NORSE: Oath of Blood

About

NORSE: Oath of Blood is a single player tactical role playing game with a historical theme. It was developed by Arctic Hazard and was released on February 17, 2026. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Special Edition About the Game Join Discord by clicking the button in the link section on the right-side column. Take on the role of Gunnar, a young warrior forced into exile after his father, Jarl Gripr, is killed by the ruthless Steinarr Far-Spear. With his home destroyed and his people scattered, you’ll guide Gunnar as he rebuilds his settlement, forms strategic alliances, and leads…

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61%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,010 reviews

story331 positive mentions

stability250 negative mentions

Engaging, well-written Viking-themed story with excellent voice acting and memorable characters.
Turn-based tactical combat system offering strategic depth and satisfying execution mechanics.
Base building and settlement management add meaningful progression and immersion to the gameplay loop.

Game suffers from numerous bugs, glitches, performance issues, and occasional crashes that hamper playability.
Campaign is too short with limited missions, no side quests, and lacks endgame or sandbox content for replayability.
Some gameplay systems feel underdeveloped or unfinished, including crafting, equipment management, AI behavior, and limited player agency in story choices.

story
1,070 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
66%
3%
The story of the game is widely praised for its compelling, well-written Viking revenge narrative, engaging characters, and high-quality voice acting and cinematics, which effectively immerse players in the setting. However, it suffers from being quite linear, relatively short (around 15-20 hours), and lacking side missions or post-story content, leading to limited replayability. Despite its strong storytelling, numerous bugs and game-breaking glitches often hinder progression, detracting from the overall experience and leaving many hopeful for future updates and expansions to add depth and length to the narrative.
- “The story, writing, voice acting and characters/animation are top notch.”
- “I have spent 13 hours immersed in this world so far, and while I am only partway through the story, I can say with certainty: this is the most accurate and spiritually resonant Viking roleplay game currently on the market.”
- “The story is well written and engaging, with a good dose of humor that balances the more serious moments and keeps it entertaining.”
- “The amount of bugs is honestly frustrating, and the worst part is that they're affecting main story missions, completely breaking progression. For example, during the mission for frakki, there's a hangar where you get ambushed. This completely blocks your story progression, meaning you can't move forward in the main campaign. And when a story-driven game prevents you from continuing the main quest, that's a serious issue. But in its current state, I honestly can't recommend the game if players can't reliably complete main missions.”
- “Got stuck in a mission where the proper enemies wouldn't spawn, blocking game progression going forward as it was a story mission that needed to be done. There's no way to exit and previous save files always lead to this mission that has the same bug every time. I have been stuck several times on progressing because encounters didn't trigger properly and kept me from progressing. One specific mission I had to wait for an update to progress any further at all.”
- “Most of the time the game looks visually beautiful but gets some stutter now and again. The biggest drawback I have come across is save breaking bugs on the mission Iron Will. It bugged out and spawned 3 enemies not aggroed and it won't let me interact with them at all to end the mission. All enemies must be killed yet now I have 3 I can't kill, so I can't finish the mission. The autosave filled up with that fight so I can't even load an old save to try and fix it and have to start entirely over with a new game due to a bug.”
gameplay
298 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
37%
57%
6%
The gameplay offers solid, engaging turn-based combat with tactical depth, character synergies, and a satisfying execution mechanic reminiscent of XCOM, complemented by settlement building and resource management. However, many reviewers note the experience is hindered by numerous bugs, technical issues, and a lack of depth or variety in content, with some systems feeling underdeveloped or unfinished. Despite these flaws, the core mechanics and combat remain enjoyable, showing strong potential pending further polish and expansion.
- “The mechanics are fun, interesting, and very impactful. Despite only having 2 options per level up, there's a lot of possible build diversity, and no two characters, even of the same class, share all the same skills, allowing for very interesting possibilities in builds.”
- “Gameplay-wise, combat has depth; positioning and decision-making matter. The settlement building function is good, and trading for requirements to complete projects is a really nice touch, providing balance between combat and eliminating a one-dimensional feel.”
- “The turn-based combat is both challenging tactically and fun. The execution mechanic involves fishing for crits, and the permadeath/warrior randomisation creates great emergent storytelling.”
- “I love the mechanics and gameplay we've been promised but it's literally unplayable right now.”
- “The game is a good concept with solid mechanics but is plagued by bugs that break the experience and frustrate gameplay.”
- “Right now it is missing about a year of development time to implement a full gameplay experience.”
stability
257 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2%
1%
97%
