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Northland
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Graphics & Sound:
I previewed Northland a few months back and as I recall I wasn't terribly impressed. It suffered from poor performance, an unbearably dull tutorial, and slow gameplay. Nothing has changed since then, and everything I stated in the preview still stands. The game is definitely a pretty one. Northland is one of the prettier 2-D strategy games I've seen in awhile. For some reason however my computer, which exceeds every minimum spec by a significant amount and runs games which significantly higher requirements than Northland, like Final Fantasy XI, can't run this 2-D game in more than 800x600 resolution without becoming exceedingly choppy. I just don't see how you can find an excuse for this. In addition to being very pretty to look at, Northland is also very pleasant to listen too. The characters, which speak their native language, are all pretty fun to listen too. The music, which wasn't included in the preview copy, is also very nice. It changes depending on where you are on the map and the current situation there. |
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Gameplay:
Northland is a real-time strategy game in the vein of Warcraft III and Age of Empires. The idea is to use all the little people you have to build up settlements and use combat units to kill your enemies. While the basic concept is the same, the execution in Northland is vastly different and not really for the better. Now to be fair it may just very well be that this game just isn't my cup of tea. I mean, I like Warcraft, and I like Civilization, but Northland is really boring. To begin with, the game really isn't as focused on combat like Warcraft and Starcraft. In those games, most of the building is just for the sake of building better/faster combat units. Northland has a MUCH slower pace. The amount of micromanagement required in this game is either a nightmare or a dream come true depending on your personal preference. There's just so much you can do with these little guys. You have to worry about things like individual marriages, mining resources, and carrying resources. That's right, you'll need a totally separate guy to take those resources to where they need to be used. That's just one example of the level of micromanagement you have to deal with in this game. It's a tad too bloated and cumbersome if you ask me.
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Difficulty:
As cumbersome and detailed as the game is, you probably won't have any trouble finishing it if you really want to. Northland has three difficulty settings, Normal, Easy, and Easiest. When they say easiest, they aren't messing around. If you play the game on Easiest, you won't really need to do much building. You should be able to pump out enough combat units to clear the area of enemies with very little trouble. On Normal, you'll have to deal with the brunt of the slow, plodding gameplay as you try to weather the storm of mediocrity. It's really not that hard, there's just too damn much micromanagement.
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Game Mechanics:
I've pretty much made it clear at this point that the game requires way too much micromanagement. This also leads to an interface that's extremely cumbersome and complex. A single person can do a bazillion different things, and you have dozens and dozens of little people running around. The tutorial helps, but, as I said in the preview, it has nothing to do with the actual game and is an excruciatingly boring experience. Would it REALLY have been so hard to incorporate the tutorial missions into the story like you should have? You know, maybe have it show their journey from the Arabian courts to the location of the first campaign mission. Speaking of story, Northland is actually the sequel to Cultures 2, so it's the third game in the series. The basic idea is that Loki, he was the Norse god imprisoned in the green mask of that movie The Mask, is causing all sorts of trouble. There are tons of references to Norse Mythology, and there's even a handy reference guide in the game so you know who's who. One other note is that the game seems to have some issues with ATI Radeon cards, so you may want to watch out for that. I hate to man-handle a game so much, but, I just didn't find Northland any fun. If you like lots and lots of micromanagement or are really into Norse Mythology, you may find something to enjoy out of the game, but I'd have to say the vast majority of you would just be bored. |
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-Alucard, GameVortex Communications AKA Stephen Triche |
Minimum System Requirements:
Win 98/ME/2000/XP, Pentium III 500MHz, 128 MB RAM, 256 MB rec., 350 MB free disk space, 16 MB Graphics Card |
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Test System:
Win 98 SE, Pentium III 700MHz, 448 MB RAM, 64MB GeForce 4 MX 420 |
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