Viking Journey

Physics-based games can be a lot of fun, mainly because dealing with realistic physics comes naturally to people, given the fact that we expect them to react like in real life. Video games have made tremendous progress in this regard over the decades, and we are now able to simulate very realistic depictions of real-world physics, which makes for great gameplay mechanics.

Viking Journey is a 2D puzzle game in which you have to make use of physics in order to throw Vikings around or move them from place to place as efficiently as possible. The whole goal is to get them to the entrance of their castle, but a lot of obstacles stand in their way, not to mention the fact that they cannot walk at all for some reason, making the whole ordeal a lot more difficult.

You are provided with a handful of objects at the beginning of each level, and you have to combine them in such a way to obtain a catapult or some other contraption. The game provides you with an idea of what you should be aiming for, but you are also free to come up with your own ideas. Unfortunately, the low number of pieces makes it rather tough to build your own inventions.

What impresses the most about Viking Journey is the way you can reach your goals, or at least could reach. It turns out that the physics are rather flawed and annoying sometimes, making it pretty difficult to predict how everything is going to react. Hence, you need to get familiar with how everything works in the case at hand, because real-world experience doesn’t really help.

Lastly, the graphics are not high-end either, but they obviously do not need to be in the case of a casual game. In fact, the colorful characters and simple levels are perfect for this particular niche, except that the stages can get a tad too repetitive sometimes. The music is not bad either, but the track gets on your nerves in a rush after a while.

In conclusion, it turns out that Viking Journey is not quite there yet, since it has too many flaws to be enjoyable. However, with a few fixes and more creativity the game could really gain a few fans out there, especially if the physics are refined.