of hits and dodges before finishing his mighty foe in such a gory manner that it puts even Mortal Kombat into the shade. The giants take three sequences before they're down, slashing both ankle tendons before climbing up their backs and repeatedly stabbing their heads and necks until they finally die. These almighty battles are epic in scale and are without a doubt the highlight of the game - the rest of the game is enjoyable if unexceptional, but the build up to these battles fills you with excitement as you launch yourself into the fray.

Battle for Asgard will keep you occupied for a reasonable length of time - in fact, its fifteen to twenty hours (depending upon how thoroughly you explore the realm) is about right, given the number of great games out there at the moment that simply demand your attention. While it's true that once you've played through the first isle you've pretty much seen everything the game has to offer, the enemies get tougher, you buy more advanced combo moves and increase the power of your magic, the locations and cities get more spectacular and new enemy types like the giants are introduced. There's a good progression here and while you can manage without buying health potions, throwing axes and flamepots early on, you'll find yourself making more use of them in the latter half of the game, particularly if you intend to survive the final battle without being killed and reincarnated to bag the fifty gamerpoints on offer for the achievement, a task that took me over two hours to complete.

Viking: Battle for Asgard is a largely enjoyable romp that introduces a slightly new spin on a tried and true genre. While elements like running errands, collecting gold and buying new combat moves feel very old-school, this third person adventure has a lot going for it - a full open, graphically gorgeous and atmospheric world to explore, well-implemented elements of stealth, fantastically gory combat with great enemy responses, the liberation of encampments, and the massive battles where hundreds of allies and enemies clash to retake cities, backed up by catapults and a dragon or three. It's not groundbreaking and Skarin's slow pace can make it a chore at times, but a lot of love and creativity has been injected, and the result is an experience that will entertain the majority of gamers.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).