Northgard is a Real-time strategy city builder game that is being developed by Shiro Games, an Indie studio founded in 2013 who also happens to have published the game as well. The game is based on the Norse mythology during the time of Vikings where you control a clan of Vikings in order to help them capture mysterious newfound lands from nearby continents for them to settle and defend for. As of now the game sits at a 91% positive review base on steam store and was released as an early access on 22nd of February 2017.
Northgard has quite a significant amount of exploration where you start off by setting sails for faraway mysterious regions, you set foot on shores of new continents and begin to conquest newfound lands with your Vikings (Warrior, Farmer, Sailor, Loremaster...) . You begin settling on your conquered lands which has a fair amount of trading and diplomacy as well that you can perform with other surrounding clans. The world of Northgard is scattered with wolves, dire wolves, undead warriors, giants whom you may or may not befriend with and one of your objective is to survive the harshest of winters witnessed in the North. The game also throws at you resources that you should carefully manage to survive winters and different conditions to attain victory through conquest, trading, lore and fame.
In Northgard, Villagers who produce food are automatically assigned to you clan during start-up to explore your regions and stockpile as much food as possible. Once labourers have gathered enough food to sustain themselves, then comes the part where they begin construction process for buildings and huts which will in-turn help you increase your population. Scouts can also be sent on journeys across different terrains in search for food. Once when players reach the shorelines, they can launch raids using Viking ships on other areas across the sea. Northgard does an impressive job of micromanaging the milliary units and workers on the auto. When within the boundaries of your homeland, the millitary and worker units will automatically roam around doing their work however they can still be assigned to do manual tasks as per player's needs.
Northgard features a dynamic weather and a year system with ever-changing seasons. Going to war in the harshest of snows storms and bad weather is never easy as millitary units suffer from increased fatigue during snow storms while planning to attack at the right time of the season be it summer or winter, it can either make or break clans. Units can suffer from combat penalties in distant unknown lands while fighting for survival. Players can also get lucky while discovering new lands with unexplored riches, irons and resources on lands and areas where their enemies do not dare to travel because of harsh weathers at times. Blizzards and earthquares may also occur during different times of the year which can be catastropic and damaging to settlements tho the game already warns players beforehand if any significant weather changes approach towards them.
Northgard has six different playable clans on its current build. The factions/clans in the game are Fenrir the Clan of wolves, Eikthyrnir the Clan of Stags, Heidrun the clan of goats, Bjarki the clan of bears, Slidrugtanni the clan of boars and Huginn-Muninn the clan of the ravens. Each clans has their own unique traits and starting bonuses along with a Lore tree used for providing bonuses through knowledge that the clans obtain in the fields of production, military, economy and various others. Units such as villagers, loremasters, brewers, skalds, smiths, sheeps, healers, miners, farmers, hunters, fishermen, woodcutters, merchants, sailors and scouts can be found scattered throughout the different clans in Northgard.
Early Access Roadmap.
Developer Shiro Games is planning for the game to stay on early access for approximate of 4 to 12 months, 4 being their rare minimum in order to implement new features and changes. The game already features a fully playable Multiplayer mode and a story driven campaign is in works, the devs are planning to add more playable clans/factions with different and unique gameplay traits. The current build is the alpha version with all core gameplay mechanics in good state and others awaiting optimization and tweaking but mostly bug free. The developers plan to use the steam community forums in order to gather and discuss feedback and make new changes which is one of their key aspects in their development process. The Early Access version has been said to be slightly cheaper than the full release with -25% discount already being put up on the steam store for winter sales.
System Requirements.
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows Vista or better
Processor: Intel 2.0ghz Core 2 Duo or equivalent
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia 450 GTS / Radeon HD 5750 or better
DirectX: Version 10
Storage: 400 MB available space
Additional Notes: Minimum display resolution: 1366x768
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 7 or better
Processor: Intel i5 3.1 Ghz Quad core
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 660 / Radeon HD 7800 or better
DirectX: Version 10
Storage: 400 MB available space
Additional Notes: Recommended display resolution: 1440x900
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