Release date: February 28th 2019

Developer: Zaxis

Platforms: Switch, PC (Reviewed), XBL, PSN

Price: $20 on Steam and $30 everywhere else

Fimbul is an interesting game. There is some mythology associated with this tale as it takes place before Ragnarok. The game has a fun story and exciting graphics, but is this enough to make it stand out?

The game premise is pretty simple; players play as an old berserker, known as Kveldulver who is brought back to life to travel to Jötunheim to fulfill his destiny. If he is lucky he will save Midagard and finally get revenge on his murderous brother. I kept thinking about the most recent God of War and its ties to Norse mythology.

The graphics appear to be cell shaded and the camera sits above and behind Kveldulver, The environments are well detailed and there are nice touches with the landscapes here and there.

Combat is pretty simple; Kveldulver can select a few different weapons, block and dodge and when he does enough damage and combos, heal himself or unleash pain on the enemies. It's a simple hack and slash and the game controls pretty well. I found that when I got surrounded I would run away and dodge and wait to lure the enemies to me. This was the same tactic I employed with boss fights. It's not complicated but it works.

The story is told through comic book style panels which look really good and I felt added to the game. But I have a few gripes with the game. Other reviewers ran into horrible game breaking bugs; I didn’t run into any of these but I can agree sometimes the framerate took a hard dip. The camera doesn't help with the game at all due to it being fixed and not free roaming. Fimbul could have used a free roaming camera especially during boss fights.

Ultimately there is some replay value involved in the narrative choice but it's going to be hard to coax gamers back to the playing field. Most gamers should be able to finish Fimbul in 3-4 hours. If you like hack and slash adventure games with a Viking twist, give this one a try. But you might want to wait for a sale if you want the console version.

Pros:

Interesting Story

Comic book panels

Easy to play

Cons:

Camera

Repetitive

Odd tech glitches

Thanks for the developer for letting us review the game.

Fimbul Review