''Bad North'' is a
real-time strategy
Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, turn ...
video game developed by Plausible Concept (a game studio in
Malmö
Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
, founded by Oskar Stålberg and Richard Meredith) and published by
Raw Fury
Raw Fury AB is a Swedish video game publisher, specialising in the publication of indie games, based in Stockholm. The company was founded in 2015 by Jonas Antonsson and Gordon Van Dyke.
History
The company was founded in 2015 by Jonas Anton ...
. The game was released on August 20, 2018, for the
Nintendo Switch
The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
, then for
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
and
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
on August 28. A
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
version was released on October 16, 2018. Versions for the mobile platforms
Android and
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
followed on October 16, 2019.
Gameplay
''Bad North'' focuses on
real-time tactics
Real-time tactics (RTT)(Article at IGN discussing their perception of RTS and related genres as of 2006. RTT is discussed as a new and not yet established genre from the publisher's perspective, so currently all RTT possible titles are still con ...
gameplay. The main goals are to defend the kingdom from the attacking
Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
invaders who killed the king and to guide the island's people to evacuate. Islands have different layouts so each poses a different challenge. They are divided into multiple tiles and have houses with Vikings attacking from any corner, so the player's strategy must be well planned to get the opportunity to save the people from the enemy by protecting the houses. The Viking invaders will chuck torches into the houses, and if they burn completely the player will not earn coins for those houses. Gold is needed to get upgrades for units and level up commanders' defenses. The player can also pick up items (represented as question marks in the map) and add new commanders to the Army.
The game offers easy, normal, and hard difficulty options. A "Very Hard" option can be unlocked by completing the game on Hard.
Expansions
On July 24, 2019, a free expansion for Bad North called "Jotunn Edition" was released.
Reception
''Bad North'' received "mixed or average reviews" according to Metacritic. The game was nominated for Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year at the
D.I.C.E. Awards
The D.I.C.E. Awards (formerly the Interactive Achievement Awards) is an award show in the video game industry started in 1998 and commonly referred to in the industry as the "video games Academy Awards, Oscar". The awards are arranged by the Ac ...
.
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{Portal bar, Video games
2018 video games
Nintendo Switch games
PlayStation 4 games
PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced games
Xbox One games
Indie video games
IOS games
Android (operating system) games
Real-time strategy video games
Single-player video games
Video games developed in Sweden
Windows games
Video games set in the Viking Age
Raw Fury games