Tribes of Midgard - Ragnar Lothbrok doesn't starve

Games
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It seems this comes out tomorrow. The early release streams look darn interesting. Usually I don’t go for survival crafting games, but this one seems to borrow from enough other genres to be a pretty interesting mash up. It looks like a mix of Don’t Starve, ARPG combat, night based survival enemy waves like Kingdoms, rogue lite, big bad bosses, and season pass meta progression. By this I mean it is fairly combat heavy with an ARPG/ Diablo view/ combat while having an overall session very similar to Don’t Starve where you are trying to advance and upgrade your base and tech through harvesting as the land gets progressively harder each night. Account progress lets you unlock certain bits such as classes or rare resources for future runs which is sort of like Risk of Rain 2. The game is co-op with up to 10 players. All of this is in a Viking mythology setting. It is PC, PS4, and PS5 with no cross-play at launch.

So. Any interest in Tribes of Midgard? I think I am going to give it a go on PC.

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As someone heavily into ARPGs, and also pretty keen on survival crafting games, I’m definitely interested!

Also I see it actually releases releases, and is not early access. :) And has controller support.

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Well that description sounds like exactly the kind of thing I friggin love. I will definitely check this out, thanks for sharing!

5

Oh yeah, this one has been on my wishlist for a bit. It launches today? Boughteronied.

6

Yeah, I am pretty excited at this point. The gameplay loop seems pretty unique. It unlocks in a few hours and I will be playing it on Steam.

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There are a couple of minor-site reviews around:

Jeremy Penter at ACG didn’t like it that much, but otherwise they’re fairly strong.

Current Steam reviews are ‘mixed’ though. I see one of the bigger valid-sounding complaints is ‘weightless combat’, which is also the impression I got when watching a gameplay video.

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I boughtened it. So far… it’s pretty darn fun.

I am not a crafting guy and don’t really enjoy games about collecting random stuff to build buildings or such. I don’t do Conan or Minecraft or whatever game about collecting stuff for building cooking pots or pretty wall blocks. The closest I got was Portal Knights because it had a combat, upgrade, building stuff a la Minecraft that was fight-y and upgrade focused (to advance worlds) enough to keep my interest. Other games like Don’t Starve just lost me quick.

Trials of Midgard has that pressing survival element of Don’t Starve tied at the hip to an action combat game like Diablo. But unlike Diablo, you advance from crafting (which is constantly under time and resource pressure) rather than loot piñatas. Plus there is this barber pole loop from rouge like games. It all blends to be fairly engaging with a “one more try” type response that works really well on a non-crafting/survival guy like me. Thus my few hours in review is a thumbs up. I am even thinking of buying a second copy for the other PC to play with the girls or my fiancé. So far one of the daughters is really into the game too as I play it on the big TV via Steam link.

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Thanks for the impressions. I wonder if it is cross platform…too much to hope for probably.

EDIT: Looks like no.

This is one of my biggest problems with ARPGs. Diablo III just “feels” perfect when hitting things and watching everything explode and scatter. Hard to accept anything less, though, I know that’s a high bar.

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First thoughts:

Feels very “cheap” – combat is very floaty, as noted, and the time constraints really limit the exploration part. I really enjoy the relatively relaxed nature of most survival crafter types, where you’re out in the woods, doing your thing, cutting trees or whatever, building your stuff. Valheim, f’rex, is really good at this. Tribes of Midgard actively does not give this experience (which is fine, it’s just a different thing and not really what I like); you’re always under time pressure.

I feel like a newbie browsing the League of Legends shops. WTF does this thing do? How do I build it? Who knows! Go mash some buttons in a random direction and see what happens.

This one might not be for me.

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I found things eased up a bit as I learned some key systems. Now I have a pretty reliable rhythm where night is my port to repair and clear inventory then I port back out.

In MP folks often just make sure someone is at home during nightfall and the rest keep exploring. I think the balance might be leveling up townsfolk to be your defense, but I’m clearly in the learning stage still. I have not built towers yet either.

I think saga mode is extra pressure for the wolf saga/ semi story, and survival is more of an open ended mode.

