Tales Of Glory 4 : Ragnarok

This game is everything you would want in an upgraded TOG1. The campaign is coming. Right now it's just custom battles. But it combat is better, more precise, and feels fluid. AND THERE'S CREATURES!! Or create the villager uprising! Lost three times to villagers on insane. Super fun to fight with shovels, pitchforks, and a hoe. Keep in mind it is early release. Only Viking squad commands, no army commands yet. But it is FUN!!

I play a lot of VR combat games, but I'm rarely happy with most of them. The original TOG was one of the few I kept coming back to over the years, and though this new entry is still in the Early Access phase it has already recaptured what I enjoyed most about the first. The developer is highly responsive and has chosen to go with a rapid update cycle of fixing small things as the player base reports them. Almost any negative marks I had in the first few hours were already gone by the end of launch day, and the few minor annoyances I still see are already being addressed in the developer's Discord channel. The main thing that sets this game apart from Blade and Sorcery and similar games is a focus on large numbers, with individual fights being longer and requiring more effort. Instead of being a lone fighter, you're leading an 8-man squad in a larger raiding party. Instead of going up against a series of 1-3 opponents at a time, you're fighting your way through a chaotic melee of 15-30+ soldiers. Combat gets hectic, and if you don't pay attention you can find yourself separated from your allies and completely surrounded by a crowd of enemies. There are visual improvements over the original, moving this series near the top of its genre. Combat physics is solid. It's a little more demanding on hardware than TOG1 so I can't get quite as many combatants on screen at once without lower framerates (around 30 on an RTX 3060), but what other game supports that many at all? The squad-level control makes you care a little more about your own men, as opposed to the endless disposable soldiers I'd use as meatshields in the original. The only significant thing it's missing right now is a campaign/story mode, but that's common for early access. Consider how long it took for Blade and Sorcery to launch Crystal Hunt, or how most games of this type never implement much of a campaign at all. This missing feature is the only real complaint I've heard out of other players, so if it's the main thing you're looking for you may need to be patient. Otherwise this game is ready to play and doesn't seem to need much polish for its controls and interface. It doesn't have that half-done game feel, it just needs expansion.

This game has a lot of potential. The game is stable and I havent noticed stutter or flickering and the combat is amazing however they need to improve sword swing because most of the time it feels like the sword is light it passes through them without dealing any damage but when it works it feels great.

Looking back at my review of the original Tales of Glory, I honestly thought it couldn’t get any better. I was wrong. After playing Tales of Glory 4: Ragnarok, I realised just how much further this series could go. For those who have never played the original, TOG4 is a true medieval battlefield simulator. Weapons feel fantastic in your hands, and — more importantly — they interact with enemies exactly as you’d expect. Every swing, stab and impact feels weighty and physical. But Ragnarok takes that brutality even further. New additions such as broken bones and arterial injuries make combat more dynamic than ever, and the AI actually reacts to the damage you inflict. Wounded soldiers might surrender, hobble away, or desperately try to keep fighting depending on the severity of their injuries. And speaking of AI... Gone are the days of mindless masses simply charging straight at you, swinging swords and firing arrows into anything unfortunate enough to be nearby. Now, the battlefield feels like a battlefield. Enemies will flank you, work together, coordinate their attacks and — in one of the small details I absolutely love — hold their fire when one of their own is in the way. It sounds simple, but these little touches completely change the experience. You’re no longer fighting a collection of targets. You’re fighting an army. The siege elements are back too, with ladders, breakable doors and constantly changing battlefields that help make every encounter feel different. Add in the procedurally generated dungeons, with randomised enemies and obstacles around every corner, and there’s a huge amount of variety packed into the experience. And that brings me to what makes TOG4 stand apart. This isn't a brawler where you find yourself surrounded by five enemies and simply hack your way through them. This is war. 100 vs 100. Arrows screaming overhead. Soldiers clashing around you. Enemies pushing your position. Wounded fighters stumbling through the chaos. And you are right in the middle of it. There really is nothing else quite like it in VR. So, Viking... Claim your Glory. Let your Tales be sung in Valhalla. And whatever you do — don't get left behind.

Will start off by emphasising that this game is EARLY ACCESS. It is going to be JANKY, LAGGY, POORLY OPTIMIZED, and UNREFINED. That said, it is still at this stage a very good game in my books, even after hundreds of hours on Blade and Sorcery etc. Graphics: 7/10 (solid environment design, could be better lighting/shadow quality) Gameplay: 6/10 (little buggy/not smooth) Combat: 7/10 (good physics & collision) Performance: 8/10 (the more soldiers the less performance, big CPU impact, GPU performs great) Story: From what I understand, yet to come? (was a 20Hr campaign in first ToG game, nothing in this one yet) So, I'll start with the combat. Stabs work well while being hard to land depending on the body part. I would have expected torso stabs to be easier than limb stabs given size, yes I know, enemies defend their chests, which is why I'd suggest smaller blocking hitboxes for the enemies, allowing I higher margin for player skill based on stab accuracy etc. Slashes work but are also hard to land due to armour, which I consider fine, it's pretty balanced. Embedding an axe in someone feels the best so far, you can do a slash with one or apply more force to fully cleave into an enemy. The weapon exits shine in this system, enemies fall satisfyingly and dramatically when a sword is ripped from their torso, followed by a spurt of (really high res actually) blood (when you eventually stab them that is). Blocking is a little too easy for both the player and enemy for my liking is the main point here. Blunt weapons work great, heads are not destructible but practically destructible (not visibly but a good headshot will kill). Large scale armies and overall combat zones are pretty good, with functional AI, squad commands working (good voice recognition) and steady progression from say the entry of a castle to the top. They (the devs) are adding full army control soon, as said on their discord, can't wait. Not much strategic use of commands yet, everyone sent to attack at the same time does the trick, praying the devs add more use for them. The environments are well detailed and high resolution texture wise, lacking much good lighting. The forest has decent grass and trees, the stone of the castles looks good. Lighting on weapons is quite good, with nice shine and visible blood effects. Not great clash particles/sparks, need a bit of bloom or emission I think, but as a baseline, function. The movement is okay. The sprinting needs a bit more improvement, the jumping as well, but it works. Horse movement is alright. As an early access game, the aim of functional mechanics over perfection is very much there, but the devs are actively working on bug fixes and refinery now, and have pushed two minor bug fixes already (accessible via beta build). I find that over 200 soldiers at a time causes significant lag, but otherwise very good 20 on 20 battles are fully reasonable performance wise. The game will never be Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator 2 optimized, and I do appreciate the NPC quality over quantity anyway. The game has strong replayability, especially given a lack of campaign at the current time. Something like 10 different maps, initiating/defending against an ambush for each, plus an arena for player vs NPC battles. Overall, very impressed so far, looking forward to a great accumulation of hours in the near future, 7/10. Devs, your a great team with apparent enormous dedication, keep up the great work because I am loving it.

very cool

can't believe they still got it. this game is amazing and it's not even close to being done

Kinda feels like Mount and Blade: Banner Lord in VR, just no story yet. Awesome sandbox though.