Bad North
Bad North
Bad North, développé par Plausible Concept et édité par Raw Fury, est sorti le 20 août 2018 sur PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch et Xbox One. Ce roguelite tactique en temps réel, réalisé avec le moteur Unity, place le joueur dans la peau d'un jeune prince ou d'une jeune princesse dont le royaume est attaqué par des envahisseurs vikings après la mort du roi. L'histoire suit la fuite des héritiers et leur tentative désespérée de survivre en rassemblant des ressources et des bannermen loyaux face à l'horde ennemie. Le jeu propose un contrôle intelligent des unités où le joueur supervise le positionnement et la défense tandis que les soldats agissent intuitivement, sur des îles générées de manière procédurale aux configurations uniques, avec des améliorations déblocables pour renforcer les troupes. Classé parmi les genres aventure, simulation, stratégie, indépendant, réflexion et RTS, il affiche une note agrégée de 70,51 et un temps de completionist estimé à 21 heures et demie.
La presse a salué la structure roguelite comme une rare réussite où la génération aléatoire ne remplace pas le level design, et Nintendo Life l'a présenté comme un exemple de combat stratégique viking issu de la scène indépendante scandinave. Certains joueurs sur Metacritic y voient essentiellement un tower defence sur îles avec des éléments roguelite, tout en regrettant une courbe de difficulté abrupte dans le dernier tiers, tandis que d'autres sur Steam trouvent le jeu sympathique mais à l'équilibrage moyen entre archers et lanciers, et notent qu'il demande de bien réfléchir selon la difficulté. Bad North est proposé au prix de 2,99 euros.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« It's a rare example of where the randomisation of the roguelike structure doesn't feel like a lazy excuse to ignore level design. Rather, it provides a canvas to allow some of the cleanest and engaging tactical action that we've seen in quite some time play out. »
« A slice of Viking strategic combat right out of the heart of Scandinavia’s indie development scene, Bad North joins the likes of Element at the vanguard of a new wave of smart yet intrinsically accessible real-time strategy titles. With enough enemy variance to convince you you’re playing an interactive episode of the Vikings TV show, this endlessly entertaining sea of bite-size battles will teach you to fear - and love - the sound of the oncoming horde. »
« Bad North not only manages to bring the RTS genre to the consoles, but it does that in a surprisingly good way thanks to its minimalist philosophy and rewarding tactical combat system. »
« Small flaws like the lack of customisation and differing styles in enemies can be overlooked if you treat the game as it comes. Bad North is a game that manages to balance the fine line between puzzle game and simulation delivering a tactical roguelike which constantly feels refreshing. »
« The artistic quality and the simple but complete mechanics make Bad North an essential game for those who love RTS. Simply beautiful. »
« A great game for "on the go“ for those that like to relax, then think and then rip their hair out in frustration. »
« Bad North is, broadly speaking, a hard game to recommend even if I came out the other side enjoying it. The style and thoughtful minimalist reworking of the real-time strategy game is exemplary, but the unrelenting back half of the roguelike adventure can sour a good time. I can wholeheartedly recommend Bad North if you fall into either of these camps: someone who’s into a novel RTS twist on the good old-fashioned hard-as-hell roguelike or someone who can chill out to a brutal yet serene RTS that has some rough edges. »
« Endearingly minimalistic and simple enough without compromising potential depth, Bad North works surprisingly well with its premise, but is ultimately held back by from reaching the greatness it easily could have attained. A roguelike RTT is an interesting concept, but the title does suffer from a lack of traditional level design once the difficulty curve begins to spike. On top of that, freezing can occur when returning to the world map after a mission. Autosave ensures progress is never lost, but it's nonetheless frustrating. Bad North is not a bad RTS by any means, offering a fairly strong first half, but a lack of cohesion between difficulty and level design makes its back half less palatable. »
Avis des Joueurs (Metacritic)
« Bad North is essentially a tower defence game with the goal of each level being to defend a small island from invaders, rougelite elements force the play to restart or reload a significantly earlier checkpoint upon defeat. Initially I did quite enjoy this title, but with each level/island playing out in virtually the same way, it quickly became pretty repetitive and with runs lasting 2+ hours I had no desire to continue playing after just my first defeat. »
« Nice art style and unique mechanics. Comes with one of the cheapest trope though: difficulty curve suddenly shoots upward at the final third of the game all of a sudden to keep you from finishing it. If you don't get lucky, you will end up wasting a few good hours on nothing. »
« I recent bought three games and this is the best of the three. It is better than sparks of hope and also better than deaths door. It’s fun. Simple. Relaxing. »
« put simply, this game is fun !!!! i switch the blood off ,great option this game relaxes me a lot, and i ENJOY THIS MINIMALIST STRATEGY WAR GAME i spent more than 200 hours, cant stop playing it in switch ps5 an xbox NEED MORE GAMES LIKE THIS AND DLC »
« Really cool rogue like RTS comprised of procedurally generated small maps where battles from 30 sec to about 2 minutes unfold. There are minor upgrades that carry over between playthroughs, but I personally would’ve liked there to be more. The gameplay is very satisfying and surprisingly deep. Recommend to anyone who likes the RTS genre »
« A truly fantastic game. The "5" to "7" reviews are mind boggling. Message to reviewers hating to restart the campaign: there is a menu option for level re-starts! lol. The difficulty curve is gradual, with some tough characters added in that can admittedly destroy your whole crew. That said, even not using level restarts, the game features checkpoints, so you can save after five to six levels or so. I finally bought it on sale in 2022, after hesitating because of the common 7/10 reviews. Nintendo life gave it a 9/10 and it's so deserved. Easy mode is too easy for me. I beat normal mode using level re-starts. That was incredibly fun and helped me get situated. Now I'm halfway through a perma-death run on Normal. It's so tense and exciting. Can not put this game down for three days straight now! »
« it just didnt keep me entertained. Visually its pretty nice. The pacing, controls and gameplay are just a bit off for me. Played for an hour and uninstalled »
« Easy to learn strategy game with a beautiful minimalist art style. Get it when it is on sale. »