Edit 1: I’ve been playing on a controller which has force feedback. Combat doesn’t feel floaty to me.
In the end it IS a $20 indy game. But seems like a genre pushing one.

Edit 2: Ouch. Steam has some very angry solo players with less than a few hours of play time in. For what it is worth, for me, a big break point was defeating the first Jotun. That was the baseline for understanding certain mechanics and systems for me. At which point I was off to the races in follow up runs and started finding/ discovering some pretty neat things. I have only played solo and yes day 3 was a hard upper barrier until I got comfortable with the early elements. From what I have seen of Streamers, it is a lot easier multiplayer though. Even if difficulty scales, having multiple people moving around is an everything multiplier.

Given the pressure elements, besides my above, I would add games like Hinterland and Frontiers as having a familiar vibe to Tribes of Midgard. It is survival, but with an impending doom that comes in waves. Similar to those games, familiarity makes said pressure feel much reduced with replay and discovery.

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How is the exploring then? A lot of the steam reviews are saying it’s not actually anything to do with an ARPG, but rather a rogue-lite tower defence where you do some light crafting and upgrading between waves of defending your base. So you’re not really out there exploring maps and getting loot much? Like, no dungeons or anything, but more of a wilderness surrounding your base?

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The exploring is like Don’t Starve. The world is a random seed covered by fog of war at the start, and it a big world. You do have enemy camps that tend to have tough mini bosses that protect loot chests (especially further out). Weapons, armor, runes, etc. can all be found or looted in the wilderness. However, the focus is on crafting, so your best gear is usually made. Even making better gear (besides materials) requires you to upgrade the townsfolk with souls.

Souls is the resource from killing enemies or harvesting the landscape. You are always getting them and you always need tons more as it drives everything. You upgrade your crafting people with souls, you repair gear with souls, you heal the world tree with souls, and you need souls to build up your industry outside of the town. Also, when you die, you lose all your unspent souls. You will drop a materials chest that can be recovered in a corpse run, but the souls are gone. To me death is a pretty big deal when solo.

Souls are not it though. You will need twigs, flint, stone, teeth, leather, iron, sap, and so on. Different biomes have different difficulties and in these biomes you find other materials. Out in the wilderness you can also find portal stones. Once you activate one, it is a quick travel point both to and from your town.

There are also quests on a town quest board and random world events. These too have you exploring the unknown.

The counter pressure is the nighttime. At night hellthings attack your town. Some nights they are harder, some nights they don’t attack at all. You can build defenses, but early on it’s mostly you. Also world bosses periodically spawn and slowly walk across the world towards your town and they too need to be dealt with. This counter pressure can feel like a lot. Especially as you learn the game systems. Also Saga mode exaggerates the night pressure as part of its shorter run focus (Season 1 Saga/Story caps at a certain number of days whereas survival goes forever and doesn’t have the same story tweek Saga does to create urgency). I think this is the biggest issue folks have with “exploring” versus defense. Day 3 was a hard wall to climb over. Once I did that, I understood a lot more and like days 1-9 are pretty chill even solo in Saga now.

So…with all that, what is exploring like in ToM?

I am constantly foraging and harvesting as I look for newer, higher rated biomes, natural connection terrain, and portal stones. Where are the silver deposits in this world? Can I make the next stone or do I turn back now? Is there even another portal nearby? It’s dusk. Should I roll off this cliff, my self port is on cool down, what if I can’t find a way back around? Night is almost here, but I’d really like to finish this quest, where is the blah blah thing for it? I’ve upgraded my town, can they handle the hellthings tonight? (Event happens)… Yes, no hellthings tonight! Sweet, a world event just spawned out near the Jotun, I’ll nibble away at it while I snag the event. Two for one! Wait, what is that over there…

That sort of stuff.

It has a sort of Dark Souls element as you are forever pushing your luck going for that next portal as you explore new goodies, but risk a major setback of death or waiting too long to return home. Or worse yet, return home frivolously and by foot. If you do find the portal, you blip back, do town stuff, wipe out some hellthings, and zip right back out to where you left off. Or strike out in a new direction.

