Yet another viking adventure has set sail to some strong tail winds, proving that folks are still plenty hungry for more Norse adventures. Action slash ’em up, Tribes Of Midgard just launched yesterday and is already seeing concurrent viking numbers that rival the early days of explosive early access viking hit Valheim earlier this year. We could have another lodestone on our hands, judging by the 25,000 players already jumping in just on PC.
If you didn’t have an eye on Tribes Of Midgard, it’s a co-op action game with some light survival bits to it. It all centers around matches for up to ten players in which you’ll build and defend your town from baddies and giants.
The RPS crew had been rather looking forward to Tribes Of Midgard, bestowing it a place on our list of best games of E3 2021. Plenty of other folks were too, it seems. Just one day after launch, it’s surpassed 26,000 concurrent players (on Steam, not counting the PlayStation 4/5 vikings). For what it’s worth, you can compare that with the 18,000 that Valheim hit on it’s second day before going on to sell over 6 million copies and pull in over 500,000 concurrent players.
Despite the viking theme, they’re different animals, of course. Valheim launched (and remains) in early access, is developed by a rather small studio, and is published by Coffee Stain Publishing. Midgard is a full release on PC and PS4/5, is made by a less tiny team, and has Gearbox Publishing and other sponsors behind it. Even if not strictly scientific, the big numbers do point to continued interest in more Norse ’em ups though.
All those players also mean a lot of feedback. Tribes Of Midgard is sitting at a “mixed” user review rating on Steam, with complaints echoing similar concerns about progression and combat that the RPS crew share in their Tribes Of Midgard group chat. “I think this game could properly own if it didn’t keep massively getting in its own way,” Alice B says.
“Most of Tribes Of Midgard is pretty great, but it’s undermined by an unbalanced economy and clunky combat,” Ollie summarizes for the group. I’d recommend the rest of that chat between our brave co-op crew if you’re considering Midgard for yourself.
As for me, I groused when Valheim launched in February that perhaps we didn’t need yet another early access survival game before I went on to spend an embarassing number of hours playing it. I suppose I’ll not attempt disinterest in yet another viking game either then. Give me the biggest mug of the stuff you’ve got. I am weak before the power of co-op.
If more Norse-ing is in your future, you can find Tribes Of Midgard over on Steam for £15/€20/$20. It’s also available on the PlayStations.