Bad North (2018)

I played it in many platforms because of promotions and stuff, and, even though the games does not have cross save, it is not annoying to start over, seems like a good challenge.

I am only giving it a 4 due to some missing cloud saves, even though it is not that bad, I want to keep my file to progress it even furter overtime.

It has a cute art direction, simple instructions, but deep strategy gameplay, you have to be fast and precise with your decisions.

I greatly recommend it.

This minimalist RTS is "larger on the inside" - It has somewhat more nuance and details than are apparent at first. With only 3 unit types and a maximum of 4 units per battle, it could have been very limited. Instead, it's only ...err, moderately limited.

Fighting battles on these tiny islands is all about unit location/management and the calculated use of special abilities. It's not about grand planning, because there is none. Traits and items add seasoning, although the latter are again limited by the inability to transfer items. The roster of enemies is also quite limited, but the game manages to do quite a lot with that roster. I found this combination to be like a neat strategy snack between bigger meals. Like a snack, it's small and sweet, but will give you a stomach ache if you eat too much at one time. The variety just isn't there. There's also no story or characters, so Banner Saga this isn't.

Too bad the default setting is "no level restarts" as that makes the almost-linear campaign into very hard once something goes wrong. The interesting/hard decision points are mainly which troop to send to fend of which incoming enemy and when to bite the bullet and send a troop to regroup/heal inside a house, which makes it unavailable for a time. Still, it's quite fun in bursts, if not super-engrossing, and very stylized.

This is an interesting little strategy rogue-lite, that's about resource management. Except, the resources aren't gold or materials, it's 'fatigue', essentially. You get a little army of commanders that you can upgrade with coins you get from saving the islands (there are three classes, as well as passive bonuses that certain commanders get, and special items that can be equipped to any commander, though once an item is equipped, it's equipped for good), and each turn each commander can join in the defense of one island.

You can send up to four commanders to defend an island (though if you can defend an island with fewer, you'll have more commanders to send to another island that turn).

Each island is a short wave-based real-time strategy (though the game slows to basically paused while you're giving commands), and the commands you can give are very simple. But in all those simple choices, there's a certain elegance and depth to the game.

If any of what I've written here piques your interest, I'd say, check it out.

Also, in a similar vein, the same company that made this also made the Kingdom series, which is also a very minimalistic wave-based defense game that manages to use what little it has to surprisingly big effect.

I generally like strategy games and dislike rogue-likes so i figured this would be a mixed bag for me. And i was right! Bad North is a RTS with a slowdown function in which you pick islands to attack, move troops across the tiny maps, use abilities and pick upgrades to buy. Oh, and you can pick which units you use and if you want to retreat a unit. That's it, that's all your options.

It's very simple and while positioning is important, this isn't Warhammer Fantasy Battle so don't expect too much depth there. I think the main appeal is that it's a game you can just pick up and play. The interface is crystal-clear, you can just dive in on Easy difficulty and because of the way you gain resources upgrading seems to go quite organically (class > skill > upgrade). Plus you can replay a mission if you fail.

But yeah, as someone who has been playing strategy games since Dune 2 this is far too simplistic for me, especially combined with the procedurally generated stuff. I dunno, i just prefer properly crafted maps for strategy games.

I had about 12 bad runs in a row when I started BN. I overextended my soldiers. I sent in a bad pairing. I didn't flee when it became obvious I should. I lost over and over and over again. But I didn't stop playing. It was a little worm stuck in my brain. Kinda like the beginning of Bloodborne (or whatever your first Souls game was), losing just encouraged me. I never made it far in those first 12 runs. I didn't really taste the real challenges of the game. I just replayed the intro a dozen times.

And then it clicked.

The only reward you get for beating Bad North is a sense of pride. You had to be patient. You had to be knowledgeable. You had to be strategic. Defeating the vikings on normal is no easy task. Without extra missions or costumes or what have you, victory still felt excellent. It was a sigh of relief and a raised chin.

I really loved the game until I beat it. As a procedurally generated game, you would think it would have lots of replay value. But once you win, I kinda think you've seen everything there is. And that is okay. It took me a while to get to the finish line so my money felt well spent.

If you like strategy, tower defense, roguelite, or just games that beat you up- give Bad North a shot.

Minimalistic striking visuals and roguelike gameplay that might underwhelm genre veterans, but for the rest of us offers depth and challenge that less restricted RTS games can only aspire to. Not bad!

I think that's the last of them.

"It's the goddamn Brute Archers again." If there's one thing Bad North sure knows, it's how to deliver a swift difficulty (s)pike to the abdomen. Beneath its colourful islets and cute sprites beats a sadistic heart.

I've played both the original and recent Jotunn beta build and I'm a fan of a lot of the changes. It's a radical retinkering to be sure. That North could be so fundamentally transformed in some areas of its design off of feedback is to be commended. This is updating done right and I can't wait for the final realisation of Jotunn.

