Deal | Steam deal: Open-world Viking co-op colony sim that blends Age of Empires and Valheim drops to record-low price
Aska is a fairly new colony sim game that launched into Steam Early Access in June 2024. Since its launch, the developers have put a lot of work into adding content and expanding the game, with the latest update in May 2025 introducing a number of new buildings and environment customisation options. It hits similar notes to Valheim, but it demands more of a focus on the team work and city-building mechanics than the infamous co-op survivalcraft game.
Aska is discounted by 40% during the Steam Fishing Fest sale event, bringing it down to its lowest-ever price of $14.99. The sale will last until 26 June.
Aska gameplay and reviews
Players start Aska as a shipwrecked Viking on mysterious new lands inhabited by all manner of beasts and mythological creatures. From there, you must explore the vast open world environment, reunite with your lost crew, and establish a base of operations that will be your new home. You will use a mystical beacon to call nearby Vikings to join your tribe and assign them roles, so that your society can grow strong and self-sufficient to be ready for the oncoming battles — both against the wilderness and its inhabitants.
Aska starts as an individual survival game — or up to four-player co-op — but it quickly becomes a game of resource management and expansion, as your tribe grows, facing new threats, unlocking new technology, and weathering the oncoming onslaughts. As your technology advances, so does the threat level, and Aska is very much about equipping the community to face off against those threats. New members of your tribe each have their own desires, strengths, and weaknesses, and your role as the tribe leader is to assign them the task that best suits them, whether that be farming, blacksmithing, mining, or military duty. If villagers become unhappy enough, or if their needs are not met, they will leave to find greener pastures.
Customisation, crafting, and exploration are central to Aska, as new resources will help you improve your tribe and fortify your village. There's also plenty of fun to be had with the aesthetics of your village, thanks to a variety of furniture, dyes, paint, and decorative items to place as you choose.
Aska doesn't feature the same focus on individual combat as a game like Valheim, but it still asks players to face off against creatures from myth and legend in skills-based combat. There are a number of weapons to choose from, including bows, quintessential Viking axes, swords, and clubs, and players can use the weapons variety to curate their own unique combat style. Villagers assigned to certain tasks will also pitch in when it comes to combat, and you can also grant those villagers perks to help even the odds.
Aska's all-time review rating on Steam is quite high, at 79% positive, which is solid for an Early Access game. Most of the reviews praise Aska for its clean execution of its promised mechanics, with highlights being the somewhat challenging task of maintaining balance and establishing reliable logistics. Players also warn that the game cannot be played like Valheim, but comment that it is a very rewarding experience after you get the hang of delegating tasks and efficiently managing your colony. The developers also receive a lot of praise for responding to player feedback in a relatively timely fashion and issuing balance and QoL fixes when they're needed.
Aska has a Gold ProtonDB rating, indicating that it should play quite well on Linux gaming devices, like the $469.99 Valve Steam Deck.
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