All Forums  Public  Real Time Strategy games  Northgard (early access)

Note: You must be registered in order to post a reply.
To register, click here. Registration is FREE!

Posting Form Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Callouts: Message Icon:                             Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by Aged[/i] [br]I had a craving for a new RTS game, did some research and decided to try a couple of new ones. Here's a review of one of them - Northgard. The game is available on Steam for $19.99 and it's an early access game - meaning it's not complete. Early access released Feb 22, 2107 The setting is 800 AD and features Vikings. (Yes, I've been binge-watching [i]Vikings[/i] on Amazon.) You build a village/settlement and a war band and take on opponents on a randomly generated map. There are limits on the number of buildings you can build in an area, so chose wisely. You can also only see new areas to colonize via your scout, so that's one of the first units you'll want to make. There are 4 clans to choose from, each with their own starting and fame bonuses (more on fame in a bit). Northgard has a number of unique (from my perspective, at least) features. Clans Lots of games have different factions that you can play, so this one isn't really all that unique. But, here they are: Fenrir (Wolf) - attack based Eikthyrnir (Stag) - fame, happiness based Heidrun (Goat) - endurance, defense Huginn and Muninn (Raven) - exploration, merchants [This clan has been added since the initial release.] The game will feature a 5th clan, as yet unknown. Resources There are 8 resources in the game that you need to acquire - food, wood, stone, iron, krowns (money), lore, happiness and fame. Lore, happiness and fame aren't resources in the traditional RTS sense, but acquiring them is important. Acquiring sufficient fame is one of the victory conditions. Acquiring lore allows you to acquire bonuses and blessings, which leads to the wisdom victory condition. I've not seen an RTS with so many resources to manage. Food - needed to feed your units, colonize new territory, hold a feast (to boost production and acquire fame) Wood - basic building material, used for heat Stone - used to upgrade buildings Iron - used to upgrade units, create war chief Krowns - pays to train warriors, buy other resources, upgrades Lore - used to acquire upgrades and blessings Happiness - used to improve unit production and unit productivity (think research) Fame - used toward the fame victory condition Victory conditions There are 5 victory conditions - domination, wisdom, trade, fame, map special. Domination - kill all your opponents Wisdom - acquire all of the blessings and have 4 active loremasters Trade - collect 7000 krowns, have 1000 krowns in storage and have 4 active merchants Fame - acquire 1000 fame, colonize 12 areas and build an Altar of Kings Map Special - Discover and take control of the map special area There are 14 different civilians that do the work of your clan. They can also defend the zone they are in from invaders. There are 2 different types of fighting units (warriors, war chief - only 1 allowed) for your war band. Some clans can add an additional fighting unit - essentially a second war chief. Creating a unit is a simple matter of sending them to the appropriate building (e.g., send them to the hunter's lodge and you've made a hunter). Finally, there are seasons (ok, just winter and not winter). Production decreases and consumption of wood increases during winter and ignoring that fact can have brutal impacts. There are also disasters. I've seen 4 - blizzards, earthquakes, rats and gateways to hell (can't remember the real name, they unleash draugr's [think white walkers] inside an area) The art style is a little cartoonish. It's similar to Warcraft 3. No pyrotechnics to speak of. [img]http://www.gamesear.com/images/2016/8/northgard-strategy-game-giant-sword-screenshot.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/17/feb/PE_northgard2.jpg[/img] Final (early access) verdict: Although the game can be challenging and, at times, even frustrating, I'm enjoying it. Managing all of those resources and accounting for the time of year is a challenge. Sometimes I've felt a bit overwhelmed. Random maps can be, well, random, but they're never horrendous. I've also found the interplay of all of the diverse elements can also be addictive, though. You have to constantly think and sometimes you have to be patient (e.g., wait out winter, etc.). As mentioned previously, there's another clan to be added and I would expect that may be the next major change. When the Raven clan was added, some other gameplay changes were made as well. The level of activity during the early access phase is encouraging. Other things that haven't been implemented yet are the campaign and multiplayer - only skirmish against the AI is available at the moment. I'll be interested to see how this game works in multiplayer with all the moving parts. In general, I'm liking it (with some reservation), but for $19.99, it's not a bad buy. [/quote]    -  HTML is OFF | Forum Code is ON    Insert a File     Check here to include your profile signature.