Even having a really good handle on early systems, each world seed is full of exploration. Just explore like Columbus or Cortes (by that I mean commit to the ocean and burn your ships, not the disease and genocide stuff). Push out. Ride the line of utter destruction as the voice in your head screams to turn back. Find the new lands. New critical discoveries. And reap the headwinds that make the next exploration so so, SOOOO much easier.

If you overcommit and disaster looms. Bifrost out. This lets you earn valuable golden horns anyway.

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I played this a bit early before work and it’s interesting. I definitely need to learn the ropes about how to find certain resources and make certain things like boards. I only played once, got to day 3 and got decimated by the big guy. I love the odd creatures you find out in the world and some of the mini bosses. My kid was making fun of the graphics but i think they are fine. I did stutter a bit online, wish there was an offline solo mode.

I am going to try survival and just customize as much as I can to give me a lot more time to learn things and try different strategies…then back to Saga to try the main “campaign”.

It’s unique and I can see how it might get too repetitive but it’s worth a try for $20 I believe.

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Cool, it actually sounds a bit like Valheim, in shorter rogue-lite form with a heavier pressure.

There, the raids on your base are infrequent, and you can construct multiple bases wherever. Progression through the different crafting ‘tiers’ opens from beating the boss from a particular biome type. There’s no real currency for killing mobs outside of some resources they drop. And there you’re not finding portals, but building your own from resources you get delving into lairs and crypts.

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From what I’ve seen and read, Vanheim shares some DNA. Maybe a lot. They are very different though. If there was a slider, Vanheim is much more in the crafting/building direction and ToM is in the Diablo/base defense direction while still on the same genre slider. To me ToM is much more my jam. I especially like the rogue like barber pole loop over the dozens of hours on a server loop(?). Although Saga is much more the pressure side, and survival is the tradition play forever side. And the unifying thread of seasonal Sagas and weekly unlocks (the store is not just a store, in game resources get spent there for in game items) is a nice bow on top.

@Petey There are definitely settings to slow things down in survival. I think you will be fine. It feels like too many Steam folks played Saga for an hour and then declared it a tower defense game. That 1/5 people have not even made it to season level 2 is disheartening. Books and covers and all that.

Some specific advice to get some momentum (not the ultimate advice, but it will help you last long enough to get a feel for the systems before specializing):

1: early wolves are very good, get teeth for some good early weapon options
2: upgrade tinkerer ASAP. The improved harvesting tools give you more per harvest
3: build ramps and carry them with you. Wood is easy and it will save you time hunting for ways over ridges
4: don’t forget to level up your class with blessings. Warrior seems the easiest to start out (solo)
5: you can make heal potions at the alchemist, they are easy and helpful
6: you can build building materials at the Tinkerer. It’s on another tab.
7: upgrading gear fully repairs the gear
8: upgraded town folk really help defending
9: look at your bestiary/journal tab as it helps you remember what can drop what
10: shrines are king. Try never to go home unless you have found a nearby shrine. ALWAYS look for shrines. Use your ramps near them if it helps with terrain
11: if you use a bow, you can upgrade/craft better or specialized arrows
12: watch for red symbols on your UI as a warning for equipment that needs fixing. Check the harvesting tools whenever you are in town

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Appreciate all of your thoughts and impressions. I’ll probably grab it this weekend.

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Glad to help. The game is a gem once you give it a go. I find it so depressing to read so many keyboard warrior reviews with 0.7 hours played. I mean… the achievement for finishing the tutorial is 18.9% of the players. As the other modes are hidden when you launch the game for the first time, that seems insane.

Oh, as for more tips:

13: Use a controller! I played with M/KB for the first time today. Ew. Controller is much better. Clearly it was the design in mind during development. Plus you get rumble feedback.

If anyone is playing this weekend, let me know. I’d love to get some group games going.

PSA: The shop has the epic bow recipe up for the next 18 hours. It is 12 golden horns and once you get it, it will be a build formula at your blacksmith forever. [Note: this is in game currency for killing Jotuns and getting out of the game with the tree still alive- Bifrost totally counts]

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Here’s my tip - don’t read them! :)

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I was debating PS4 or PC, but figured I’d be more likely to play with PC folks. Guess I need to finally figure out how to hook up a controller to my laptop like any 12 year old can. :)