Fact and fiction clash on War of the Vikings’s bloody battlefields (preview)

In its current form, War of the Vikings doesn’t really teach you how to play. After picking a class, you’re thrown into a bloody arena where you must quickly learn the cadence of battle … or die trying.

While developer Fatshark will eventually include a tutorial, the trial-by-fire gameplay seems appropriate for the ruthless warriors it depicts. War of the Vikings continues what Fatshark started with its brutal third-person multiplayer combat in War of the Roses, but here it swaps out the knights of York and Lancaster for the feud between the Saxons and Vikings. Due to the historically inspired theme, you won’t find any traces of Thor or other popular figures from Norse mythology — just good old-fashioned steel-on-steel violence.