Is it good, is it bad?
Graphics and Mechanics: While not an extraordinarily beautfiul game like Mass Effect, the graphics are what one might expect for a next-gen game. They're all right but not spectacular. My issues with the graphics are the style and the slow motion effect. For the first the somewhat bleached, bluish look doesn't do a whole lot for me and would have preferred more gray or when it is dark. As for the latter, slow motion is overused and becomes a little annoying when every finisher that you do it activates. I prefer the approach that Dynasty Warriors uses with regards to slow motion and only on bosses. Also the 2-D cut scenes aren't what I expect and kind of take away from a game like this. If the rest of the style resembled the 2-D scenes it wouldn't be so bad.
Camera: Horrid. Although it is similar to Dynasty Warriors, it works with DW because attacks are faster, there are more enemies, and in general it's not so annoying. In Viking the control scheme, well attacks anyway, seem slower and because of this you need to be thinkng a couple steps ahead and the camera does not help in this. The perpetual darkness beyond a certain radius, while a cool concept, may be a factor in limiting your planning ability the camera just does not help.
Story: All right but quite shallow so far. The side quests make sense and fit but for me only attempt to flesh out a character missing some element and this fleshing out becomes useless. I'm only on the second of what I think will be 3 islands & if that ends up being the case it is short. However I may reconsider as I play more.
Controls: As mentioned before, when it comes to attacking they seem slow. The slow attacks make it somewhat annoying. The elemental attacks & rage meter are nice.
Overall: The closest comparision game that I can think that it resembles is Dynasty Warrior. The only real difference is that overall it is slower paced and when confronted with dozens of enemies, you are dead. Combat seems too slow and the story needs severe fleshing out. My suggestion to anyone thnking about buying the game, rent it first & then make your decision.