This year, Northgard assumed a place in my peripheral vision. It went Steam Early Access at the beginning of the year, not when the world was inundated with boatloads of real-time strategy games, per se, but when the world was inundated with fan-freaking-tastic AAA action titles.
So, I got distracted and let Northgard fall by the wayside. That's my mistake. Because in the nine months it's been maturing in Early Access, it's soaked up accolades from Rock, Paper, Shotgun and PC Gamer, and has 90% Very Positive Steam user reviews.
Northgard's Vikings have got your longships and your longhouses, your battle axes and war cloaks, a Warcraft-inspired art style, and a respect for a neatly sorted UI. It's got your exploration, colony expansion, resource exploitation, and a few wild animals and Norse mythological creatures to keep the sense of adventure brewing.
Northgard just unleashed a new clan into the mix: the Clan of the Boar. They like to rough it more than the other clans, never complaining that they don't get improved housing, and being a little more steeped in lore and primitive living. Sounds like my kind of clan.
Northgard is in Steam Early Access now and aims for an early 2018 launch.
