NORSE: Oath of Blood

About

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

In NORSE: Oath of Blood, you play as Gunnar, a young warrior seeking revenge after his father’s death and the destruction of his home. Build and manage your Viking settlement, recruit and customize fighters, and engage in tactical, turn-based battles where terrain and positioning are key. Strategically lead your warband to reclaim honor and restore your people.

Genres & Tags

Role Playing

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

59%

Audience ScoreBased on 302 reviews

story69 positive mentions

optimization34 negative mentions

The story is engaging and well-written, with interesting characters and good voice acting.
The combat system is fun and offers a good mix of tactical gameplay, reminiscent of XCOM.
The graphics are visually appealing, with beautiful environments and cutscenes.

The game is plagued by numerous bugs and glitches, including game-breaking issues that prevent progression.
Performance is poor, with frequent stuttering and frame drops even on high-end hardware.
The game lacks polish, with awkward animations and inconsistent character models that detract from immersion.

story
226 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
66%
3%
The game's story has received mixed feedback, with many players appreciating its engaging narrative, character development, and humor, particularly in the context of Norse mythology. However, numerous bugs and glitches have severely impacted gameplay progression, often locking players out of missions and detracting from the overall experience. While the story is described as enjoyable and immersive, it is also criticized for being somewhat generic and linear, with a lack of optional content and significant technical issues that hinder enjoyment.
- “The story and characterization are where it really shines, being fully voiced and featuring a lot of cinematics.”
- “The story is captivating, nothing groundbreaking, but if you're a Vikings fan, you know exactly what you're signing up for.”
- “The story and writing are engaging and the combat is fun.”
- “The story is pretty generic.”
- “Unfortunately, the game chose to focus heavily on the story, and in its current state, it’s just not strong enough for that.”
- “The only saving grace of this game is its combat; I find the main characters are flat, the story is failing to hook me after an hour of gameplay, and the voice acting is stiff.”
optimization
124 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
10%
63%
27%
The game's optimization has received widespread criticism, with many players reporting significant performance issues, including stuttering, frame drops, and various bugs, even on high-end hardware. While some users have had a relatively smooth experience, the consensus is that the game is poorly optimized and requires substantial patches to address these issues. Overall, players recommend waiting for improvements before fully engaging with the game.
- “Despite several negative reviews mentioning performance issues, I personally have nothing major to complain about, except for the fact that I haven’t been able to go beyond 70–80 fps, even with a solid GPU and CPU.”
- “Overall performance has been fine for me during gameplay sections although I've already had 3 crashes while managing the settlement or changing the equipment of my characters.”
- “Definitely could have used a bit more time in the oven for optimization and bug fixing but the foundation and performance are solid enough to have fun.”
- “The big downside is that the game is heavily unoptimized and a lot of people with even 4090s can't run it without stutters.”
- “The game has potential, but poorly optimized, bugs, and weird animations.”
- “I wanted to love this game, love X-Com and the like and historical settings as well as a choice-driven narrative, but the performance was so bad even on RTX 3080 Ti and a Ryzen 7 5800X. I am absolutely chugging and getting minute from the hitting start, every cutscene, to doing the battle tutorial, walking around the world a bit, weird visuals at not even max settings with a frame rate cap on but still low frames anyway.”
gameplay
84 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
57%
7%
The gameplay has received mixed feedback, with many players enjoying the tactical combat mechanics and overall fun factor, but expressing frustration over numerous bugs, performance issues, and poorly explained mechanics. While the core gameplay loop of combat, exploration, and settlement management is engaging, the linearity and lack of polish detract from the experience, leading to a consensus that the game needs significant optimization and refinement before it can fully shine. Overall, players appreciate the story and character interactions, but the technical shortcomings hinder the gameplay experience.
- “The combat gameplay is really fun, the animations are okay.”
- “The story hooked me immediately and the gameplay is great if you enjoy the tactical RPG genre.”
- “An engaging story, great voice acting and characterisation, along with gameplay that scratches the XCOM itch.”
- “Gameplay is ordinary.”
- “Frankly, the explanations for some of the more mechanical aspects could be a lot better.”
- “I pre-purchased this game and was excited to get into it; sadly, I'm not excited at the completely linear gameplay or the fact that there is no world to explore. The linear pathing in the missions does not equal exploration, one of the things the Norse were most renowned for.”
stability
73 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
96%
The game's stability has been widely criticized, with numerous players reporting a plethora of bugs and glitches that significantly hinder the overall experience. While some minor issues are expected in a new release, many users describe the game as "buggy" and "unpolished," with game-breaking problems such as freezing, save issues, and animation glitches. Despite its potential and enjoyable gameplay, the current state of stability has led to a consensus that it requires substantial patches and optimization before it can be considered worth its price.
- “I am playing with no glitches or game-breaking errors.”
- “As for the performance, it mostly runs great.”
- “In combat or closed environments (like towns), it still runs great.”
- “This game has huge potential, but is too buggy to be worth $30 at the moment.”
- “Buggy and unpolished mess with decent game beneath it all.”
- “I wanted to like it but constant bugs, visual glitches along with poor performance hold this game back.”
graphics
69 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
58%
