Valhalla Hills impressions – a spiritual successor to Settlers and Cultures

A trip to Valhalla, according to the Scandinavian mythology, was no big deal to the Vikings – they would be carried by the winged Valkyries to a place of eternal… well, not exactly peace, but the Vikings didn’t complain and the procedure was easy enough. At least easier than it is now, when some animosities among the top brass of Norse gods resulted in the gates of Asgard being closed shut. The beginning of Valhalla Hills is somewhat unusual, but don’t let it fool you – there’s a long tradition to be found inside, one that you’re well-versed in, if you know the genre.

Soothe thy rage, o mighty Odin!

Some new tents wouldn’t hurt.

The reason, why the gates of the Viking heaven were closed, happens to be a conflict between the mighty Odin and his youngest son - Leko, who failed to meet his father’s expectations and flopped his exam in Norse godhood. As a result, although the young heir to the throne did become the god of builders, he has to suffer a time-out at the front door of his father’s domain; and by “him” I obviously mean “us”, as it will be our task to send the brave Vikings to their well deserved heaven, now that they suffer because of this family quarrel.

Valhalla Hills is a work by the German developer Funatics, perhaps known to strategy fans thanks to the very successful and equally entertaining Cultures series. As you would expect, their latest game keeps up the mood of its predecessor, and furthermore, the lead-designer of the cult classic Settlers II is part of the team – I believe that’s more than enough to get you interested. But will it be enough to make this game a dream come true for the fans of the genre?

That’s a lot of hexes.

The Early Access version we’ve tested gave us a good idea on how Valhalla Hills will eventually end up like. What we’ve seen is game with well-constructed mechanics, focused around micromanagement. The creators have given us a number of randomly-generated maps, offering a relatively small area for our activities. Each map revolves around two portals – one to enter and one to leave, the second one leads to the sought-after Viking paradise. Our task is to grow a prosperous village in the vicinity and to make sure that one day, its inhabitants can challenge and defeat the watchers that guard the gates of Walhalla, and bringing the villagers’ worldly lives to a satisfying end in the afterlife.

Respect your ancestors

Before we reach our final destination, however, we’ll have to master the gameplay – based on, and closely resembling the previously mentioned Cultures and Settlers. The somewhat peculiar terrain layouts make it impossible to create a perfect settlement – the islands intended as our Viking colonies are rocky, bumpy and sometimes border on urban planner’s nightmares. That’s why, when calculating the amount of resources necessary to build a structure, the game’s clever construction system takes the terrain’s stability and slope gradient into account. The ground then becomes covered in hexes, whose color informs you how much of your precious resources will be spent on building that particular structure in that particular location. Think long and hard, because the foundations alone can sometimes cost us triple the amount needed for the rest of the investment.

One on all and all on one!

We begin the game with a bunch of basic structures – like woodcutter’s hut, living tents or the simplest assembly point for our warriors. To access more advanced buildings, we have to achieve “milestones” the creators have set for us (like a total number of structures built or animals hunted for food) or by conquering consecutive maps (which means opening the exit portal and defeating the guards or “convincing” them with a proper amount of goods). Overall, the second option proves to be more lucrative. Yes, it’s true that after completing one map, we are taken to an even harder one (both in topography and the number of adversaries left by Odin to guard the portal and harass our village), but even if the challenge proves to be too much for us and we end up being defeated, we don’t have to unlock everything from the scratch. When beginning a new round after a defeat, every building and technology we’ve managed to obtain up to that moment is at our disposal. Reasonable, I think.

Well I’ll be… this land can actually grow crops!

Everything begins with a healthy economy

The barren, Scandinavian soil can support a limited amount of structures – around 30 types of buildings, divided into three categories: public utility structures, workshops, and military facilities. The development tree follows common logic, for example: we begin the game with nothing more than a hunter’s hut and fisherman’s huts and get buildings like farm or quarry later on. The farm enables us to grow crops and bake some bread, brew beer and so it goes. One very interesting idea is the option to upgrade our buildings, broadening the owner’s scope of expertise and activities – our woodcutter can become a carpenter in his spare time, or a forester, if we provide him with proper facilities. While we’re at it, a forester planting new trees on his backyard can be very helpful, since the islands’ natural resources are basically non-renewable. This includes wood and fruits as well as animals – think before you act, so your Vikings won’t end up hungry with nothing to build from.

Correct me, if I’m wrong, but I think those are not the Caribbeans, my dear…

All of that wouldn’t be possible without our fellow, AI-controlled Vikings. We can’t directly order them to do anything – our job is to do everything we can, to make sure, that whatever they do, they do as efficiently as possible. And it’s not easy. To optimize the efficiency of production and deliveries, we need to consider things like the distance between the buildings and paths that are available and determine the direction and speed of the villagers’ movements. By the way, that particular aspect of the game could use some fine-tuning – the villagers tend to follow their own routes and not the paths leading directly from building A to building B we’ve prepared beforehand, which, obviously, causes some mobility issues. One more issue that happens often seems to be some kind of bug in weapon crafting. Sometimes, a Viking needs a few minutes to think, after he gathers the materials but before he begins to produce a bow or an axe out of them.

Keep your Vikings on tight leash

The scope of the game is rather small; nevertheless, we should never take our eyes off the villagers. Once we neglect resource gathering, we’re going to have to restart the level – in contrast to many other strategies, here, we don’t get our resources back after we deconstruct a building. Making good use of the small amount we are given at the beginning becomes crucial. Furthermore, we can’t have our Vikings starving to death – yes, we can bring some reinforcements from the entry portal, but their number is limited (and scarce) so you have to remember to take good care of every single one those you already have. Other than that, the game doesn’t put much pressure on us – we decide, when the right time to open the portal to Valhalla comes, and then we deal with the guards. Before that, we have all the time in the world to expand our village and ensure its economy works smooth.

Quantity overrules quality.

Although the game runs on Unreal Engine 4, the visuals are not overly spectacular – Valhalla Hills looks pleasant, I admit; the cartoonish graphics fit the game’s general overtone and watching the Vikings tending to their business here and there is quite fun, but not exactly among the gaming’s finest visual achievements.

Let’s hope the developers come up with some other good ideas and properly implement them before the game is released – specifically, I’d like to see a true campaign mode, because jumping from one randomly generated island to another randomly island to accomplish the same things can get boring in time. It would be a shame to waste such opportunity, as the game from Funatics Studios looks really interesting and could perhaps please the long-standing fans of Settlers and/or Cultures, even as it is now. Its scope may be visibly smaller, but it’s full of references to some past classics. There is a lot of time left to iron out some of the game’s issues – the final version is scheduled for release in the first half of 2016.