I’d love to say I walked into the Meadgard demo prepared. I’d already spent a lovely hour chatting with Linda Davidsson, CEO and Art Director at Oddiko, about the game, so in my head I was basically an expert.
Turns out, I was very much not. Hearing a developer describe Viking tavern chaos is very different from being the one holding the mead when a bearded man starts eyeing his axe.
Oddiko sent early codes to me and Amanda, my fellow Bonus Action writer and co-op ride or die, so the girlies logged on and proceeded to fail at customer service with our whole chests.
Two Braided Vikings Walk into a Bar
Meadgard‘s character creator covers hair, facial hair, skin tone, clothes and your Viking colours, which was plenty for Amanda and me to clock in as two extremely braided Vikings. You can play solo, but why would you do that to yourself?
The demo hands you a humble tavern with two tables of three seats each and a countdown at the top of the screen that you will absolutely forget exists. The plan was teamwork, and for the most part, it survived contact with the Vikings!
Customers wait at the door until you physically drag them to a seat, which felt rude until I met the customers themselves. The second they sit down, they want to be served, so you pour a tankard at the barrel behind the counter and either leave it on the bar for your teammate or march it over yourself.
Whoever’s on the floor is always busy seating new arrivals, playing music so the room doesn’t turn on you, cooking in the kitchen, or chasing off the goblin who strolls in to pocket your coins like he pays rent.
Mead Me Halfway
I took the bar, and my entire personality became pour mead, refill the barrel, pour mead, refill the barrel. When the floor got truly unhinged, I’d storm round the counter with a tankard (or a whole chair) and beat that coin-stealing goblin until he left, which was honestly the most therapeutic part of my week.
The customers are not nice people, by the way. Once they finish drinking, they chuck their tankards wherever they like and someone has to go fetch them. Even worse, if you leave them waiting too long, they’ll grab an axe and take a couple of swings at you, which is the rudest experience I’ve had in customer service. And trust me, I’ve had quite a few of those.
Look, we never died mid-shift, and I’m choosing to read that as a glowing performance review.
Our comms, meanwhile, were a masterpiece. “Oh my god, this one’s getting mad.” “Do you got that?” “I got that.” “Oh, I thought you were doing that.” “No, I’m doing that.” If you’ve survived Overcooked or PlateUp! with someone you love, you know the vibe.
Thor Losers
When the countdown hits zero, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s bedtime. Babe, it is not bedtime.
Daytime means heading out to the islands to brawl with goblins and rival Vikings for ingredients, and smashing crates for scraps to build with back home. Then night falls, you pick a new recipe, cook with your haul, and open the doors again, with each payout going on upgrades like more tankards.
This is where we got humbled. The combat is punishing, and it took us several in-game days to clear the objectives that actually push your tavern forward. When one of you goes down, the other revives them by slapping them with a weapon, which is objectively hilarious, except every enemy who took out your Viking bestie is still loitering around the body.
Unfortunately, every time you both die, you fail the objective, and you’re sent back to the tavern to try again tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that. The combat isn’t bad, to be clear. It was just way too tough for two people whose main tactic was panicking in unison.
Last Orders, Please
Understandably, a few of Meadgard‘s edges need sanding. The end of a shift is marked by the countdown and not much else, and after that much chaos we wanted a bell, a horn, anything. Standing by the exit didn’t always register that we wanted to leave either, so we’d loiter in the doorway like two people who can’t commit to going home.
Small stuff, and exactly what Early Access is for: Meadgard launches there on November 5, and Oddiko plans to spend around four to five months polishing it.
The cooking and tavern side already has my whole heart, and the demo lands on Steam for Next Fest, running October 19 to 26. Bring a friend you’d trust behind the bar, and ideally a second one for the coin thief goblin.
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