Loki Preview

Pow! Wow!

So, what did we think of Loki from our little play-through?

Well we have to admit that we weren't too chuffed to start with and our hopes fell a little before we even got into the game. If you want to know why then simply cast an eye over the screenshots and consider how dark they are. Annoying, isn't it? Unfortunately, there's not a lot to be done about that as the graphics menu doesn't offer an awful lot of tweaking at all – not even a brightness slider.

The graphics are a bit sub-par even on the fullest settings however, though the code is only preview and shouldn't be taken as a representative as a final product. Zooming in to close-up reveals a few texture problems on the main character for instance and we reckoned that the game would benefit greatly from some smoother polygons and a little more anti-aliasing.

However, the main problem with the graphics that we spotted was in relation to the grass in the outdoor areas. Low-poly models and jagged edges we can cope with, but massive sprite-based grass of this (low) quality is edging towards unacceptable. Jagged edges around the edges quickly became an eyesore and the size of the sprites made it difficult to spot dropped loot.

There were numerous lighting bugs too, though they were somewhat easier to detect given the game's fixed low-brightness setting.


In terms of gameplay though, Loki kept its end up and we were somewhat surprised to find that there was an enjoyable game to be found underneath the grey, bleak graphics. The game world was admittedly a bit repetitive and fighting wolves and gnomes can quickly get boring, but for short bouts Loki was a fun click-fest which reminded us heavily of Dungeon Siege.

Click! Click!

And a click-fest is what Loki certainly is as all combat is also mapped to the left mouse button so that the game can be played sans keyboard. The middle mouse button controls viewpoint and camera zoom, while the right mouse button controls skills.

Skills are varied and customisable and, as players progress through combat they are rewarded with two different measures. The first reward is in simple skills points and attribute points which are earned when players level up, the second increases the power-up bar in the bottom centre. When the yellow power-up bar is filled then the character can move faster and get certain bonuses, namely super-fast health regeneration, which is handy as players can only use so many health potions at a time.


Skill points for the Norse character fall under three different umbrellas, one for each of the favourite Viking gods; Odin, Thor and Tyr. Earning points in each category allows you to buy and upgrade skills, though how the skills are divided between the three gods is something we couldn't immediately work out. What was clear though was that Odin favours spears and staves, Tyr prefers one handed weapons and Thor likes those who wield a hammer. This makes sense if you know the mythology behind the various gods, though we would have preferred something a bit clearer.

Skills cover the usual lot though; charges and buffs, summoning and warcries, almost all the Norse skills are offensive in nature, which is handy given that we spent most of our time hacking wolves and gnomes apart in an oddly gory fashion. While we didn't see limbs go flying, the developers of Loki certainly haven't skimped on the blood effects.


There were a number of nice, thoughtful additions that we saw in Loki which made the gameplay a lot easier. Firstly, our character seemed unable to die permanently for some unexplained reason and any death would respawn him at the start of the current area, still retaining all his previously collected equipment and skills.

On the other hand, saving was only possible upon quitting and attempting to pick up from a previously loaded game started players at the beginning of the game, again with all the previously collected gear. Fans of Dungeon Siege co-op will be familiar with both the benefits and disadvantages of this method, specifically that it makes it easier to jump back to the town to grab some healing potions but annoying to have to trek through areas which have already been cleared of enemies.