With Tribes of Midgard, there is now a new co-op game featuring Vikings and plenty of Nordic mythology. But what kind of game is it, and is it worth playing Tribes of Midgard? MeinMMO author Jürgen Horn took a closer look at the game.
What is Tribes of Midgard actually? Tribes of Midgard was originally interpreted by many as a survival MMO. However, it is more of a co-op game with up to 10 players. There is also a solo mode.
In the game, you need to explore the world, gather resources and treasures, and use them to protect a sapling of the World Tree Yggdrasil. Terrifying monsters from the realm of Helheim and mighty giants from the wild land of Jötunheim hate World Trees and do nothing more than uproot your helpless sapling.
Therefore, you are constantly racing between exploring, gathering, and defending the sapling. Tribes of Midgard is thus more of a tower defense game with survival and RPG elements.
A game as merciless as the Fimbulwinter
Here’s how it started: At the beginning of Tribes of Midgard, I create a Viking in the character editor. But it’s as sparse as the wastelands of Greenland. I can only set a few hairstyles, three faces, hair and skin color, as well as the gender of my Viking.
But okay, I didn’t expect a detailed editor like in Black Desert and immediately start with the tutorial. This is pleasantly short and is guided by the two adorable cats of the goddess Freya. The fluffy little cats explain to me how to gather resources and fight. After 10 minutes, I know the essentials and can dive right in.
That’s why I was forever naked: Together with a friend, we start the first real session in Saga mode. This is the regular game mode where you have to survive long enough until you find and slay the Saga boss on your island.
But until then, it’s a long, rocky path, as we emerge from the rainbow bridge Bifröst naked and unarmed.
To collect initial resources for crafting equipment, I need to find sticks and flint, but that darn stuff is nowhere to be found. I hunt a wolf and find all sorts of things, just not those resources. Instead, I actually beat up wolves, wild boars, and creepy dark elves.
At some point, my buddy calls me back to the village and shows me that he had better luck and has plenty of the required resources. Finally, I can craft pants, armor, and sword and shield.
Every mistake has consequences: With my new gear, we head back out into the wild to wreak havoc on the dark elves. In a large camp north of our village, these nasty pointy-eared creatures reside and are surely laughing at us. We’ll show them!
The first elves are easy to take down, but then suddenly, a kind of boss appears, a dark elf witch. Also, I’m so clumsy that I stand too close to a strange orb that suddenly explodes. So we both die, the witch laughs at us even more, and we lose all our stuff!
Although our Vikings respawn – after all, we play as immortal Einherjar from Valhalla – we return to the village with nothing but our equipment: all gathered resources and all “souls”. This is a kind of universal currency that you obtain in more or less large quantities through almost every activity in the game.
Fortunately, the lost resources can be found again if you reach the spot of your former death, but the souls are lost forever, which hurts especially when you’ve farmed a lot of them. Like in our case.
The nights are that bad: Because we urgently needed the souls to fortify our village. The village is already rudimentarily established, but if we want gates, watchtowers with archers, and improved NPCs, we need to upgrade all of that with souls and other resources.
Therefore, we can barely build anything and anxiously await our first night. Because just like in the PvE mode of Fortnite, dangerous creatures crawl out of the depths of the underworld at night and attack the village and the sapling in the middle from three sides.
Without fortifications, these Hel creatures just march through and party in front of the innocent little tree. However, we are no weak milk drinkers but seasoned Vikings, so we beat the abominations from Helheim back to where they came from.
This is what happened when the giant came: Fortunately, the following nights go a bit better since we’ve grasped the mechanics and no longer die as often. Only once do I die quite embarrassingly because I accidentally jump into the water and immediately drown. Apparently, Vikings cannot swim.
But water isn’t our problem; fire is! More specifically, a gigantic fire giant named Hálogi. He is so big that he barely fits on the screen! The titan has been marching towards our village for some time, but since we hadn’t spotted him on the map yet, the threat remained abstract.
Until the giant suddenly stands at our gates! We are just finishing the gate and can barely hold back the giant.
He hits the gate with his flaming sword, and in return, we attack the ankles of the Jötun like berserkers. But nothing helps, as soon our gate collapses in flames, and Hálogi leisurely strolls toward the sapling. Any resistance is futile, and the sapling burns in the fiery breath of the Jötun.
Our first session in Tribes of Midgard does not end in glory in the sagas and free mead in Valhalla but with a crashing defeat. Somewhere in Asgard, Allfather Odin shakes his head…
Failing and getting back up again
Here’s how it continued: Fortunately, there is more than one sapling in Midgard, and we get to try again. New tree, new luck. The second time, we are more cautious and plan more diligently. Plus, we’ve unlocked a starter kit from our first attempt and can now start fully equipped.
Also, the journey doesn’t take as long this time, and we even create our first fortifications and upgrade the NPCs further.
But then we face a completely different problem.
That’s why giants aren’t the only issue: Every few nights, a sinister blood moon rises. We ignore the bad omen and are utterly surprised when suddenly much stronger Hel monsters stream into our camp at night. In the end, even a particularly fat creature comes that wipes us out with a nasty AoE effect and soon brings the sapling to wither with dark magic.
Again, we’ve failed miserably, and the giant wasn’t even there!
Other attempts and an outing in solo mode inevitably fail as well. Although we progress a few days further, either the giants or Hel creatures ultimately overpower us, and we cannot manage to reinforce ourselves in time. But rather than frustration, the constant failure motivates to start anew. For now.
Can the game motivate in the long run?
Here are the current problems: The question is only how long the game is motivating. Ultimately, Tribes of Midgard plays like the PvE mode of Fortnite, and the gameplay is always the same: gather resources, upgrade, explore the world, and fend off the increasingly difficult waves of enemies every night.
This creates a constant threat, and every mistake can cost you the game. For example, when you want to bring a four-digit number of souls back to the camp and get ambushed along the way and lose everything.
However, I can also imagine that at some point, the air runs out, and you have seen everything. At the latest, when the Saga boss is down, there may be hardly any motivation left to repeat it all. Although the developers have announced regular seasonal updates with new bosses and quests, they need to happen often and quickly to keep players engaged.
What Tribes of Midgard still needs: A round in Tribes of Midgard can take quite a long time, and if things go poorly, you might die just before reaching the goal. Therefore, it would be great if the game offered additional modes that allow for a more brief fun experience.
And more cosmetics and customization options would certainly benefit the game, as the hunt for new costumes and items would provide more motivation. But who knows, maybe the developers have all that planned anyway, as the game is just getting started.
Conclusion – A game that doesn’t let me go – But I fear the day I let go
I eagerly awaited Tribes of Midgard and was not disappointed. I enjoy the game, especially for its many lovable details, such as the names of the giants derived from the sagas or the whimsical constructed language of the NPCs, which is a mix of Swedish and Icelandic.
Furthermore, the game’s steep difficulty level motivates me, and I want to keep trying, even if I only progress one day further in the end or manage to slay another giant.
All this keeps me motivated to continue playing, and I always look forward to the end of the day when I can travel back to Midgard as an Einherjar and defend the sapling.
But I already suspect that everything will motivate me less once I have defeated the Saga boss. Because as difficult and elusive as this goal currently is, it is equally unexciting for me to repeat it all again. The developers need to quickly add content so players don’t get bored too soon.
Jürgen Horn
Editor at MeinMMO
Tribes of Midgard is a lot of fun, but it can get quite exhausting when playing alone. However, even solo, the new co-op game is definitely manageable. If you have difficulties with it, you can find support from us at MeinMMO:
5 tips for solo players in Tribes of Midgard – This is how you master the co-op game alone
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