Cultures 2 - The Gates of Asgard Demo

Although many strategy games allow you to customize almost every part of your civilization and army, they do not really go into detail when it comes to individual soldiers. Moreover, usually just the important heroes that drive the story are blessed with a name and a personality, which makes the rest of the units under your command very expendable and easy to just throw away as cannon fodder.

Cultures 2 – The Gates of Asgard is different, in the sense that each man or woman born under your command is important and vital to the overall goal. They each have a name and a job to fulfill, which makes them indispensable and worth protecting, regardless of whether they pick up berries from the woods, or protect the camp from enemies and vicious wildlife. However, there are heroes as well, which are even more important and significant to the story.

Story-wise, the plot kind of continues the saga from the first episode, although it centers on an entirely new perspective and changes the scenery as well. Thus, Bjarni returns and he has a dream about Ragnarok, the Viking apocalypse, in which he and three other brave heroes go head-to-head with the giant snake that's supposed to bring the end of the world. Naturally, he takes his tribe and goes searching for these heroes all throughout Europe, in order to fulfill the prophecy.

Society needs all kinds of workers in order to function properly, which is why not everyone can be an adventurer, or a fearsome warrior looking for glory. Berry pickers, woodsmen and blacksmiths are more than vital when it comes to providing the people with everything they need. The same goes for the women, who can also tackle most jobs and handle the children as well, at least until they are old enough to get a job of their own.

The quest still revolves around the mighty heroes and Bjarni, however, which is why everything descends into war toward the end of the campaign, when the four of them are together and the apocalypse is unleashed. Thus, you also need to handle a bit of combat as well, despite the fact that most of the gameplay is pretty peaceful and you can relax while your Viking society prospers.

In the end, things might go a bit slow in Cultures 2 – The Gates of Asgard, but fast-paced strategy games are common enough nowadays to find exactly what you are looking for, in case this is not your cup of tea. However, you would be missing on quite the experience, especially since it is very easy to bond with your population throughout the campaign.