Northgard

Good game. It practically combines all the best from a real-time strategy and a town-building simulator. The gameplay is interesting, as is the story campaign. But the game does have a not very nice (in my opinion) monetization system, when for playing for any unique clan except the generic one you need to buy a dozens of not-so-cheap DLCs separately. That and the quick burnout from the lack of content during my time playing killed my motivation to continue exploring Northgard. I don't know if that's the case still. Overall, it's a solid game, give it a try and see if it's really your kind of thing.

A fantastic game with fantastic developers.
An indie RTS game made with a massive amount of love and care, and while the game has lots of dlc, every single one is worth it and provides a new way to play the game and strategize. There are plenty of non-dlc clans, and they still provide a lot of variety and way to play nor are they weak either.
Northgard is like a hybrid of RTS and normal strategy games, no turns and constant things to do like RTS, but strategy-like territories and the requirement to capture (or uncapture) zones to progress your own clan or destroy an enemy clan.
Every clan has it's own unique spin and none truly play the same way. An example would be the Clan of the Goat, who uses the sheep that lay about the map to produce food using their special building exclusive to them, and their own unique "lore" (which is what you'd call research trees in other games) allows them to eventually sell them for money, or allow them to upgrade their populations tools for free.
There are also multiple ways to win in Northgard, all you can disable or enable at your choosing. This includes the standard "destroy all enemies" objective where you must uncapture an enemies town hall (main building you start with) which will eliminate them from the game. However their are a lot of other ways to win, such as the "Fame" victory which requires you to have a certain amount of territory under your control, a special building, and enough "fame" which is a passive counter that increases when you do things like capturing territory, eliminating enemy clans, destroying neutral clans, etc. Every clan also gains special bonuses the more fame they have, unlocking new unique capabilities specific for that clan.
Maps are also completely randomly generated, meaning every match feels different and also has potential to have a "special" win condition, like a massive tree that if you control for long enough will grant you an immediate victory. Maps will also spawn "neutral clans" which are exclusively AI controlled and all do certain things. Kobolds for example will attempt to spread and capture nearby territories, while Dwarves simply desire to be left alone and will only retaliate if you capture a zone near them. However, every clan can build a "trading post" and is able to trade resources among ally clans, these neutral clans, and even enemy clans. The longer you trade, the more favor you gain from them. In neutral clans cases, every single one will provide unique benefits or negatives depending on what they are and what they think of you. If you ally the Dwarves for example, they will start giving you gifts, and eventually will give you two of their own dwarves to mine and forge upgrades/relics with.
I cannot express enough how much love and care was put into this game, and is still being put into it. Just fairly recently we got a new story campaign and clans that completely flip the game on it's head with it's mechanics.
As for any downsides, I'd say the game lacks polish in certain areas, such as the "expedition" menu still bugging out since release, aswell as occasional bugs where the mouse will not click on buildings if it's placed in very specific spots. These bugs are rare though, and majority of the time the game is a fun and very smooth experience. Recent updates that add new clans have also had some rocky starts, and while major things are usually fixed fairly quickly, I would hold off on purchasing any new DLC clans until a week or so has passed to iron out the kinks there may be. I wouldn't treat this latter issue as lazy developers, as the more recent clans have been absolute game changers and the bugs are most likely a result of trying many new things. However, I think the developers should very much test their updates more before releasing them. They have always fixed these major issues ASAP, but I feel as though giving the updates more time to be polished up would be a good step in the right direction.
I heavily recommend this game to anyone who enjoys RTS games, aswell as anyone looking to get into them.

---{Graphics}---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{Gameplay}---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Meh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ All
---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{Difficulity}---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{Grind}---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding
---{Story}---
☐ No Story
☐ Text or Audio floating around
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It‘ll replace your life
---{Game Time}---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond
---{Price}---
☐ It’s free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{Bugs}---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

If you mixed Age of Empires, Command and Conquer, with Vikings you'd get this game. It's easy to play and has a bit of depth with all the available DLCs. I would recommend this game. - July 2024.

Gave me hope for RTS and the modern gaming industry in general.

+ Good gameplay with interesting mechanics or twist on established ones
+ Clans play very differently without drowning you in 'extra mechanics'. Permutations and/or small variations on well thought out core mechanics offer great replayability.
+ Lots of content, fairly priced DLCs, good update-cycle
+ Good looks and sounds. In general a high amount of 'wow, there was love poured into this'-moments.
+ Coop-Conquest Mode is the most fun I had in an RTS

+/- Less hectic than SC2 or AoE2. I really like it, but I can see APM-freaks being turned off by the limited micro.

- Sometimes lobbies bug out (didn't happen since the last update so maybe fixed?)
- Please send help for some clans extreme-AI. It has some sort of brain-damage, carbon mono-oxide poisoning or crippling depression. Either way, please help it.


Overall well worth checking out. Great potential for a comfort-game.
I'm seeing myself dumping another 827+ hours on this gem.

I'd rate it a high Jötunn. Closer to a Dwarf than a Myrkalfar.

Northgard
This is a quite engaging RTS, notable for the fact that victory through military might is not the main focus, but just one of the many ways to win. It essentially makes it like 4DX, but still a real-time strategy game with an emphasis on balanced development.
You will need to pay equal attention to food and resources, defense, happiness, and financial well-being, choosing a well-considered and correct development strategy while taking into account the characteristics of your clan.
The clans in the game are quite diverse. Although their buildings often differ only slightly (with paid clans being an exception), their playstyles vary significantly! The Raven clan excels in trade (there is a trade victory condition). The Deer clan is balanced and suitable for beginners. The Goat clan has plenty of food, while the Bear clan has an additional military unit (a bear, surprisingly), and so on.
Overall, the game is highly replayable, not demanding on hardware, and especially shines in PvP with other players. Therefore, for those who love strategy games and for some reason haven't tried it yet - I highly recommend it.

---{Graphics}---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{Gameplay}---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Meh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☐ Adults
☑ All

---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{Difficulity}---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Significant brain usage
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{Grind}---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding

---{Story}---
☐ No Story
☐ Text or Audio floating around
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It‘ll replace your life

---{Game Time}---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond

---{Price}---
☐ It’s free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{Bugs}---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs