Viking Life

Viking Life is a roguelite action strategy game in which you lead a warband as its jarl while fighting on the front line yourself. You swing your axe, time your shield blocks and command your warriors during raids across three lands. When you fall in battle, you wake in Valhalla, where the souls you have won help build your village and strengthen your next saga.

Fight and command

You can combine attacks, blocks and rolls, catching a blow on your shield at the last moment to send it back at the enemy. Arrows and axes can also fly back toward whoever threw them. To issue orders on the move, hold the order wheel to slow the battle and choose commands such as charge, follow me, hold the line or fall back.

You can forge six weapons in your village and carry one for close combat and one for ranged combat: sword and shield, great axe, spear and shield, bow, crossbow or throwing axes.

Raise a warband

The game has 16 kinds of warriors, including swordsmen, spearmen, shieldmaidens with two daggers, huskarls who throw axes from behind their shields, and berserkers. In England and France, you can hire longbowmen and knights, chevaliers and crossbowmen behind their pavises. Every warrior has five levels; from level 3, an archer can become a crossbowman, while an axe fighter can become a berserker.

Skill cards strengthen both you and your squad, with each card providing a different effect. Examples include Parry, Explosive Arrows, Archer of Odin and Bloodthirst.

Raid across three lands

Every saga has a new map of raids, champions, hoards, campfires, the forge, the altar, the Fish Merchant, wanderers who join your warband and oddities along the road. A boss awaits at the end of each land.

• The Fjords: fight other Vikings in deep snow that slows everyone down.
• The Knights' Camp: battle through English summer, wheat fields and thunderstorms that shorten the reach of every bow.
• The Golden Castle: face French autumn, scorching heat and catapults that rain burning boulders on your army.

Build your village

In Valhalla, you can develop six buildings, each with eight levels: houses, fishing, market, training camp, forge and walls. Each level helps with the next saga, providing benefits such as more starting warriors, more sapphires, tougher shields or new weapons at the forge. The village fills with people as it grows.

Characters and oddities

The game features Sir Throwsalot, Robin of the Ditch, Captain Bim and Captain Bom, and the Golden King, as well as the Goat of Destiny and a Valkyrie on a Break. Trophies include Odin's Spare Eye, and curses include the Angry Sheep. The Fish does nothing, probably.

More features

You can create your own Viking in the character editor. The game also includes 100 achievements.