Serious Game Classification

Edutainment/adventure game set in the Viking empire some time in the 11th century. You play the role of Hjalmar, son of the bersekir Ingmar. The game opens in Finland, where you must assist Ingmar's friend Leif Harraldson in hiring the shaman Eldgrim. Eldgrim tells Hjalmar that his father's estate Dynhólmar in Iceland has been destroyed and his father killed. Hjalmar travels to Iceland to verify the claim and recover the family's heirloom axe Hildirid. Following the trail of the axe, Hjalmar will travel to Greenland and finally to Vinland (now called North America). As he reaches the end of his quest, even the gods become involved in his quest as he discovers his father's secrets.

Gameplay is fairly standard 2D adventure, but with the twist that in addition to items, Hjalmar's "wallet" can contain images of people who can also be used on objects or other people to solve puzzles. Costumed actors are used for the numerous characters in the game, with video seamlessly integrated into the scenes, along with quite a few full screen video sequences to advance the story.

The story itself is broken up into a series of nine "riddles" which must be solved to progress. These "riddles" include allocating the right laborers to the correct provinces to produce the goods needed to buy Eldgrim's services, collecting the different foodstuffs needed to survive the winter at the destroyed Dynhólmar estate, winning a game of Knattleikr (which resembles a violent form of baseball played on ice skates), and navigating the open seas from Finland to Iceland.

The game includes a reference database on Viking culture. Every character and item in the game is described in the database, along with lots of other background information on the world and legends of the Vikings. The database is essential for solving many of the game's puzzles. It also provides a well-integrated way to present much of the game's educational content about Viking culture. [source:mobygames]

Distribution : Retail - Commercial
Platform(s) : Macintosh - PC (Windows)

Links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/vikings/