It depends on how you like to play. If your idea of an engaging game includes a healthy slice of World War One trench warfare, no problem. It's a wonderful game if you like to rearrange the landscape and shape the battlefields into killing grounds for your enemies. On the other hand, if you're a fan of that old Elder Scrolls advice to just run off into the distance and see what happens.... well, no, not really. You'll probably be obliterated. You can adventure more and prepare less if you are part of a group, but as a single player, you will spend a lot of time building and preparing or you will spend a lot of time dying. I went through the entire game a year ago and beat all the major bosses, and it was consistently interesting, but there were long periods where I did nothing but trench and build walls and mine ore. It's the price of progress. And it isn't quite as sea-based as you might expect a Viking title to be; I actually never built a longship at all -- no need.

(Note that the prohibition against taking raw metal and ore through portals, a prime complaint of players, is in fact utterly toothless since you can portal the Surtling cores that are all you need to build a foundry and charcoal kiln, and these cores are 100% recyclable if you have to move your metal production elsewhere. Don't lug ore around; move your furnaces.)