4%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many players appreciating the visual quality and cutscenes, while others report significant graphical glitches, stuttering, and performance issues. Some users note that the graphics can look impressive when functioning properly, but inconsistencies and bugs detract from the overall experience. Overall, while the aesthetic appeal is acknowledged, the game requires further optimization and fixes to address the numerous graphical problems reported by players.
- “The graphics are really nice, and the game runs well on my PC.”
- “The voice acting and the graphics are superb.”
- “Beautiful graphics, gameplay is engaging, but the optimization lacks.”
- “Was super excited for it only to have that crushed after 2 game freezes and many graphic bugs in less than 2 hours.”
- “Every character in the intro cinematic and in the game has this terrible fizzy aura around them caused by bad anti-aliasing that doesn't go away no matter what graphics settings you use.”
- “It really is a graphical nightmare on some of the cutscenes, and it can look like a game that was released in 2004 and not 2026 most of the time.”
humor
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is widely praised for its clever dialogue, engaging character interactions, and amusing animations that enhance the overall experience. Players appreciate the Nordic-inspired comedic elements and the ability to influence the story through dialogue choices, which adds depth to the humor. While some bugs can lead to unintentional hilarity, the overall comedic tone is seen as a strong point, contributing to a fun and entertaining atmosphere.
- “This game had me fully laughing out loud at the dialogue in cut scenes.”
- “The humor is great and the mouth animations are just downright belly laugh inducing.”
- “Hilarious dialogues and very realistic movements and facial expressions, which I did not expect.”
music
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with some players praising its ability to enhance the Nordic atmosphere and noting it as a highlight of the experience. While some users found the soundtrack to be fantastic and immersive, others expressed frustration with technical issues that detracted from their enjoyment. Overall, the music is generally regarded as a strong point, contributing positively to the game's setting and narrative.
- “Actually played over 8 hours now, loving the game, turn-based combat, settlement planning/building, great story and setting, and fantastic music by Galdercraft.”
- “The soundtrack also does very well to support the Nordic atmosphere.”
- “The music is incredible.”
- “There’s nothing to evaluate, except that the music behind the black screen is decent.”
- “Please devs, fix that immediately, or I will ask for a refund, a shame considering the fact that the beginning of the game and music are absolute bangers.”
- “Music: 6/10”
atmosphere
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
Overall, the atmosphere in the game is praised for its strong realism and engaging storytelling, enhanced by effective voice acting and a fitting soundtrack. While some users find the atmosphere promising, others feel it lacks depth and coherence, indicating a need for further development. The blend of humor and character substance contributes positively to the overall experience, though opinions on the authenticity of the Norse setting vary.
- “✔️ Strong voice acting and atmosphere.”
- “Norse: Oath of Blood delivers a grounded, tactically demanding Viking experience with strong realism and atmosphere.”
- “From the storytelling to the atmosphere... I love it!”
- “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.”
- “The soundtrack also does very well to support the Nordic atmosphere.”
replayability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
17%
50%
Overall, the game's replayability is mixed; while some players find it limited due to the story and timed quests making it feel like a chore, others see potential in its simulator aspects and hope for future updates to enhance replay value. There are mentions of endgame content and replayable missions, suggesting that with improvements, the game could become more engaging for repeated playthroughs.
- “Norse has the potential to be an infinitely replayable simulator, and it's baffling to me that they didn't even consider that.”
- “The game is much more playable than all the negative reviews have mentioned.”
- “But as far as replayability goes, the story and its timed quests just make replayability more of a chore than anything else.”
- “Some endgame content, replayable missions, new game+, or whatever.”
- “I'm really hoping we have some major updates and fixes soon to make the game more playable.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, particularly when it comes to equipping characters and managing gear. The equip menu is criticized for its lack of efficiency, and technical issues further exacerbate the experience, making it difficult to enjoy the gearing process. Overall, while some players find gearing up enjoyable, the numerous bugs and clunky mechanics detract significantly from the experience.
- “Trying to equip characters is tedious and very difficult.”
- “The equip menu needs some updating, as scrolling through characters to equip new items is tedious.”
- “Gearing up your units can be fun, but there are some bugs in that section, which makes it tedious and not well implemented. For example, duplicate gear appears when there are none, and in-demand market value items are shown with a symbol that lacks any explanation.”
emotional
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
Players report a strong emotional connection to characters and narratives, particularly in the context of Viking politics, prompting introspection about real-world responsibilities. However, some criticize the developers for prioritizing story over gameplay, noting that clumsy animations can detract from the overall emotional experience.
- “I blinked and suddenly I was deep in Viking politics, emotionally attached to characters, and questioning my real-world responsibilities.”
- “In my opinion, it’s a real shame the developers didn’t choose a more sandbox-style approach focused on gameplay instead of a cheap-looking and boring story.”
character development
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Character development is generally viewed as lackluster, with critiques highlighting the main character's unappealing and sometimes goofy design, which detracts from the overall experience.
- “Character development is lackluster.”
- “The character design for the main character is very unappealing and downright goofy-looking at times.”