Bad North is a roguelike RTS game that at first glance looks like it's been stripped of any meat on its bones. If you ever think this then your swift failures should give you pause. Aside from a few later abilities, the simple repositioning of your troops is going to be your main mechanical determinant in swinging the tide of battle against the Viking hordes. Those hordes eerily drift in in staggered waves of boats to lay waste to the buildings you're there to protect. The more you protect, the more coins you'll earn to invest in upgrades. Upgrades provide you class specialisations, abilities and boosts in each that you'll desperately want to preserve in your rotation. You take a max of four commanders and their troops onto an island, but lose every member of a group and that's the end for them and the good coin you invested into them. Good luck progressing through the archipelago of horrors to come with too many sacrifices under your belt. Lose them all and its game over.

Yeah, I wasn't even protecting that one, so it doesn't count.

The best feature of North's updates is one that actually violates its core design most - restarts and checkpoints. Perhaps the unfairest aspect of North is that recovery from a mistake often doesn't feel worth pursuing. Where failure in most roguelikes usually leads to a swift restart, North with its lengthy runs lets you fail in slow motion as the loss of your best troops sabotages you down the line for a feedback loop of failure. This pressures you to play more conservatively - spreading your upgrades to more commanders than a go-to four, but as difficulty ramps up and since coins in the new update prove harder to obtain, you're also feeling an opposite pressure to at least get some commanders sufficiently outfitted for the fights to come. If you feel too clamped by the design, restarts at least offer a way out, to progress, and also a way to learn the levels and the game as a whole.

Why not just lower the difficulty you might say? I'll tell you - normal is blisteringly hard. Nevermind the new very hard mode. It lulls you into a feeling of security. Islands are perfected with nary a trip-up. Waves are manageable enough that simple, anticipatory placement to where they'll land is more than sufficient. You build up your upgrades, and then it takes a turn. I was hitting levels for which I had to resort to the restart dozens of times. Whilst the opportunity to build yourself up before getting knocked down is welcome, perhaps a more consistent feeling difficulty across a run would be better. If you don't make use of the restarts, it could be very frustrating indeed to be thrown back to a much duller stage of the map without being able to hone your skills properly for the fight ahead.

There's no defending this one against climate change.

The level/island select - a map of the archipelago - demands its own strategy and has been vastly improved in the updates. Now that you can see the enemy types you'll have to face as well as the coin you'll likely earn from the number of buildings or potential items/commanders you can gain, so you can choose in an informed way - weighing up the risk of losing one of your heavily-invested in best against resources. You can plan out a route to maximise the number of islands you defend or blow right through in a straight line (not advisable). After a certain number of turns islands become inaccessible, so you have to be efficient! After an island is successfully defended, you no longer need to earmark coins for particular commanders, you just have a common pool for upgrades. New commanders are more worth finding now too since they'll have unique traits to take advantage of.

Minimalism is what Bad North strives for and it achieves it in perhaps the best way. Its presentation is clean and striking - prioritising clear visibility over extraneous detail. Its islands are almost playdough-like with their distinct shapes and clean stacks on stacks. As your commanders die in action, blood stains the land and colour drains from the world so that red is all that remains. It's striking minimalism that pays attention to the detail that should be omitted so as to enhance others.

The gameplay too ensures you're overwhelmed by Vikings and not its systems. Outside of careful grid-placement of units to ensure archers are laying down fire on approaching boats, knights are ready to run in and engage, and pikemen are lying in wait at choke points, you only need to contend with a few items and skills. For example, the warhammer that knocks enemies and allies into the air (and hopefully to a watery grave) and the warhorn that replenishes units for a commander instantly without the wait time of recovering in a house. There are only single skills available to each of the three classes to bear in mind - an onslaught of arrows, charging pikes and a plunge attack from higher ground. Whilst North plays out in real-time, it does generously slow time whilst you've selected a unit. All of this actually makes for great strategy. Which commanders do you bring in? Where do you safely sit your archers? Which houses will you protect? Where do you station your units so that they're not vulnerable to archers and do you use your knights' shields to protect them? What enemies do you save your skills for and can you maximise their effectiveness by exploiting the water? If a commander is running low on units do you send them to replenish their numbers and risk having no one to defend an area? Bad North demonstrates that minimalism isn't just less of everything, but how to do more with less.

They may take our land, but I draw the line at our...

If anything I think a run is too on the long side. As a strategy roguelike, North doesn't have much company. Compared to shooter roguelikes, North can't quite offer the twitch-engagement in the testing of reflexes or the sheer variety of such titles, and so the hours required can drag. However, Bad North is undoubtedly a unique proposition. Offering minimalistic visuals that are striking for it and minimalistic gameplay that might underwhelm hardened veterans of the genre, but for the rest of us still offers depth and challenge that many less restricted strategy games can only aspire to. 'Bad North' is anything but.