One of the most complex things about Valhalla Hills is that everything in the world links together in one way or another, and one resource begets another. And as it happens, that's actually harder than it sounds. Really though, you can build as many tents, quarries and stonemasons as you want, but everything you do always needs to be working your way towards one thing - building a sizeable enough army that you can wipe out any portal guardians that are roaming the map, and take out anything that comes through the portal once you open it. On desert maps, one of the very first things you'll end up doing is building a ragtag army, just so you can splat all the scorpions, and make the map more liveable. Sometimes, they can even kill your villagers if they don't run away in time. No sooner had he gone out to chop one down, though, than he ended up being chased back down into the village by a scorpion that had taken a disliking to him. One map we played had most of its trees located atop a hill, so we dutifully plonked our woodcutter's lodge up next to it. The only problem is, some of the local wildlife can prey on you, too - like the overly aggressive scorpions, who love nothing more than to do a number on your villagers. The desert environments have few berries and no water, yet have plentiful animals for you to prey on, so at least you can get plenty of food - theoretically. In other areas, the problems are more pressing. But then the lake has a limited supply of fish, too - and you can wipe them out if you catch too many. When you have to provide for two or three dozen vikings using just one fisherman's catch, that can be easier said than done. Others, like the new underground caves (yep - an underground mountain) contain next to no food or animals at all - a single, solitary lake is all we had in one. Some worlds have plentiful berries, so you don't need to worry about building a fishing hut, or a hunter's shack, and can instead simply leave your vikings to forage for themselves. Where you go from there depends on the mountain you're trying to conquer. As every building you make requires wood, a woodcutter's shack is another great idea for one of your early buildings - just be sure you build it as close to some trees as possible, as your vikings can sometimes be a bit thick. This cheery chappy/chappette's workshop will provide all the basic tools a thriving viking society needs - like axes, hammers, fishing rods, and sickles. A game of resource management, the procedurally generated worlds mean you can never be too sure what you're going to get, and different worlds will demand a markedly different strategy.Īlmost universally, the first thing you'll need to do is to build a toolmaker. In essence then, each level follows a fairly similar format, although the exact order you'll need to do things in will depend on the layout of your map. The portal's not far away - but don't open it until you're ready It's up to you to defend yourself, and storm on through. Instead, the challenge each portal presents is more of a military one - open it, and a handful of enemies will appear in your world and attack. Rather than having to worry about building elaborate ladders or climbing rigs, though, actually physically getting to the portal isn't all that hard - your Viking followers can easily scale even the steepest of hills. All you have to do is get someone there - usually by building an outpost or something similar nearby - and you'll be able to open the portal. Each mountain has a glowing blue portal at the top, and it's this that's your real target in each world. After all, you're an all conquering viking - and the game's many procedurally generated hills give you the perfect chance to scratch that itch. However, in order to progress through Valhalla Hills, you'll need to do more than simply build a prosperous society. By choosing the right building to build, and the right time at which to build them, you can ensure your villagers have everything they need, with a roof over their heads, plenty to eat, and the tools (and troops) to defend themselves should the need arise. Instead, Valhalla Hills is a God game, where rather than having any direct control over the population, you instead simply issue commands to construct different buildings. As you might expect, then, this is a decidedly different kind of Viking game - and one that couldn't be further from the hack-and-slash blood fest of publisher Kalypso's other recent title, Vikings: Wolves of Midgard.
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