The game suffers from widespread stability issues, including numerous bugs, graphical glitches, frequent crashes, and performance problems such as lag and frame drops. These issues often disrupt gameplay, causing lost progress, unresponsive mechanics, and occasional game-breaking bugs, making the current experience frustrating for many players. While the core game shows promise, it requires significant patches and optimization to become stable and fully enjoyable.
- “I am playing with no glitches or game-breaking errors.”
- “In combat or closed environments (like town) it still runs great.”
- “As for the performance, mostly it runs great.”
- “First of all, it's 18.03.2026 and the game is buggy as hell; I definitely would hold on a little to let the devs sort this mess out.”
- “I have never in my life played such a buggy mess of a 'full release'; if you told me this was an early beta I'd believe you.”
- “The bugs and glitches are just so overwhelming, with a bug that hard locks your playthrough not even a quarter into the story; this is truly just unacceptable.”
optimization
234 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
59%
29%
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with many users reporting severe performance issues, including stuttering, crashes, low frame rates, and buggy animations, even on high-end PCs. While some players experience acceptable performance, the consensus points to a poorly optimized release that requires significant patches to improve stability and smoothness. Despite these issues, several reviewers remain hopeful that future updates will resolve the problems and unlock the game's potential.
- “The game had some bugs and optimization issues but they've been mitigating them with the latest updates.”
- “However, after the first patch I have not had any other game breaking bug issues; and the overall performance has improved significantly.”
- “Once they sort out performance issues it will be a good game I think.”
- “My biggest concern is the fact when I try to load my saves it takes me to a black screen and does nothing, so the 9 hours I had played is in the trash. On top of all the performance issues, I can barely run the game on medium settings, some even on low, even if my computer sets itself to high and epic graphics. When I started a new playthrough the AI seemed way more powerful than my last save; enemies took 4-6 moves each turn while I could barely manage 2 moves. They should have released the game in a better state; with the console version this spring, the game is a hot mess. I've been waiting for a good turn-based game since XCOM 2.”
- “Broken animations, disappearing textures, performance issues (even on an RTX 5090), and tons of bugs, including a black screen after the scene where you flee the attack, make the game super clunky and unplayable as it is.”
- “My first concern was performance. The game looks good visually and the story seems good too, but performance is horrible and it is filled with bugs.”
graphics
177 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32%
65%
3%
The graphics evoke a strong Viking aesthetic with impressive cutscenes and character designs, yet the game suffers from numerous glitches, clipping issues, and inconsistent visual quality. Many users report performance problems including frame rate drops, animation bugs, and occasional invisible or missing elements, which detract from the experience despite the underlying artistic effort. While the visuals show promise, significant optimization and bug fixes are needed to deliver a polished and stable presentation.
- “Great graphics, story is brilliant and have loved every part of the journey.”
- “The graphics are very good, and the cinematics are fluid — it’s clear a lot of love and effort went into them.”
- “The graphics are UE5 so if you have the rig for it, it will look great; the faces and animations for cutscenes especially are top tier.”
- “There are numerous graphical glitches (the boar piglets in one of the prelude missions weren't visible for me, the 'execute' animations for the archer in particular need work as the arrows are invisible after the first one is nocked and shot, and there are numerous little things like that).”
- “The graphics fail to render properly at times, which makes the world feel unfinished.”
- “There are countless minor bugs as well: resources found during missions were not awarded at the end of the game (or only partially), some character body parts turn invisible, Gunnar is bald in certain scenes, Sigrid occasionally has no arm, clothing clips through objects, and the lighting and environmental visuals are a complete disaster.”
music
44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
50%
7%
The music in the game is widely praised for its strong Nordic atmosphere, immersive quality, and memorable soundtrack that enhances combat and storytelling. Many reviewers describe it as a standout feature, sometimes even carrying the experience during technical issues, with several expressing a desire for the full soundtrack release. Despite some bugs affecting audio stability, the game's music remains a compelling and highly appreciated aspect.
- “With the music in the background while fighting, you feel it's some kind of a ritual, slaying one enemy after another.”
- “Combat feels solid, the setting is immersive, and the soundtrack helps sell that gritty Norse experience.”
- “Actually played over 21 hours now, loving the game, turn-based combat, settlement planning/building, great story and setting, and fantastic music by Galdercraft.”
- “Multiple crashes - these range from trying to load save files where the music just stops and the screen goes black, forcing the program to stop.”
- “I can hear the game's background music and the voice of the characters but all I see is a black screen.”
- “Tried loading up my save game day 2 of launch and I can't even get it to load, just sits in a black loading screen with Norse music.”
humor
