| NORSE: Oath of Blood | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
NORSE: Oath of Blood Review Overiew
What is NORSE: Oath of Blood?
NORSE: Oath of Blood is a turn-based tactical game by developer Arctic Hazard and published by Tripwire Presents. Set in Norway during the Viking age, it follows the tale of Gunnar Gripsson, a young man whose family and hometown of Borre have been raided by Steinarr Far-Spear, a traitor who used to be one of Borre’s greatest warriors. Fueled by rage and betrayal, he, his sister Sigrid, and their protector Arn journey away to regroup, build a new settlement, and take back what is theirs.
NORSE: Oath of Blood features:
⚫︎ Viking-Themed Everything
⚫︎ Gripping and Humorous Dialogue
⚫︎ Detailed Graphics
⚫︎ Full Voice Acting
⚫︎ A Tale of Revenge
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 Epic Games |
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| $34.99 | |||||
 PS |
 Xbox |
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| Wishlist Only | |||||
NORSE: Oath of Blood Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Intriguing Story and Writing Well-Done Voice Acting |
Optimization Issues Clunky Combat Visual and Game-Breaking Bugs |
NORSE: Oath of Blood Story - 8/10
The premise of NORSE: Oath of Blood’s story is nothing inherently special—a sibling pair out to get revenge for the atrocities committed on their family. It’s something seen before, with a plot that’s so linear that you can pretty much predict how it will go. Yet, what makes it stand out is the game’s well-written script, with equal parts humor and profoundness. Gunnar, Sigrid, and the rest of the cast don’t feel boring to watch, and they lend themselves to a more immersive way of storytelling.
NORSE: Oath of Blood Gameplay - 6/10
The gameplay primarily centers around establishing your territory and growing a settlement, with turn-based combat missions and raids to further your ambition as well as to progress the story. However, it’s painfully mediocre and not as engaging as others in its genre, which can end up being a chore as you try to reach the end of the main story. Additionally, the combat portion has the tendency to glitch out, forcing a reset. Controls in missions and the combat sequence can also feel unnecessarily heavy and clunky.
NORSE: Oath of Blood Visuals - 6/10
Visuals are serviceable, from the character models to the detailed environments. The different maps, although they have the exact same assets used over and over again, are different from each other and are easy to distinguish. Character animations can be a bit awkward sometimes, but they do serve their purpose well. However, its weakness lies in its unoptimization, clunky transitions, missing assets in certain scenes, and random frame drops, making an already janky game feel even jankier.
NORSE: Oath of Blood Audio - 7/10
Audio is carried by its full voice acting that doesn’t feel flat or monotone, with each character feeling just a bit more real. Its background music is also on point and exudes the Nordic vibes, adding to the Viking atmosphere that the game appears to embody. However, the shifts between the tracks could use some work, with music just suddenly going silent for no reason at all only to play out again in full volume, making for a jarring experience.
NORSE: Oath of Blood Value for Money - 6/10
As it stands with how buggy it is at launch and being an overall mediocre game for about 20 hours of gameplay, for $35, you can get another much more optimized and more engaging game for the same price. If you’re a fan of the Vikings and Norse or Nordic-themed games, though, this might be worth it.
NORSE: Oath of Blood Overall Score - 66/100
NORSE: Oath of Blood is a decent Viking-themed turn-based title whose strengths lie in its well-told narrative, gripping voice acting, and interesting characters and dialogue. However, it’s hindered by its plethora of visual and in-game bugs, as well as several unpolished odds and ends like typos.
NORSE: Oath of Blood Review: A Glitchy Viking Tale
I can’t claim to know a whole lot about the Vikings or whatnot, but as a gamer, I’ve encountered them in more ways than one. I’ve delved deeply into Valheim and spent quite some time in the islands of Skellige in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. They’re intriguing—hearty warriors whose power and prowess in battle speak for themselves.
