Rating
Bad North
"Bad North is a minimalistic real-time tactics roguelite game that combines a charming aesthetic and simple, accessible controls with a surprisingly deep combat simulation."
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Bad North Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
Amazingly the Nintendo Switch has had more than a few light strategy games released in recent weeks: Element and Crush Your Enemies also both aspire to be accessible, simplified, but not unintelligent strategy games. Bad North is leagues ahead of the other two in terms of quality, however. It’s a rare example of where the randomisation of the roguelike structure doesn’t feel like a lazy excuse to ignore level design. Rather, it provides a canvas to allow some of the cleanest and engaging tactical action that we’ve seen in quite some time play out.
Games about viking invaders usually don't have the minimalist, almost cute aesthetic of Bad North, but this game really makes it work. The simpicity of the d
Bad North is an oddity, as it's quite a niche game wearing a casual game's clothing. It's a rogue-like real-time strategy game, but don't let that scare you off -- it takes a minimalist approach, throwing out a lot of the fiddly stuff associated with the genre in its pursuit of purity. The result is an extremely lean experience that finds an interesting balance between speaking to both veterans and novices of tactical titles.
Bad North is, broadly speaking, a hard game to recommend even if I came out the other side enjoying it. The style and thoughtful minimalist reworking of the real-time strategy game is exemplary, but the unrelenting back half of the roguelike adventure can sour a good time. I can wholeheartedly recommend Bad North if you fall into either of these camps: someone who’s into a novel RTS twist on the good old-fashioned hard-as-hell roguelike or someone who can chill out to a brutal yet serene RTS that has some rough edges.
Bad North has a lot of potential, but it wastes most of that by doubling down on simplicity over depth. In many rogue-lite games starting a new run is an exciting prospect, as you know your newly acquired player skill will carry you through, but the slower pace here makes it feel a lot more like having to do the hoovering again because someone ate a pastry with no regard for your nice clean carpet.
All Bad North needs, really, is a little bit more consistency within the random, because currently it’s an experience that I want to go back to, yet am frustrated by. This makes for a confusing and upsetting play session. Alternatively, if somebody could send me several tiny, square islands with several tiny, square armies on them, that would also solve all my problems