Bad North

4th June, 2024

I don't know why I bought this. I think I put it on my wishlist ages ago and still had vaguely postive memories of it. Anyways, it was on offer for cheap so I figured I'd pick it up and try it out. It's a grid based real time tactics game, but with small levels and a roguelike structure. Unfortunately, there's not too much to say about it beyond that.

In the battles you control up to 4 commanders with a small squad of soldiers. They can come with a unique trait, making a them a bit distinct from each other, and this can be furthered by upgrading them with items and giving them a class. However... this aspect is lacking. There simply isn't enough choices to make. For example, each charcter starts as the base class - which can then be upgraded to one of three - archer, infantry and pikes. Unfortunately, that's as far as it goes. You can upgrade the classes to get stronger, but I was hoping there would be more choices to spice things up down the line. If not class, then this could have been what skills were for but each class only has one skill as well, which are all a bit basic.

As an intro, I appreciate that the three classes act as a rock paper scissors system. Pikes beat infantry, infrantry beats archers, archers beat pikes. It's the sort of thing that can provide an easy way to start getting good at the game, as well as provide a good basis for later gameplay. I also like the way each level works - enemies come on boats, which tells you what's coming and starts the process of figuring out where the chokepoints are for them, or how you're going to prevent them from setting fire to the islands houses. The better you are at protecting them, the more rewards you get. A simple but effective system. And the levels are varied enough as well.

Overall, it's not something that engaged me for long. Nothing particularly wrong with it, but it lacks enough substance to be something I would keep coming back to. Or play for more than a few hours.