NORSE: Oath of Blood Review – Immersive with Minor Flaws

If you’ve ever found yourself watching the Vikings TV show and wishing you could step into that world, NORSE: Oath of Blood has launched on PC and is a close representation. Developed by Arctic Hazard and published by Tripwire Presents, the game’s gritty atmosphere successfully blends exploration with tactical turn-based combat. While for the most part, the story has been engrossing and the gameplay tight, there have been some minor technical hitches along my journey, but nothing game breaking for me.

The narrative is a major highlight, penned by bestselling author Giles Kristian (Raven saga). You play as Gunnar Gripsson, the exiled son of a murdered Jarl. After the treacherous Steinarr Far-Spear kills your father and usurps the high seat, you are left with nothing but a few followers and a thirst for vengeance. It’s a character-driven saga where your decisions determine the fate of your people, focusing on Sword-Fame and historical authenticity over high-fantasy magic.

Combat is a tight, turn-based grid system in NORSE: Oath of Blood where positioning is everything and features unique Viking-style wrestling moves and shield bashes that feel heavy and impactful. You can position your squad to take advantage of elevation and environmental hazards—like knocking enemies into one another for combo damage. Warriors who finish a battle in a downed state suffer lasting injuries, ranging from minor scars to permanent disfigurements, that take several turns to recover from back at the settlement. Non-hero warband members can be lost forever, but if Gunnar or the main companions fall, it’s game over.

You eventually establish a new settlement called Sudrvik where you start from humble beginnings and slowly attract newcomers to the settlement such as a trader, blacksmith and roaming traders via a dock. Buildings like the Healing Hut (improves recovery times) and Smithy (forges better steel) take a certain number of turns to complete. Each construction turn usually triggers a new overworld mission.

Your village also acts as a narrative hub where NPCs reflect the mood of the people. Each new NPC vendor I genuinely cared about via the story cutscenes introducing them. If a raid goes poorly, your villagers might gripe about overwork or mourn the fallen, directly affecting morale and resource yields. As you gain more resources and unlock new map locations, new building types will unlock with resource and building requirements that give you goals to work towards for the betterment of the settlement and your loyal followers.

While the visuals in NORSE: Oath of Blood of the dense Norwegian foliage and coastal areas are stunning with superb lighting, there is some inconsistency in the facial detail of characters. In some cutscenes and camera angles, faces look well detailed, while in others they appear blurry or slightly out of focus. I initially thought it was restricted to those with facial hair, but most characters suffered from some blurriness across various cutscenes.

In combat the cinematic execute moves are great, however occasionally the weapon would hit the enemy hitbox away from the skin of the character, and more noticeable with an axe. It wasn’t every time but enough to notice. There were also some annoying times where high hit chances missed or were deflected. I can understand shield bearers deflecting an arrow but an archer with just a bow was able to deflect most of my arrows. Melee characters also had some weird miss periods, but having played XCOM 2, I am accustomed to high hit chances missing frequently.

Overall, NORSE: Oath of Blood does well with its atmosphere and tension, offering an engaging Viking experience that feels alive and reactive to your efforts. Settlement management was a good change of pace from the turn-based combat and a chance to get to know some of the NPCs and allow time for wounds to heal. If you can look past the occasional janky animations, the 15–20-hour story is one of the best Viking tales I have played through. If you prefer a polished experience, you might want to wait for the first few patches to clear the mist.

This review utilised a key provided by Mark Allen PR and NORSE: Oath of Blood is out now on Steam and in development for consoles.

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