14 DAY TRIAL // War of the Vikings is the new melee-focused action title from developer Fatshark and publisher Paradox Interactive and the team has plans to make the beards of the various characters a clear sign of their success on the battlefield.
Gordon Van Dyke, the leading producer working on the game, tells VG247 that abundant facial hair is a paradox when it comes to warfare.
On one hand, Vikings were using impressive beards as a sign of their prowess and as a clear way of differentiating themselves from the more civilized, clean shaven cultures they were attacking.
At the same time, having a lot of facial hair could be a problem when engaged in close quarters combat.
In War of the Vikings, Fatshark will reflect the duality by making the more impressive beards unlockable for only the best of players, thereby giving them a simple way of showing off their skill without asking them to become more vulnerable.
Van Dyke also says that his team is abandoning historical accuracy in order to make the Saxon faction more Roman in its look so that gamers will have no trouble differentiating between the two sides in the heat of battle.
The team is also interested in making sure that equality between men and women exists when it comes to engaging in violence and will allow players to choose female models that show no skin and use the same weapons and armor as the men.
War of the Vikings uses the same core concept as the War of the Roses, allowing gamers to create a highly customizable character that can then join in with friends in order to battle other humans on a variety of maps.
The game is inspired by the period when Vikings were starting raiding the Saxon settlements in England and is designed to be more savage than the previous entry in the series.
War of the Vikings will be launched in 2014.