Bored with their conquests in the land of the living, the Vikings are beating down the gates of hell and Lucifer himself has come to meet them. As a concept for a slot, it’s equal parts ridiculous and compelling, right? Well, that’s the premise of the Vikings go to Hell slot from Yggdrasil Gaming.

So, dust off your favorite war axe and finish your beer because it’s time to descend into the depths of hell itself!

This is hell? It’s quite nice actually!

Do you remember the opening sequence of Thor: Ragnarok, where Thor defeats Surtur? It was a perfect introduction to the new direction Taika Waititi was taking the character. We can’t help but think that the art director at Yggdrasil Gaming drew heavily from this sequence when creating the opening for the Vikings go to Hell slot, and we’re totally on board with it. It’s great!

Unlike Thor: Ragnarok, however, the opening sequence of Vikings go to Hell might be its only highlight.

When you think hell, you think fire, brimstone, and suffering. Now, suffering isn’t a particularly marketable quality for a slot, so we get its exclusion. The absence of fire and brimstone, though, we do not. The slot leans heavily into its Vikings theme while ignoring the hell aspect of its core premise almost entirely until you unlock a round of free spins. And even then, expectations are not met.

There’s no place like hell

Our Vikings heroes came all the way to hell for a fight, and they’re going to get one. The appearance of two scatter symbols featuring the prince of darkness himself is the signal for the battle to commence. Every character symbol on the reels bursts into life to do combat with a demon of the underworld with victorious Vikings transforming into sticky wilds. As the final battle is concluded, you’ll receive a respin with the sticky wilds sticking around for that spin before disappearing.

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Are you ready for your deal with the devil? Now stay with us here. This bonus feature feels annoyingly like maths homework. With every successful battle, the victorious Viking warrior will, in addition to transforming into a sticky wild, increase their rage meter by one. That’s right, just one. Once it’s full (100 rage points), that character symbol will go berzerk and award seven free spins. During these free spins, the character in berserk mode will never lose a battle guaranteeing additional sticky wilds. It sounds like a nice little bonus, right? Well, there’s always fine print when the devil is involved.

Following over an hour of gameplay, we were nowhere near getting the 100 points for berzerk mode. Your points are saved for subsequent sessions, but considering the likely several hours of playing time it would take to unlock this feature, the bonus is severely underwhelming.

So, berzerk mode is a bust but can the Vikings go to Hell slot’s free spins feature be enough to turn the tide of the battle?

Turning the tide?

Two scatter symbols start a fight, grab three or more, and you’ll unlock free spins. During round one free spins, you’ll face the devil’s top general, the Lord of Chains. Following each spin, one randomly selected character symbol will do battle with the Lord of Chains. If your Viking champion wins the battle, the Lord of Chains will take damage. Three successful fights and the demon will be vanquished. You’ll then face Lucifir (their spelling) in free spins round 2.

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A chance to see Vikings go up against the biggest and baddest demons hell has to offer sounds compelling, right? Don’t answer that. We know it does. The problem is the underwhelming execution.

Let’s start with the number of opponents. There are only two. We could understand just one, and we would prefer a whole string of baddies to take on. There are just two, though. Why would you only offer two when the pages of Norse and Judeo-Christian methodology are filled with demonic characters perfect for the position? It really does feel like they were on a deadline, and they ran out of time.

Next are the battles themselves. After the fantastic opening sequence, we were expecting some sort of visuals showing the Vikings taking on the lords of hell. Boy, were we disappointed. Nothing. Just a little health bar at the top of the reels that shatters when each opponent is defeated.

The one saving grace for this damned feature is the possibility of some impressive wins. Once you defeat the Lord of Chains, you’ll receive an additional seven free spins to defeat Lucifir. If you defeat the prince of darkness, the combined wins you accrued during both rounds of free spins with all those sticky wilds will receive a 3x multiplier.

Pfft, the king of hell ain’t s***!

According to Yggdrasil Gaming, their Vikings go to Hell slot is the third in a “successful” series of slots that was preceded by Vikings go Wild and Vikings go Bezerk. And as with movie sequels, slot sequels tend to feel like they’re either expanding on the universe or milking every last ounce of goodwill from the fanbase. We’ll let you guess on which side of that fence Vikings go to Hell lands.

If you’re looking for a new slot and you’re into the Vikings go to Hell concept, this one might be for you. If nothing else, you’ll get to see a great opening sequence. You could also try out some of Yggdrasil Gaming’s other games. Some of our personal favorites are 12 Trojan Mysteries and Double Dragons.