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Isn't it the strategy that is in the background in each of the skills we develop when we play? That is, it is clear that we have to draw up plans to choose the best possible attack in a Pokemon match, but also to make the perfect jump in Super Mario Odissey. To a greater or lesser extent, there it is. It is then that this is most evident, when strategy is everything, when we most crudely face the usual question, is Northgard a good game? Is your vision of the strategy dazzling enough, or is it cold as winter that precisely ravages the territories it brings us?
Northgard It is a classic real-time strategy game, clearly inspired by some sagas such as Age of Empires but set in the wars between Vikings and Norse mythology. The developer is Shiro games. He was in Early Access on Steam for a month or so and finally the February 22, 2017 for PC, premiering in the hybrid of Nintendo on September 26 of this year.
If you are prepared … to the drakkars!
Argument
Northgard is set in a universe based on Norse mythology and Viking peoples, you know, wooden constructions, wild creatures, snow, gross warriors … It offers a story mode, which works as a tutorial on the main mechanics, and in the that we can get to know the different chiefs of the clans that make up the game. The story will be developed through various chapters, certain will be combined sequences of a careful game arts -in which a narrator will tell us the story in question- with in-game dialogues Among the main characters. As for the script itself, nothing to note is not where Northgard should look, and certainly not where it looks. It is an easy story, typical and somewhat predictable. Without more, let's turn to the interesting thing of the matter, how do you play Northgard?
Playability
It is, as we said, the inevitable comparison with Age of Empires, because basically the classic Ensemble Studios game laid the groundwork for real-time strategy games, which on the other hand started Starcraft. There are some giants of the genre like these, which are also still active with their respective numbered deliveries, Why should I prefer Northgard?
We are moving forward, Northgard does not have (and perhaps cannot) the reach and depth that its predecessors, but within its limitations it offers some mechanics on which these sagas had not been fixed so much. In everything else, we could define it in a somewhat inexpensive way as an Age of Empires that has taken certain options and depth of play. But I think it would be there to do Northgard a disservice … like Age of Empires. Let's explain without going into too many details, some of the bases of the game.
The game presents several ways: create a game for a player, play a multiplayer game (creating game or as joining another), the story mode and the typical options to adjust various game parameters. The main difference between a player's mode and the story mode is, as we said, that the story mode leads us through a plot thread controlling the various clans of the game. In this way, we will be shown the different game mechanics, and to win we will have to meet special conditions, different from those of an ordinary game, which have to do with the plot, but what is a normal game like?
The main objective is achieve victory before the up to 3 clans found in our game. There are 4 types of victory, by domination (defeating the rest of the clans militarily), by Fame (obtaining a series of requirements based on the amount of controlled territories, fame achieved and special buildings), by Commerce (getting a sufficient commercial influence), or by Wisdom (getting up to 4 divine blessings).
The map is divided by large squares, our town hall is our first building and the most important, it is also the generator of the villagers, the main unit of the game. We must defend the town hall at all costs and conquer those of the other clans if we want, for example, a victory by conquest. The villagers will work to obtain the necessary resources to expand our empire and they will be assigned specific functions in relation to the work they are performing, for example if they work on a fishing pier they will be fishermen and will obtain food, or if they work in a loggers cabin they will be Lumberjacks and they will get wood. This is different for example from Age of Empires, since each building produced its own units, while here we have a base unit that we will transform, having a limit of units established according to the houses that have been built.
There are three main types of resources, are food, wood and gold, and two more exclusive and special, stone and iron. These resources are used to improve and expand the empire as in most games of the genre: build buildings (wood), maintain and grow the population (food), hire soldiers or improve buildings (gold) … and many more functions that do not Let's stop to explain. We observe that the quantity and variety of units, buildings and their functions, improvements, actions … is somewhat limited, giving a feeling of shallowness in general if we compare it with the older brothers of the genre. However, I think that when you start a game, it feels good “Design by subtraction”. The comparison made there is but is still true: chess is a simple game but extremely deep in its delicate decisions, possibly the best strategy game of all time.
