Northgard: Definitive Edition

I have over 900 hours in Northgard, so this isn't a review from someone who just lost a few matches. I've played this game for years because I genuinely enjoyed it, but the current state of the game is incredibly disappointing. The clan balance is a complete mess. Instead of properly balancing existing clans, it feels like every new DLC clan is released overtuned just to drive sales. Then it takes forever to address the obvious issues, if they get addressed at all. On top of that, my recent multiplayer games have been filled with cheaters. Whether it's map hacks or other exploits, it's becoming more and more common, and it feels like there is little to no moderation. The biggest problem is that it honestly seems like none of the developers actually play their own game at a high level. Many balance changes make no sense from a competitive perspective, and obvious issues remain untouched for months. It's frustrating because Northgard has an amazing foundation, but right now it feels like it's being managed without understanding what makes the game enjoyable or fair. I can't recommend it in its current state.

A friend and I got this many years ago to play as a non-standard kind of RTS. In some ways the game was great fun and in others very frustrating. As the game picked up years and new DLC were released, issues with connectivity were not fixed, balance issues around new clans were constant, and the core mechanic around the game stayed the same, i.e. you need to econ or you will fail. You could call this game an RTS, but that would be mistaking how slow this game can be and how clans can go without focusing on troops at all. Games can take hours and that only makes the connectivity issues worse when you are trying to play any multiplayer. I don't dislike the game, but it seems to be lacking the love it needs to not be chore to play at times. A frustrating game stops being enjoyable, which is why my friend and I have stopped playing and why I would not recommend this game to others.

Only played the Singleplayer/Coop-Gamemodes and they have become so ridiculous that it just doesnt make sense or fun. For example, the AI cant use their troops, which leads to them just having 14 villagers standing around in their base. New Clans (which you pay money for) have Conquest Maps tailored against them in such a way that they are unplayable. Many more issues and bugs, some so obvious that i dont think they playtest their content.

After 35 hours, I can't really recommend this game. Not as an RTS. The Pros: Nice Visuals Distinct Factions The Cons INCREDIBLY Slow Paced Poor Resource Management System Lacking Tutorials Firstly, the promotional videos will lead you to believe this game is action packed. It's not. The pacing is incredibly slow. You'll spend most of your time just waiting on things. There's a LOT of downtime just waiting on resources, which sucks, because 90% of the game is resource management, and the resource management system is incredibly tedious. The general system is straight forward. There's happiness, food, wood, and money. Happiness - The higher your happiness, the faster your tribe grows. Each new member lowers your overall happiness. By how much? No idea. The game doesn't tell you. Food - Each person requires food. How much? No idea. The game doesn't tell you. You'll need to set up farms, hunting lodges, or fisheries for food. How much food do these buildings give? No idea. The game doesn't tell you. Wood - Wood is required to build buildings. More importantly, it's required to make firewood to heat homes. How much wood do each person need specifically? No idea. The game doesn't tell you. Money - Money is required to purchase and maintain your buildings, to purchase upgrades, and to train military units. How much does it cost to maintain buildings specifically? No idea. The game doesn't tell you. I think you can start to see the problem here. As a player, you're not really told why your people are starving, or why you're not making enough money. As a new player, you'll look at your colony and think, "I have a farm, a fishery, and a hunting lodge. That should be enough food for the rest of the game." It's not. You'll constantly be struggling to keep your people fed. The game goes through seasons, and winter will lower your production of food as well as increase your need for firewood. By how much, exactly? No idea. The game doesn't tell you. You'll constantly be trying to "fill the economic gap". Build a farm for food. Damn, now you're low on wood. Build a lumbermill for wood. Ugh you're low on money. Build a trading post for money. Crap, you don't have enough people dedicated for food again. Build a hunter's lodge for food. Ugh I have too many people. Build a brewery for happiness. All these buildings are getting expensive. Build a seaport for money ----- and it repeats OVER AND OVER AND OVER. There's this illusion of choice. You have none. You HAVE TO focus on your economy or you'll die to winter. That leads me to my second point - the illusion of choice. If you don't focus on economy, you're going to lose. That's it. There are clans that are advertised as being more "military" oriented. That's bull crap. Trying to form an early military will put you incredibly behind on economy, and you'll almost certainly die in winter. Once your food goes into the red, it's pretty much game over. Not focusing on food is a death sentence. Even then, there were several times where I DID focus on food, and I still got screwed. Overall, I don't recommend this a an RTS. You may find enjoyment as a city management sim, but, even then, the pacing is incredibly slow. Civ 6 has a faster pace than this.

The definitive edition has introduced bugs that crash and destroy the game! Unbelievable!

