Northern Journey is probably the most immersive game I have ever played. The atmosphere, music and sound effects are all beyond fantastic. It somehow depicts nature kind of lo-fi but at the same time in the most realistic fashion I ever saw in a video game. Beautiful as I imagine the legendary Hyperborea of ancient myths to be.

The beginning and mid game feel like a mystical journey with more open landscape and a lot of exploration. This feeling is kind of lost as you close to the end when the environments are more linear and combat encounter heavy and the whole experience starts to resemble a standard level-based fps. The ending is abrupt but actually kind of ok. Very similar to the original Half-Life.

The combat is the worst part - although still very much decent - mainly because all weapons shoot fairly slow projectiles and, additionally, most (besides the weakest ones) are single shot and have long or very long reload animations. It doesn't help that most enemies move fast and some (godd@mn trollspiders!) can also dodge pretty well.

The shooting mechanics are more suited for slower, more calculated segments than arena fights. Hunting oversized ticks in Sourwood when you scan the treetops as you carefully advance through the infested ravine and down your prey one after another with well placed shots from your trusty bow...what an experience! Like a cunning hunter of old tales. Sprinting around an arena like a maniac, chugging countless health potions while trying to out-dps an extremely aggressive boss who's constantly on your tail is not unfun by any means but it can't really compare. The silliness of such fights is refreshing though.

The enemy variety is huge and some are only encountered a couple of times. That the dev bothered to model and animate the killer crustacean infesting the water-filled caves of Drowned Veins, of which there are only few exemplars, and also included a harpoon thrower to fight it truly shows their passion and is no less than admirable.

Non-combat, non-exploration activities - riding ziplines, cave diving, flying a glider and several others - are all great fun. This must be the first time in my gaming career I have wished these sections were longer.

I would welcome a melee weapon, a possibility of (limited) rock climbing and, most of all, a defensive move. Any of those would necessitate a substantial difficulty rebalancing to not make the game trivial though. The game is well balanced by the way. The maximum difficulty offers a good challenge to someone well accustomed to playing FPS'.

The fact that a single dev was able to build a game looking, sounding and feeling so great - not to mention it's fairly well optimized because I got super smooth 60 fps on my sh!tty laptop - in a time when large AAA teams routinely deliver semi-playable, broken-on-release games with insane hardware requirements seems almost out of this world. I'd be watching any of their future projects closely.

An amazing experience and a true work of art, and the few drawbacks I have listed can't change that. Not perfect by any means, but nothing really is. A wonderful game with a strong identity which I'd recommend to absolutely everybody. I am booking a trip to Norway soon. 10/10

Northern Journey is probably the most immersive game I have ever played. The atmosphere, music and sound effects are all beyond fantastic. It somehow depicts nature kind of lo-fi but at the same time in the most realistic fashion I ever saw in a video game. Beautiful as I imagine the legendary Hyperborea of ancient myths to be. The beginning and mid game feel like a mystical journey with more open landscape and a lot of exploration. This feeling is kind of lost as you close to the end when the environments are more linear and combat encounter heavy and the whole experience starts to resemble a standard level-based fps. The ending is abrupt but actually kind of ok. Very similar to the original Half-Life. The combat is the worst part - although still very much decent - mainly because all weapons shoot fairly slow projectiles and, additionally, most (besides the weakest ones) are single shot and have long or very long reload animations. It doesn't help that most enemies move fast and some (godd@mn trollspiders!) can also dodge pretty well. The shooting mechanics are more suited for slower, more calculated segments than arena fights. Hunting oversized ticks in Sourwood when you scan the treetops as you carefully advance through the infested ravine and down your prey one after another with well placed shots from your trusty bow...what an experience! Like a cunning hunter of old tales. Sprinting around an arena like a maniac, chugging countless health potions while trying to out-dps an extremely aggressive boss who's constantly on your tail is not unfun by any means but it can't really compare. The silliness of such fights is refreshing though. The enemy variety is huge and some are only encountered a couple of times. That the dev bothered to model and animate the killer crustacean infesting the water-filled caves of Drowned Veins, of which there are only few exemplars, and also included a harpoon thrower to fight it truly shows their passion and is no less than admirable. Non-combat, non-exploration activities - riding ziplines, cave diving, flying a glider and several others - are all great fun. This must be the first time in my gaming career I have wished these sections were longer. I would welcome a melee weapon, a possibility of (limited) rock climbing and, most of all, a defensive move. Any of those would necessitate a substantial difficulty rebalancing to not make the game trivial though. The game is well balanced by the way. The maximum difficulty offers a good challenge to someone well accustomed to playing FPS'. The fact that a single dev was able to build a game looking, sounding and feeling so great - not to mention it's fairly well optimized because I got super smooth 60 fps on my sh!tty laptop - in a time when large AAA teams routinely deliver semi-playable, broken-on-release games with insane hardware requirements seems almost out of this world. I'd be watching any of their future projects closely. An amazing experience and a true work of art, and the few drawbacks I have listed can't change that. Not perfect by any means, but nothing really is. A wonderful game with a strong identity which I'd recommend to absolutely everybody. I am booking a trip to Norway soon. 10/10