Valhalla Awaits Thee

HIGH Spellbinding gameplay loop. Meaningful additions to the base game.

LOW Faulty Bifröst mode. Odd UI choices.

WTF Why does Egil always gotta be such a bro?

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Like its forefathers Age of Empires and Starcraft, Northgard stands tall in the annals of RTS history.

For eight years, it has maintained loyalty from an active player base, and the developers at Shiro Games have reciprocated that commitment by providing frequent patches, content-rich DLC and now, their massive (and free!) Definitive Edition update. This update, along with key features of the original game, represent the culmination of years spent refining the formula for RTS game development, making it a crown jewel of the genre.

The new update is no surface-level touch up. It grants access to three new clans (Snake, Horse and Dragon) each possessing unique abilities or exclusive units. The DLC, Cross of Vidar, includes an extra clan (Lion) and an additional campaign for the story mode, new biomes such as Valhalla and a retrospective digital artbook. Returning players will also notice general improvements to performance and graphics as well as some rebalancing and other adjustments.

I first played Northgard a few years ago as I was recovering from an Achilles heel surgery. Having virtually nothing else to do, I spent the better part of a day playing it while there was still a promotion running on Steam, which allowed me to download and play the full game for a limited time.

Its cartoonish visuals recalled early entries in the Warcraft series — by today’s standards, a little crude but bright and charming.

From the opening cutscene on, it was clear that the premise behind it wouldn’t be anything to write home about, but I still love a good Viking revenge story. The player controls Rig, the son of a Viking chief who had been assassinated by a rival chief named Hagen. Rig scours the mysterious continent, Northgard, to bring his father’s killer to justice, only to discover that Hagen was but a pawn in an insidious scheme with the end goal of triggering Ragnarok.

Past the plot and into gameplay, zone-based progression is a key mechanic that requires the player to first scout areas before they can be colonized or exploited. Players can take over occupied zones by deploying their military units, and once they reach a given zone, a 45-second timer will start. If they survive, the zone becomes theirs. It is imperative that the player continues to expand their territory (thereby increasing their resource production) lest they fall victim not only to invasion, but also to low morale, economic collapse, famine or any number of calamities.

Given potential threats, the player must pay close attention as they manage their resources — Happiness, Food, Wood, Kröwns, Stone, Iron and Lore.

Happiness can be generated from Feasts and Breweries, Food is sourced from various animals and crops, Wood is gathered by chopping down trees or destroying buildings, while Kröwns are earned from trading resources or raids and can be spent on upgrades, buildings or units. Stone and Iron are taken from ore in Mines and can be used for both building and unit upgrades, and Lore is uncovered by exploring ruins or studying Lorestones, and can be used to unlock stat boosts and improvements on a skill tree. 

Northgard offers a good balance of control and automation. As long as their basic needs are met, Villagers will continue to spawn and automatically get to work, but the player can also make adjustments to how the work is being done most effectively by reassigning workers.

For instance, when there is a Food shortage and no immediate threat, the player can instantly turn idle Warriors into Fishermen simply by selecting each of them and directing them to the Fishing Hut. With such flexibility, it’s hard to imagine revisiting the RTS games of my youth and not being frustrated, having to live with my choices every time I made a new unit.

After finishing the campaign, a number of other features and modes greatly increase replay value.

The single player mode has many customizable conditions that allow the player to ramp up the difficulty, thereby supporting the player as they try to develop their own skills. Multiplayer modes provide variety, including the Bifröst mode (PvE co-op for up to 4 players) as well as a co-op conquest mode and invite-only, public, and ranked multiplayer options in various arrangements.

In general, Northgard’s pace is much slower than its contemporaries, allowing the player to be more deliberate about every choice they make — which, as someone who takes a while to make decisions, I appreciated.

Looking back on my first impressions of the game and comparing them with my experiences playing over the course of the last two months, it seems to me that the Definitive Edition update marks a victory lap for the game. Even after two years away, coming back and playing Northgard still feels as fresh and exciting as the continent was to Rig and his band of Viking settlers when they first embarked on their quest, and it’s all ripe for the taking.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Buy Northgard: Definitive Edition – PC

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Disclosures: This game was developed and published by Shiro Games. The game is currently available only on PC. It was obtained via publisher and reviewed for PC. Approximately 28 hours were devoted to the campaign mode and approximately 6 hours were spent in multiplayer for a grand total of 34 hours. The main campaign was finished. There are both PvP and PvE modes for online multiplayer.

Parents: This game is rated E10+ by the ESRB with Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, and Use of Alcohol. Also includes Users Interact. This is a strategy game in which players help a clan of Vikings establish a new settlement. From an overhead perspective, players build structures, gather resources, and deploy scouts/warriors to explore and colonize new areas. As players explore the land, they can encounter and battle various creatures (e.g., ice zombies, dragons, giants) and other Viking colonies. Battles are accompanied by weapon clashes, impact sounds, and cries of pain; enemy units are depicted on the ground when defeated. During the course of the game, players can build a brewery; villagers can sometimes be seen drinking from mugs. The word “hellbent” appears in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game has text-based dialogue with some sound effects (usually laughing or grunting as a way to emphasize certain lines) but no audio cues that impact the gameplay in any significant way, thus making it fully accessible.