The problem comes when the hours pass and the hours go by and you realize how far the game goes. Who expects the depth, in terms of quantity and variety of content, of a Starcraft 2 or a Civilization VI can be withdrawn, Northgard is not about being a megalomaniac game, it tries to play its cards providing slight innovations. That is why some will feel the games less attractive than other games of the genre, because the feeling of depth and variety is constantly diluted. For example, there is only one possible improvement in the buildings, 3 possible adversaries, few types of neutral enemies, the maps are simple, little variety of locations and secrets … are details that make us understand that first of all we are facing a small developer, not before Firaxis (Civilization) or Microsoft (Age of Empires)
This simple design is entertaining and functional, very adapted to first-time players in the genre, there is its trick. But perhaps where they have been "cut" in this brief game design is in the battle system. There are only 5 types of soldiers, who fulfill the various functions of every army, simple soldiers, at a distance, a stronger and more expensive warrior … the squadrons can only be up to a maximum of 6 soldiers, something that does not give rise to a long Army preparation but these work rather like small skirmishes.
Save the grain, winter is coming!
Undoubtedly, the most favorable point for Northgard is its time management and the achievement of events in it. Winter usually comes and we must be prepared to suffer a sharp break in provisions as well as a decline in the performance of the military. Eventually other events also happen, such as the explosion of a volcano, the arrival of a blizzard, a disease that devastates the population … with its obvious consequences. This strategic contribution gives Northgard a somewhat special depth on the one hand that may not be so trite in other games of the genre. Having a forecasting capacity to be able to correct the events that are happening in the calendar indicated to us makes the greatest enemy of our games the passage of time itself. We have died more than once to ignore this or to not get sufficiently prepared. For us, the most fun of Northgard.
Graphics and sound
One of the worst aspects of this version without a doubt. The transition from PC to consoles has not been very good, not only in terms of control, since the handling of a cursor allows you to better direct this type of games, but for all the information that has to be displayed on the screen and that otherwise can not be done (maybe it could but of course the chosen form does not accompany). Windows that cover the map, shortcuts marked with buttons … the lack of a more dedicated tutorial to be handled by the HUD makes the first impression really badThere are even certain actions or information that is really hidden behind series of interconnected menus when it would be enough to place the cursor on the PC. There is no tactile interaction, that doesn't help either.
Northgard has not gotten rid of the already common errors that exist in the ports to Switch, the size of the texts becomes too small in many occasions.
As for the artistic design It has a cartoon roll that looks pretty good and makes the game lose "seriousness", since deep down we are facing a strategy game more accessible than others. There is little scope in this type of games with the overhead view camera, but it has not been experienced in any way with it, its Nordic imagery has not left the established canons. Like music, it accompanies the game correctly, without showing off, but it sets the scenery well.
Duration
The campaign consists of 11 chapters, 11 games, which last about 1 hour or an hour and a half each. So, between repetitions and learning, we will easily go to the 20 hours. The campaign can be repeated to obtain a series of achievements based on more demanding secondary objectives than the first ones, although it is really repetitive because it is exactly the same. Honestly, the campaign is too long, the playable depth does not give much. The single player mode, where we will customize several sections of the game, such as the type of map, the difficulty of the AI … is infinite of course. There is a very simple achievement system that does not motivate us too much to play, it is simply a victory counter with each of the 6 leaders, and milestones related to the missions accomplished in history. No doubt the coolest thing is its Ragnarok mode, a new game mode, introduced once the game was launched on Steam and that came out on Switch, which changes certain rules, has exclusive maps and events and greatly increases the difficulty of the game
The multiplayer for its part has been impossible to prove, the servers may not work well, or there are few people in the games, but we have not been able to fill a room on any occasion, in addition to the fact that most of the rooms we entered were AI-controlled players. Nor do we believe that the multiplayer is where Northgard has bet. We cannot therefore value the game in this section.
conclusion
The strategy is found in all games, as we said at the beginning; also in Northgard. Perhaps tarnished by its technical failures and, above all, being perpetrated from the perspective of a player fond of great strategy games (which do not necessarily have to be full of content), I cannot say that Northgard has been an entirely satisfactory experience, but I understand that it is an experience adapted perhaps to those who begin in this genre. It certainly has its good points, and is still entertaining. He has that "nosequé" that has every good strategy game, it is difficult not to feel called to the challenge, that which makes you inevitable to leave a game when you feel that control of the situation, improvement of the empire, conquest of territories, and suddenly … winter, it has caught us without food! I hope so that those who know how to forgive their failures enjoy the game, however I have remained, despite its benefits, somewhat frozen in the Nordic tundra.
Northgard costs € 34.99, is in both physical and digital format and occupies about 700MB of internal memory.
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