Nordhold
Last updated: 2025-03-27
- Excellent genre fusion creates addictive gameplay.
- High replayability due to strategic depth.
- Rewarding meta-progression enhances the experience.
- Tower defense roguelite hybrid with varied runs.
- Meta-progression reliance can feel excessive.
- Tower balance and clarity need improvement.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 87% · Negative 13%. Score: 13 / 100
Positives:
- The game masterfully blends tower defense with roguelike, city-building, and resource management elements, creating a uniquely addictive and engaging experience. Its innovative mechanics and well-balanced gameplay make it a standout title in the tower defense genre, offering both depth and accessibility.
- The game boasts high replayability due to its randomized elements, strategic depth, and meta-progression system. Each run presents fresh challenges and encourages experimentation with different strategies, ensuring long-term engagement.
- Many reviewers found the game to be highly addictive, with some noting that it can consume a lot of time. This is a general sentiment without specific details, so the importance is reduced.
- Reviewers who played the demo were impressed with the full game, noting that it is more extensive and complete. This indicates that the developers built upon a strong foundation and delivered a polished final product.
- The game features a rewarding meta-progression system that allows players to unlock permanent upgrades and options after each run. This provides a satisfying sense of long-term growth and encourages players to learn from their failures.
Negatives:
- The game heavily relies on meta-progression, forcing players to grind and unlock essential features before they can effectively play or win. This makes initial playthroughs feel restrictive and can lead to frustration, as the game withholds content and strategic options until sufficient meta-power is acquired. Some reviewers feel this mechanic overshadows skill and luck.
- The game suffers from balance issues, particularly with towers. Some towers are considered too weak or ineffective, while others are overpowered, leading to a lack of strategic diversity. Tower descriptions are also unclear, requiring trial and error to understand their effective use.
- The reviewer dislikes the muted color palette, the hero faces, and the minimalist graphics. These are subjective opinions and do not provide specific feedback on gameplay mechanics.
- The base management aspect feels like a chore due to a cumbersome UI and a lack of depth. Reviewers feel the coordination between city management and tower defense construction is too rigid and lacks the fun of conventional management games.
- Honour points can be farmed too quickly, allowing the player to unlock the entire game too fast. This can lead to a lack of long-term engagement.
Gameplay:
- The game blends tower defense with roguelike elements, resource management, and city building. Players strategically place and upgrade towers, manage resources, and adapt to randomly generated maps and enemy paths in each run. The game also features meta-progression, allowing for permanent upgrades.
- Players must strategically allocate limited resources and personnel to gather resources, construct buildings, and defend the castle gate. Efficient resource management is crucial for upgrading towers and the city, enhancing overall defense capabilities. The game also requires in-game management of auxiliary building construction and upgrades.
- Players can upgrade their city, towers, and buildings to enhance resource gathering and defensive capabilities. Relics primarily enhance global aspects rather than specific towers, influencing city building resource management.
- The game lacks a traditional endless mode, with difficulty increasing through waves. Permanent upgrades are available using points earned after game overs, providing a sense of progression.
- Creating longer, winding routes for enemies is a key strategy, utilizing ice towers and damage-boosting banners to slow and damage them. Initial defense often involves placing rune towers on high ground near the entrance.
Performance:
- The game's performance is generally smooth, with some players noting good optimization and a lack of bugs. However, some players recommend using FSR, even on Nvidia cards, to improve performance if needed. This suggests that while the game is mostly optimized, some systems may require additional tweaking for optimal performance.
- The game includes support for 21:9 aspect ratios, which provides a more immersive experience for players with ultrawide monitors. This is a positive feature for players who value visual fidelity and screen real estate.
Recommendations:
- The game is overwhelmingly recommended, especially for fans of the tower defense and roguelite genres. Reviewers praise its engaging mechanics, replayability, and depth, with many considering it a standout title in the genre. Some suggest trying the demo first.
- While many reviewers find the game worth the purchase price, some suggest that the current price may be too high. They propose a lower price point would be more reasonable, or recommend waiting for a sale or further development before buying.
- These points express general positive sentiments or subjective preferences without providing specific, actionable feedback. They do not offer concrete details about gameplay mechanics, features, or player experiences.
- The reviewer recommends trying the free demo before purchasing the full version. This allows players to experience the core gameplay and determine if it aligns with their preferences before committing to a purchase.
- The reviewer hopes for early improvements to address technical issues. This suggests that the game may currently suffer from performance problems or other technical flaws that detract from the player experience.
Miscellaneous:
- Reviewers expressed their excitement about the game's release and satisfaction with its price, including early discounts. Some reviewers also disclosed receiving a free copy, affirming their commitment to objectivity.
- The game's art style is inconsistent due to the use of free, low-poly asset packs. This is especially noticeable in hero portraits, where the clashing styles detract from the overall visual experience.
- The developers have shared a roadmap that includes plans to adjust game balance and meta progression. This indicates an ongoing commitment to improving the gameplay experience based on player feedback.
- The developer is actively engaging with the community on Discord and providing demo codes. This responsiveness fosters a positive relationship with players and allows for direct feedback and support.
