"It's grim up north," it's said in the UK - often sardonically by northerners. They don't know the half of it. We're north of north now, where the hills are high and craggy - a reflection of the people that live between them, constantly bracing for outside intrusion. The pines are tall and spiky, just like the pikes we've fashioned from their branches. I'm grateful for these natural defences against the oncoming assault. We stand on the beaches, sharp sticks pointed outwards, ready to poke the i...

I loved Bad North back when I reviewed it. It's a doomy game about fighting off invading forces, set on a chilly archipelago strung across the edge of the world. It's one of those games where brilliantly simple mechanics - three kinds of units, very straightforward victory and loss conditions for each scrappy battle - are married to rich atmospheric details. The seas here are glassy and still, each island a bleached eruption of cold earth. You feel the cold, the wind, and you get a sense of how ...

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time. I have written several times about the tiny Norse boys of Bad North. This mini strategy game sees you marshalling different squads of troops to defend a procedurally generated island from viking invaders. (more…)

Great news! Bad North has been nominated for two awards at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2020! Game of the Year Pocket Gamer People's Choice Award The awards show will take place Tuesday January 21st, so be sure to send those good luck vibes! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32412536/7d57271a6fa24201efc355b892d3e50eaf51a5ed.png

Half-Life: Alyx, finally unveiled today by Valve, will be free for everyone who owns the Index VR headset. But what if you don't own an Index VR headset? For the next seven days, you can get Bad North: Jotunn Edition for free from the Epic Games Store instead. Bad North is a stylish "real-time tactics roguelike" about an island kingdom (actually a whole bunch of islands) being invaded by Vikings. Your job is to hold them off while your people evacuate, a process complicated by the...