CHAIRQASITION: Northguard

This week you intrepid heroes build a snowman, manage resources, and attempt to enjoy some real time 4X.

CHAIRQUISITION:

– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: Northguard
Webzone: Northgard
Devel: Shiro Games
Engine: https://github.com/HeapsIO/heaps
Price: £23.79 / US$29.99 / CA$33.99

Wazzat: Northgard is a strategy game based on Norse mythology in which you control a clan of Vikings vying for the control of a mysterious newfound continent.

Mandatory Disclosure: Pennywise bought us copies

Venn:

Does It Launch

It works great.
Kidding, no option to adjust resolution or run in a window.

Performance @ 1080

N/A
I’m guessing it runs around 60 @2160 but that’s a guess since Steam overlay no worky.

Graphics

Looks like a nice mobile game.

Control

WASD, logical.

Jordan:

Does It Launch

yerp

Performance @ 1080

I mean, no real issues. Can’t see the ferps cuz of no overlay

Graphics

Holy UI scaling batman!
There isn’t really a resolution option. You got fullscreen, which only work if you tick the exclusive box
- No poly resolutions for you
By default on a UHD screen, the UI isn’t scaled and everything is all itty bitty. You have to set that manually.

Control

Left click to select, right click to do
Right click also selects all units of a type from the UI

Pedro:

Does It Launch

That it does

Performance @ 1080

It comes with something called automatic VSync.
Couldn’t tell you what it does differently to regular Sync to VBlank

Graphics

No resolution options.
UI scaling isn’t particularly impressive, as text becomes a bit blurry at 2x.

Control

Rebindable controls and several other options to allow you to scroll the map around.

QA Score:

Fedora:
Soulless:
Ubuntu:

Fun section:

Fun?:

Venn:
- This is delightfully generic as all hell.
- It went like this.
- Build shit, build more shit, explore, try to keep people happy, colonize, build more shit and you’re two hours in wondering just WTF you should be doing.
- Two hours in I better have the slightest fucking idea what’s going on, I didn’t.
- It has multiplayer but at 6:30 pm on a Saturday a whopping 10 people were playing… in the world.
- I guess it’s kinda like Civ, if Civ was made with crayons, some glue sticks, and a few extra chromosomes.
- If you like games like 0 A.D. keep playing 0 A.D., it’s a better game.
- Sorry not sorry but Northguard left me with nothing more than a frosty hate-boner.
- And apparently the MSRP for hate boners is 29.99.
Jordan
- They took a 4X game and added some real time elements to it, so you can wait!
- The waiting reduces as you progress, just cuz you have a lot more stuff to do or manage
- Get buildings to get units to gather resources to do more building to get more units
- Also gotta keep your doods happy or they won’t fuck
- However, this is the sort of lonely fun that doesn’t really appeal to me. At least there’s multiplayer
- It’s not like I have any sort of irrational hatred for this game, I personally just don’t find it entertaining
- I can’t really find anything wrong with it beyond it being fairly generic viking game number 87542 and that this particular sort of grindy loop doesn’t appeal to me
Pedro
- Jordan’s description is perhaps the most fitting.
- It’s a real time 4X with exponentially increasing timers and costs for exploring.
- Which means you’re going to be waiting… a lot!
- But I feel like waiting is not such a bad thing.
- One of the reasons I liked Age of Empires 2 back in the day is because you had plenty of time to do everything.
- Which made me realize, I don’t hate Northgard.
- It’s a strategy game I don’t hate!
- Nothing better to start 2019 than a nice surprise.