I've played this game for 2,900 hours. I've been playing for several years and used to love it. But the update that changed the ranked game system is a real nightmare. You used to choose the lobby you wanted to play in, you chose your team, and players usually managed to balance the ranked clans themselves. The new system is terrible. If you didn't like the clans or players, you'd simply leave the lobby. Now, after choosing your clan, you can't leave the lobby, which causes people to quit the game during the server loading screen and never join the desperate game. Why is there a game start? If not all players are present, such a game should automatically pause immediately, instead of me having to wait after starting and waste several minutes waiting for a window to exit without losing points. Another tragedy is the players' approach to ranked play. Back in the day, you'd play until the last villager was dead. Today, even the smallest thing is enough for a player to quit ranked play and leave. It's very sad. I believe the penalty system for quitting should be very strict, so that players want to play until the end, and not just leave for the slightest reason, because it's frustrating. I remember a few years ago, winning a game 2 vs. 4 or 1 vs. 2. Now, it's very difficult to play well until the last drop of blood because if something goes wrong, people immediately leave the game. The new ranking system also doesn't allow for clan balancing; you choose and can't change. It's a disaster when playing with randoms. Everyone wants to play their favorite clan, but if the opposing team suddenly plays an offensive clan, you can't change your clan because there's a lock. In the past, you could enter the clan you were playing without in the ranked lobby name, and the host had greater player selection options. Today, that's gone. I remember that games without the raven and wolf were popular back in the day, because some people preferred to play ranked games more calmly without the pressure of the wolf. The Hounds clan is a disaster. The creators must have gotten the game's genesis wrong. How could they introduce such a completely different and divergent clan into this game? The clan's balance is terrible. I feel like this clan is completely out of balance; you're either too weak or too strong. Simply killing warriors who regenerate health during combat is also irritating. The removal of the 4v4 mode from ranked play is also sad. I used to love this game, but unfortunately not anymore, the new ranked mode ruined it, because the host had no way to influence the game, players often leave the battlefield after the first battle, there used to be many such battles in one game...

Leider unspielbar geworden im Singleplayer!!! Da ich nur Singleplayer gegen Bots zocke, kann ich jedem der das selbe vorhat nur davon abraten. Das Spiel war definitiv mal eine 5/5 für mich persönlich, auch wenn es nicht perfekt war. Ich habe 629 Stunden in das Spiel versenkt und ausschließlich auf dem Schwierigkeitsgrad Extrem gespielt. Es war hart, aber fair, sodass man mit guter Taktik selbst auf einer Riesen Map gegen mehrere Feinde bestehen konnte, wenn man gut vorbereitet war. Ich hatte das Spiel aufgrund mangelnder Neuerungen einige Monate nicht mehr gespielt und bin entsetzt, was daraus geworden ist. Das Spiel ist unspielbar geworden! Die KI war natürlich schon immer im unfairen Vorteil (viel mehr Ressourcen, weniger bis keine Mali für den Winter etc.) aber das war auch nötig, weil die KI ausgenutzt werden konnte bzgl. Einheiten Management. Allerdings wurde hier stark angepasst, jetzt passiert folgendes: Alle "unfairen" Boni inkl. ausschließlicher Konzentration auf den Spieler. Sobald man auch nur einen Gegner angreift, werden erstmal Söldnerboote an den eigenen Strand geschickt, dann kommt noch eine zweite Fraktion im selben Moment mit der kompletten Armee an (die i.d.R. doppelt bis dreifach so groß ist, da die CPU keine Ressourcen sammeln muss und voll auf Militär gehen kann) und Belagert eine Kachel, sodass man seinen Angriff abbrechen muss. Das passiert jedes mal, sobald man einen Gegner angreift. Durchgehend Söldnerboote nur an dem Strand des Spielers, es wird kein anderer Spieler so wie früher angegriffen. Also lassen sich keine Ressourcen am Strand abbauen. Ein Turm reicht als Verteidigung nicht und die eigene Armee vor Ort zu lassen, macht es unmöglich zu expandieren, da der Cooldown so gering ist. Früher war es so, dass man ab und zu mal "geraidet" wurde, sodass es glaubhaft war. Vor den Änderungen wurde man auch mal bei einem Angriff auf einen Bot angegriffen, aber nicht jedes verfluchte mal. Aber es geht noch weiter: Wenn die Armee des Gegners vernichtet wurde, kommen ALLE Dorfbewohner angerannt, was bei einem Bot ohne Beschränkungen gut und gerne mal 30 aufwärts sind. Total bescheuert, jeder Spieler würde sich damit direkt ins Aus katapultieren, weil alle Ressourcen super schnell weg wären und die Dorfbewohner ne ganze Weile brauchen, bis sie wieder gespawnt sind. Somit muss man mit seiner eigenen Armee erst einmal die Armee des Bots vernichten, dann noch die Dorfbewohner und gleichzeitig noch die Armee eines anderen Bot. Einfach unspielbar. Selbst auf Schwierigkeitsgrad "Normal" tritt das verhalten auf, man hat nur weniger Wirtschaftsprobleme durch geringere Strafen im Winter etc. Leider lässt sich ein Herrschaftssieg nicht mehr erringen. Der einzige Clan, der Stark genug ist das noch zu gewinnen, ist der Oxen Clan, da je mehr Militär man hat, die Wirtschaft stärker wird. Definitiv traurig, es war lange Zeit mein Lieblingsspiel und eine schöne Abwechslung bzgl. des klassischen RTS Tempos. Es spielte sich langsamer, aber nicht weniger fordernd. Traurig, dass es so zu Ende geht. Für alle die das Spiel noch nicht besitzen und es überlegen zu kaufen: Finger weg, solang hier nicht nachgebessert wird! Eure geistige Gesundheit wird es euch danken! Sollte sich noch was ändern, werde ich die Rezension gerne anpassen.

Душевная игрулька Онлайн не советую, только нервы потратите, задроты на китайцах берут мету и играют на время, вместо того чтобы кайфовать от процесса

I have over 100 hours, because I have been with this game for a long time. I always treated it as early access, that one day they will get it figured out. It's clear they completely stopped development years ago, and instead just release DLC. Not even a Save and Quit option to continue a play through later. It's insanely poorly featured and buggy. Sad misguided studio.

好玩，上大学那会儿，天天在宿舍玩。如今还在玩，可是当年拉我入坑的人已经没了。