Northgard - Review

Northgard review

It's spring and my Viking colonists are gleefully filling their bellies now that the snow has melted and our food stores are filling up. The farmers and hunters are working hard, and with their appetite sated, my warriors are jonesing for a fight. I don't have time to enjoy it. I'm already preparing for Northgard's next harsh winter. Even more than dragons or undead, foul weather is the greatest threat to my growing settlement.

Northgard looks like a throwback, a game that would have comfortably fit in with Age of Empires and Settlers, but while the inspiration is clear, it would be a disservice to imply that it's mainly trading in nostalgia. This Viking saga builds on the history-themed RTS romps of the '90s, but it's not beholden to them.

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Northgard lives in the skirmish mode. The campaign mission design is good, but sometimes you just want to shake off the shackles and batter some Vikings in a sandbox. When all of the game's concepts collide, instead of being separated by levels, it becomes a tricky, unpredictable RTS that pulls you in all these different directions. Every game is fat with potential, helped in great part by a map generator that spits out a brilliant array of as-good-as-bespoke battlefields.

Score: 84/100