Remappable controls: The controls can be remapped.

The post Northgard: Definitive Edition Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Doesn’t Break New Ground

HIGH Charming. Nostalgic aesthetic, fresh mechanics.

LOW Rookie mistakes. Uninspired combat, stale boss fights.

WTF Did they really need to make that dude’s butt jiggle sound like that?

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When I first saw the email from Tastie Games with “bossavania” in the subject line, I cocked my head in puzzlement and was curious to know what that meant exactly, so I took a look.

The press release included stills, accolades and a brief description of the new genre, stating “It combines the strategic, puzzle-like boss fights of games like Punch-Out!! with the freedom and exploration of a metroidvania.”

While there aren’t quite enough novel ideas to say that it truly did establish a new genre, the devs clearly put a lot of love into it, and I enjoyed many aspects of their work.

The premise is centered around a girl who belongs to an underground-dwelling society and must endure a rite of passage which involves collecting medals from four area captains. Along the way she’ll encounter a plethora of curious life forms in different biomes and a colorful cast of idiosyncratic NPCs with authentic humor.

Tonally, it seems cheery, but underneath the charming retro aesthetics and upbeat chiptune soundtrack lies a darker social commentary regarding the reason why her people are living underground — they don’t have much of a choice, if there ever was a choice, and this situation is explained by unearthing intriguing lore nuggets that help fill in the blanks.

Gameplay-wise, I found Mole Maiden to be engaging thanks to tight controls and a novel approach to platforming. While some abilities and powerups will be familiar to platforming fans, its drilling mechanic is the most unique, as it allows the player to reach new areas by digging, flying around and leaving bombs in their wake.

There’s a bit of a learning curve to controlling it effectively, but once the player gets the hang of it, drilling through a section of sand or rock and then launching into another is a blast, especially as the level design becomes more elaborate and offers more opportunities to reach a previously-inaccessible upgrade or rare item.

I also liked how the devs tied this drilling to health — attacking hostile NPCs loads the player’s drill with fuel, which they can then use to replenish their life. However, while this reward mechanic worked for me, Mole Maiden‘s combat, as a whole, lost its charm quickly.

While it’s possible there were some abilities or powerups I hadn’t yet unlocked, most of my time in combat amounted to little more than dodging and mashing the attack button — and for a self-proclaimed “bossavania,” the bosses of Mole Maiden feel gimmicky and ultimately underwhelming.

During my first boss fight, I was frustrated by the sluggish pace as I exchanged blows with the enormous butt-jiggling King B. who I defeated simply by getting behind him and wailing on his rear end over and over until he had a tantrum, and then I would get out of the away until he was finished — wash, rinse and repeat.

Maybe I’ve played too many soulslikes, but I found the movesets of every boss or miniboss that I faced so predictable and easy to telegraph that I barely felt any satisfaction when I won and progressed to the next area.

I was also disappointed to find that the devs structured things so that there was a linear order to what bosses and areas needed to be cleared before advancing — although that’s essentially consistent with traditional metroidvanias, games like Hollow Knight have shaken up the formula in that they adopted a more open approach so that there are multiple avenues to acquiring different powerups needed to advance.

Finally, there were a few glitches that weren’t gamebreaking, but did feel a bit amateurish. The most glaring oversight that I came across early on was the “thank you for playing” message from the developer which appeared mid-boss fight and caused me to die.

I assume it exists because a demo version would let the player try for a certain amount of time before it triggered the message, but I was playing the full version of the game. Or maybe they kept it in intentionally? Either way, they shot themselves in the foot, as a message shouldn’t pop up and cause the player to be defeated because their view is obstructed.

Other glitches were fairly commonplace, like various camera issues, and there was one recurring miniboss who would sometimes start sliding across the screen and get stuck attacking into a corner, making it cake for me to beat him.

Some glitches were just plain weird, like the occasional sound effect that would sometimes linger following a defeat. Most memorably, it happened with the first boss whose squishy butt-jiggling sound effect persisted even after the screen faded to black.

Maybe after the devs squash the bugs and make a few other changes I’ll want to come back and dig some more, but in its current state, Mole Maiden doesn’t feel like it’s quite ready to surface.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Buy Mole Maiden – PC

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Disclosures: This game was developed and published by Tastie Games LLC. The game is currently available on PC. It was obtained via publisher and reviewed for PC. Approximately 3.5 hours were devoted to the campaign mode. The game was not finished. There is no multiplayer functionality.

Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB but has only cartoon violence and crude language, so the equivalent of a “T” may be appropriate.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game features text-based dialogue with some audio in Japanese or gibberish dialogue to give it flavor, but doesn’t have any audio cues that impact the gameplay in any significant way. As such, this game is fully accessible.

Remappable controls: The controls cannot be remapped.

The post Mole Maiden Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.