With that said, NORSE: Oath of Blood intrigued me for its Viking premise, as well as looking like Baldur’s Gate 3 with its turn-based tactical mechanics. Unfortunately, it didn’t wow me as much as I expected it to, but it’s still a decent, albeit rather average, title that tells an intriguing story of a young jarl’s rise to power.
The Jarl of Sudrvik
In the Viking era of Norway, where the land is ruled by jarls and power is measured by influence and size, you take on the role of Gunnar Gripsson, a young jarl in the making after his hometown of Borre is pillaged and taken over by his father’s former right-hand man and now traitor, Steinarr. Forced to flee, he and his sister, Sigrid, along with a trusted comrade, Arn, escape to Kaupang, where their uncle, Jarl Eigil, comes to their aid.
Despite the blood of revenge boiling in their veins from the traitorous incident, Jarl Eigil does not retaliate immediately. Instead, he urges Gunnar to build his own settlement from the bottom up—rise in power, gain allies and an army, and then enact revenge on the man who took everything away from them. Everything starts here—in Sudrvik.
Story-wise, judging from the premise above, it’s predictable and cliché. Fallen siblings rise to the top to take back what was theirs—a trope that doesn’t really get old. Fortunately for NORSE: Oath of Blood (henceforth just referred to as NORSE), what saves it from a typical and boring plot is its actual script.
Even if you kind of have an idea as to how the story will unfold, the dialogue and cutscenes aren’t as boring at all. Its script is both serious and humorous at the same time, injecting that little bit of comedic flair for a short chortle here and there. The banter between siblings, or even with the rest of the Sudrvik crew (especially Gertrud, her insults are the absolute best), is amusing but also carries with it a sense of community that kind of tugs on the heartstrings. Moreover, the dialogue absolutely comes to life with the addition of full voice acting.
Building A Settlement From The Bottom Up
Gameplay cycles around upgrading your settlement with resource management and trading elements, with unskippable combat missions serving as a mark for the plot to move forward. The game’s time moves on in the form of "turns", and in each turn, you have a set amount of actions dictated by the number of your townspeople and your resources.
Over at your settlement, you can do a number of activities, such as craft armor and weapons, trade with other settlements, or upgrade the buildings in your village to provide more resources and to unlock more advanced crafting items. As mentioned before, crafting and upgrades can only be done if you have the necessary materials and manpower. Trading, on the other hand, is unlimited—as long as you have the wares and the coin to spend. Most of the resources replenish over time as you unlock bigger and better upgrades like the Fish Shop and the Huntsman Dwelling, or through clearing missions and coming back with loot.
It’s got the foundations of a base-building down, with resource management as its main focus. However, in all honesty, it feels kind of bare, and there’s this particular resource called Riches that is a pain to acquire since you will need to trade quite a bit or take on the few missions to get some. It’s not entirely engaging, and I found myself just skipping over the turns as much as possible since I didn’t really need to do anything—and it didn’t strongly affect my combat either, since you can easily loot weapons and armor just by playing through missions.
Turn-Based Whack-A-Mole That Glitches
Combat is done in a turn-based style on a grid, much like the Divinity series and Baldur’s Gate 3. Each of your units, called Hirdmen, has seven Action points to consume, with extra points for movement should they be equipped with the proper abilities or armor. You are given a range of two to six characters to take with you. They are free to attack, use skills and items, and move about. Across the map, there may be weather conditions or on-field items such as spear barrels and nets to make use of to your advantage. Victory is achieved when all enemies, including reinforcements that join in the fray sometimes, are eliminated. Simple enough mechanics to understand.
It’s decent—nothing special, nothing inherently amazing. Just…plainly mediocre. Because this is a tribute to Norse history, there are no magic-wielding Warlocks and Wizards like Baldur’s Gate 3’s Gale and Wyll to spice up the gameplay just a bit—just incredibly strong Norsemen and Norsewomen equipped with swords, axes, or bows. That in itself is pretty fun, with things like knockbacks and combos and things called Executions that completely refill your Action Point meter that add something to the combat system…but it still pales in comparison to its contemporaries like XCOM and the Divinity series.