41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor is widely praised for its sharp, Scandinavian-flavored wit that blends well with its Viking setting, featuring funny dialogue, quirky characters, and entertaining cutscenes. This humor balances serious moments effectively, with voice acting and writing elevating the comedic experience despite some buggy, occasionally hilarious glitches. Overall, the humor is seen as a standout, engaging element that adds charm and refreshment to the storytelling.
- “They possess a specific kind of Viking humor and personality—robust, entertaining, and grounded in the historical reality of the time.”
- “These really pulled me into the story, there were quite a few funny moments which was surprising and refreshing, we don't see comedy in games very often these days.”
- “The humor is great and the mouth animations are just downright belly laugh inducing.”
atmosphere
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
48%
40%
12%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its authentic Viking vibe, strong storytelling, and immersive visuals and music that effectively capture a saga-like, Nordic experience. Characters and voice acting enhance the mood, drawing comparisons to popular Viking-themed media, though some note occasional bugs and uneven mechanics that slightly detract from the overall ambiance. Despite some flaws, the atmosphere remains a standout strength, deeply engaging and integral to the game's appeal.
- “The first thing that strikes you is the visual and atmospheric fidelity.”
- “The Viking atmosphere is awesome, the characters are charismatic, and the whole vibe feels heavily inspired by the Vikings TV show — which is a huge plus for me.”
- “The atmosphere, voice acting and overall aesthetic are excellent.”
- “The concept and atmosphere are promising, but the game needs a lot of work.”
- “An alternative logic, incomprehensible to the human mind, and the lack of even an attempt to create an ancient Norse atmosphere.”
- “Same goes for the music and general atmosphere.”
replayability
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
63%
16%
The game is widely criticized for its lack of replayability, with a linear storyline, fully scripted missions, and no sandbox or varied paths limiting players to a single playthrough. Many suggest that additional choices, branching storylines, or new game modes could significantly enhance replay value. While some hope future updates will improve this aspect, the current consensus is that the game offers a short experience with little incentive for replay.
- “It would be nice to add more choices to the story, different paths to explore, that could add replayability.”
- “Could be a great game with tons of replay value if things were changed and more was added.”
- “Some endgame content, replayable missions, new game+ or whatever.”
- “I dunno, for the full price at $45, it just lacks replayability and is way too short, in my opinion.”
- “10 hours and you played the whole game with absolutely no replay value.”
- “Even so, without a sandbox mode and with all missions fully scripted, it doesn’t seem to offer much replay value.”
emotional
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
90%
10%
The emotional impact of the game is mixed, with some players deeply moved and emotionally invested in characters and storylines, while others find the dialogue clichéd and characters lacking depth. Certain gameplay choices and animation issues occasionally undermine key emotional moments, though features like romance and character interactions add meaningful emotional weight for many.
- “When a game can draw you in and elicit real emotions, yes the damn thing made me cry, you know you have a top tier game.”
- “Their dialogue and interactions carry much of the emotional weight of the experience.”
- “I blinked and suddenly I was deep in Viking politics, emotionally attached to characters, and questioning my real-world responsibilities.”
grinding
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
10%
90%
Grinding in the game is generally seen as tedious and poorly designed, with crafting and equipping mechanics being counterintuitive and frustrating. Progression often feels like a slog due to repetitive farming and bugs, detracting from the overall experience. Despite these issues, some players still find enjoyment in gearing up though technical problems and lack of sidequests diminish the appeal.
- “I was to the point where I got no more quests at around 70 turns, so I just kept farming materials.”
- “Both obtaining recipes and crafting them at the crafters are tedious, counter-intuitive, and overall not well thought out.”
- “It has a boatload of technical issues, is rather hard to run, has some clumsy animations and battles that can get tedious in the second half of the game.”
character development
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Character development in the game is generally viewed as interesting and supported well by cut scenes and voice acting, though it can feel limited by the linear story path. However, opinions on character design are mixed, with some finding it unappealing or uncanny. Overall, character abilities and equipment are considered solid.
- “Where this game wins for me was the cut scenes, voice acting, and character development.”
- “The game keeps you on a specified path without much room for outside exploration, but it does have an interesting story with some fun character development.”
- “Character development, abilities, and equipment are pretty good.”
- “Character development is lackluster.”
- “The character designs and non-combat animations seem a bit off and uncanny.”
- “The character design for the main character is very unappealing and downright goofy looking sometimes.”
monetization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization is widely criticized as a blatant cash grab, with excessive advertising detracting from the experience. Most users recommend avoiding it for now despite potential future improvements.
- “Avoid this cash grab for now but might be worth it in the far distant future.”
- “Feels like a cash grab.”