Flame of Valhalla is a gateway to Norse mythology on your smartphone

Over the last couple of years, Norse mythology has emerged as a favourite across books, movies, and games. When one thinks of Norse mythology, several titles such as God of War Ragnarok, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, or even Assassins Creed Valhalla come to mind.  

These, of course, are fairly heavy titles and require significantly powerful PCs or consoles to run. In such cases, what do you do when you’re looking for your quick fix of fantasy without burning a hole in your pockets? Well, you turn to Flame of Valhalla.

Flame of Valhalla: What you need to know

Flame of Valhalla is set on the planet of Asgard, where characters like Thor and Loki come from (Marvel fans, assemble). An online role-playing game, players assume the role of the Chosen One, working to restore peace and order to the planet amidst the thousand-year-long War of the Gods, following the fall of the World Tree Yggdrasil.  

ALSO READ: Linea is a cozy, visual treat with relaxing puzzles to help you de-stress

The game is presented from a top-down perspective, and allows players to explore an open world, as they go about fulfilling objectives, taking on bosses, and levelling up their combat power. The last of which, simply refers to any player’s maximum health and endurance in any given fights. It also allows you to join guilds and teams and engage in battles with rival teams in real-time as well.   

Flame of Valhalla: What I liked

What you immediately notice is how visually striking Flame of Valhalla is. First off, there is the open world with several different kinds of landscapes including lush grasslands, snow-capped peaks, ruins of old temples and fortresses, and more.  

Then, there’s the fact that players get to choose from several avatars to play as and can create multiple avatars as well. These include Knights, Barbarians, Rangers, Dragon riders, and more. The facial realism system allows you to finely tune a character to make it truly yours. From how big their pupils are to how sharp their jawline appears; you can customise just about everything.  

There’s also a rather cool ‘Emote’ feature similar to Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), Fortnite, and Saints Row. Using this, players can get their characters to perform certain actions including clapping, taking an oath, meditating, and more.  

Next, there’s the gameplay. Flame of Valhalla has an auto-AFK mechanism activated by default. That is to say, all a player needs to do is tap on the objectives that periodically pop up on the screen. Their character then navigates to said objective (which more often than not is to interact with an NPC on the map or take on an enemy). Any combats are similarly taken care of as well and require very little intervention from players.  

One may argue that this takes away from the game a bit. But on the other hand, it also makes the storyline more linear and easier to follow. Not to mention, it is also a boon to folks such as myself, who aren’t hardcore gamers per se. 

Flame of Valhalla: What I disliked

One thing that the makers of Flame of Valhalla could improve on, is the interface. At any given time, a lot is happening on the screen including incoming messages, treasure chests that pop up to claim prizes, task lists, updates from other players on the top, and much more. This makes it a little cluttered, and your main quests a bit difficult to follow at times.  

ALSO READ: I tried the Find Joe game and it was my great escape for the weekend

Secondly, while the auto-AFK mechanism does make the game easy to play, character progression and upgrades are a little too quick, which means it’s not a title for those looking for something challenging. This again though, is entirely subjective in nature.  

How to get Flame of Valhalla

Flame of Valhalla is available on both – the Google Play Store as well as the Apple App Store for Android smartphones and tablets, as well as iPhones and iPads. The game works on a freemium model and has some paid features too.

The fact that it is quite simple to progress through also doesn’t exactly necessitate making said in-app purchases – a refreshing change from many similar games which make progression practically impossible after a point without purchases.  

Flame of Valhalla is a great game, especially for those interested in Norse mythology. Or for those simply looking to get their quick fixes of fantasy and escape, during those otherwise idle coffee breaks at work.  

It’s also a good gateway to some of the bigger titles we mentioned earlier. All in all, we’d highly recommend you try Flame of Valhalla out if you’re looking for a chill game.