Except here there is only the lightest touch of the Scandinavian source material and myths. In fact, the only instance of a truly silly beard is in the disembodied form of lovey-actor Brian Blessed, who appears to have been tricked into doing the narration for the game's scant - if wonderfully drawn - cut scenes. Unfortunately, the rest of the voice acting is comparatively poor. Consisting of West County bumpkins and hurdy-gurdy Scandinavians, this kind of mixture hasn't been seen since Chef from the Muppets. It’s just the sort of awful, stereotypical stuff that could actually cause countries to go to war against each other.

The player steps into the role of Skarrin: a warrior resurrected from a nasty, pointy death by the Goddess, Freya. She appoints him as the chosen warrior to defeat her evil sister Hel and her vast army of blue-skinned monsters called 'the Legion'. Admittedly, it’s a bit of an odd choice, as he clearly isn’t the best of warriors, given he managed to get himself killed in the opening sequence...

What follows is a mixture of Fable, Conan and The Lord of the Rings. Players traverse the map carrying out missions to liberate the land from the Legion; tasks such as freeing trapped soldiers and liberating occupied farms, mines or foundries. The player is guided by their map, and 'Waystones' can be used to help cover large distances. These unlock upon discovery; a straightforward task, as the bright blue beam of light - which projects from the top - is clearly visible. Even using these, it’s impossible to avoid spending a large amount of time simply traipsing between objective points. This isn’t helped by the mission structures, which are all of the simplistic 'move from Point A, now to point B, kill a few things, now go all the way back to Point A' form.

Skarrin initially appears quite versatile - able to climb outcrops, shimmy along ledges and vault obstacles (a small, but extremely welcome touch, as it saves you from having to inexplicably run around waist-high fences). Together, they add a nice element of exploration, since some larger structures can be scaled in search of treasure, or just to see where they lead. Unfortunately, however, they are criminally underused; the environment mostly devoid of anything to see or do.

Although the game is heavy on combat, Skarrin isn’t the most adept of fighters, and too sluggish to even have agility on his side to compensate. Starting out with two basic attacks - light or heavy - gold found in sacks and pots can be used to unlock extra moves or abilities. Soon the player will be able to break enemy shields or counter-attack, but no matter the skills at your disposal, it always feels like Skarrin is horribly overwhelmed. Viking’s main hook seems to be based on having Legion soldiers tackling you en-masse, and often parts of the group will hit you from behind, whilst you’re engaging another. As Skarrin is so sluggish, there’s no hope of running away without being stabbed in the back until dead. The player can attempt to protect themselves by using the block button. More often than not, however, this also proves ineffective. With just one shove from the crowd, your block is broken, enabling the rest of them to slice you to pieces. It’s little comfort that Skarrin appears to be immortal, as messing up an objective means having to do the combat all over again.

Aside from a limited supply of throwing-hatchets or flame-pots (to set enemies alight), Skarrin only has two weapons: a dual-wielded sword and axe combo. These are supplemented by elemental runes which can be used to unleash ice, fire or electrical attacks. Such attacks are powered by red orbs. Collecting orbs from dead enemies fills up a meter, and the player can activate these attacks with even a small section filled. Although these make some combat situations easier, there is no way to stop the meter from emptying once the power is activated and this means the player can waste huge reserves against little more than a handful of enemies.

There is a stealth element forced into the game and there’s no denying that, if used, there are times when it makes combat a lot easier against otherwise overwhelming odds. However, the concept isn’t implemented very well, and there are points where it just isn’t possible to use it to help thin enemy numbers. A good example is in trying to free trapped soldiers: large numbers of heavily-armed Legion are always placed around the holding pen. While you know the game wants you to free them for assisstance, the unmoving guards make this an impossibility. Attempting to pile in gets you nowhere, as hammering the B button - required to interact with objects - is interrupted by enemy attacks.

Once enough objectives have been completed, the player is able to launch an assault on the Legion stronghold. This is where the game draws heavily on Lord of The Rings. The posturing of large numbers of enemies before they bear down on one another across the battlefield is highly reminiscent of the fight for Helm's Deep. With the game flipping into something not entirely dissimilar to 99 Nights or Dynasty Warriors, these sections will initially impress because of the sheer amount of action on-screen. That is until you realise that all the ally soldiers are next to useless.

Command is also granted over Dragons, which can be used to speed up the removal of enemy Shamans at distance, thus preventing them from calling in Legion reinforcements. These require Dragon runes gained during the battles, and must be used sparingly.

Although these sections are marred by slowdown, the bigger issue is that they are extremely confusing. The number of characters surrounding the player makes it difficult to see what’s going on. Couple this with an awkward camera, and you will frequently be battered from all sides by a huge mob or be unable to see your target. Once these sections are completed, Skarrin is then transported to a new area where his mission to liberate people and find Waystones starts all over again. By the second time it begins to feel very repetitive, but, by the time the player reaches the laughably bad concept that passes for the final boss, they’ll be bored to tears.

And all this without even mentioning the other design gripes, like a lack of any real map in some of the larger 'friendly' camps (making finding specific people you need to speak to much harder than it needs to be) and some extreme glitches. Aside from the noticeable technical issues - like the sound-effects missing, or the sudden disappearance of the main characters in a Quicktime event sequence - there are those which will cause real frustration. At several points key events fail to trigger, meaning enemies which should have been removed are left standing, before descending on Skarrin and obliterating him. Frustrating, to say the least.

Viking: Battle for Asgard falls too far below the benchmark set by those that have gone before. There’s the nagging sensation that a capable game is suffocating underneath the surface, but because of the way it’s implemented, it falls short of being anything other than forgettable and repetitive. Ultimately, this makes it hard to see who would get anything out of playing it. Consequently, it is difficult to recommend.