And unfortunately, at its current state, the combat can be glitchy and can be pretty frustrating, making battles even more of a chore than they should be. There are times when the game just doesn’t execute commands, no matter how much you click, despite it being a completely doable action that is in range and within the action points—this was a bug I encountered early on during the prologue, prompting me to restart the game. Luckily enough, there’s auto-save, but it definitely is a waste of time to redo things just because the game doesn’t let you do them.
Well-Done Voice Acting and Audio
One thing that immediately stands out in the game, even from the prologue, is the strong and immersive voice acting. As I mentioned beforehand, the dialogue and the narrative come to life with the spoken lines, which are delivered and enunciated well, coupled with a script that isn’t cringey or boring at all. Each and every character, even the ones that appear only for a moment, is given a voice, which adds to the experience. You’re really living the tale of Gunnar Gripsson and his rise to power and revenge like an interactive movie.
The Nordic music also helps a ton in the immersion, with the sounds of the panpipe and other instruments transporting you to its ancient time. Although the transitions between the tracks could use some work since it just fades into silence for a good minute before playing again, it’s not as bad—jarring, yes, but not game-breaking.
Decent Visuals, Poor Optimization
Its visuals are nothing out of the ordinary, but they’re done pretty well. Not sure if the characters are done in mocap or done by hand, but the emotions show remarkably through their character models in cutscenes, even if the model itself isn’t as polished as it should be. Every side-eye, every crook of the eyebrow, the judging stare, and the look of anguish on their faces when their hometown was besieged—it kind of felt like a Viking drama. Nevertheless, it serves its purpose in telling the story and lending itself to a better understanding of what is going on. Its environments are also rather detailed as well and look large, taking away the idea that it is in fact quite a linear game and giving that illusion of a huge open world, which is pretty cool in its own way.
Unfortunately, while its cutscenes are the cream of the crop in this game…everything else isn’t as lucky. Visual glitches are aplenty, with missing assets, various typos, sudden frame rate drops, getting stuck in black screens…just poor optimization all around. A lot of things clip into each other, which also affects gameplay. For example, when fighting a family of boars early on, the largest boar got stuck to the floor when it was eliminated by Gunnar, who was then stuck on the exact same spot for some unexplainable reason. No Crippled status (that prevents units from moving), a full Action Points bar—but he was stuck there…up until the end of the battle.
It’s a shame that its otherwise decent visuals are bogged down by the lack of polish in plenty of graphical aspects.
Is NORSE: Oath of Blood Worth It?
There Are Better Viking Fantasies Out There
NORSE: Oath of Blood is not bad, but it’s not superbly good either. It has its merits—a pretty interesting story, a well-written script, strong voice acting chops, and an okay foundation for all of its systems. However, it feels half-baked, with plenty of glitches and bugs getting in the way, as well as overall feeling janky in…almost every other way.
It’s decent if you’re playing for the story, but you’d need quite a bit of willpower and patience to get through to the end, especially if the game keeps getting in your way of completion. For $35, you can probably get something much worth your time—but if it’s on sale, there’s nothing wrong with jumping in head first to Gunnar Gripsson’s tale.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
Epic Games |
||||
| $34.99 | |||||
| PS |
Xbox |
||||
| Wishlist Only | |||||
NORSE: Oath of Blood FAQ
Does NORSE: Oath of Blood have character creation?
NORSE: Oath of Blood does not have character creation, and immediately puts players in the role of protagonist Gunnar Gripsson.
Does NORSE: Oath of Blood have romance?
The game’s storyline is straightforward with no time for romance, with a focus on the story of Gunnar, his new settlement, and the revenge he wants to achieve against the traitor Steinarr.
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NORSE: Oath of Blood Product Information
 |
|
| Title | NORSE: Oath of Blood |
|---|---|
| Release Date | February 17, 2026 |
| Developer | Arctic Hazard |
| Publisher | Tripwire Presents |
| Supported Platforms | Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | RPG, Strategy |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | NORSE: Oath of Blood Official Website |
