Nords: Heroes of the North Review

Nords: Heroes of the North is a free to play MMO strategy game that you can play through your browser. It’s an easy game to start as all you need to do to log in is use your existing Facebook account, or create a new one. There are no long loading times, and nor do you have to download any of the game data either.

The game has a simple premise as the game is set in the land called Shingard. This land is home to many different races that consist of the likes of Men, Orcs, Elves and other fantasy based creatures and beings. The factions need to work together to fend off an evil being called the Ice Queen has herself and her army intend to cover the world in ice.

The first thing that you do in Nords: Heroes of the North is listening to King Bjorn who is your tutor during the game’s tutorial. The one thing I like about the game is that King Bjorn is fully voiced by an actor. The voice actor playing King Bjorn is Patrick Warburton who is most famous for playing characters like Joe from Family Guy and more.

Another tutor joins in by the name of Sklad the Bard. He too is fully voiced and directs the player on the game’s controls and gameplay mechanics as well. The game does a good job of telling the player exactly everything they need to know about the game. It is one of the best tutorials I have ever seen in any video game I have played over the years.

The first task you have to do is pick a faction and the character you’d like to see as your on-screen avatar. The three factions include: Northmen, Elves and Orcs. You can choose to play as either a male or female character. All characters are premade, so there is no customization featured here. You can only choose from their own designs.

The Northmen are big men and women that look like Vikings. They specialize in strong attacks like swords and axes. The Elves are good at magic while the Orcs are more dangerous in nature, but are still strong in their own right. Nords: Heroes of the North is not those boring style of strategy games that make you wait for a long time for anything to really happen. The game has a decent pace as it’s not all about action all of the time, nor is it one of those games where you are literally just watching paint dry as your building are getting constructed.

In the first few quests, you do have to construct more buildings for your town but it’s not a long process that goes nowhere like most other strategy games do. You can even accelerate the construction of buildings so you can continue more important matters like killing the enemies that want to try and invade your Kingdom. Anything under five minutes can be accelerated for free.

After you make a few more buildings, you can then engage in your first battle. The battles are turned-based, but they are shown in full 3D and look pretty cool. The combat is great to watch and it’s far better than a boring report card that shows up in other free to play video games I’ve played. The only downside to the combat is the fact that you don’t have total control of what is happening on the screen. All you are really doing is witnessing how the simulation of the combat plays out in real time. It would have been more enjoyable if the game allowed you to actually control the characters while they are fighting in battle.

Presentation wise, Nords: War of the North is excellent. Not only is the voice work commendable, but the visuals are great to look at as well. The game has drawn inspiration from other fantasy-based works like World of Warcraft and more. This isn’t really a bad thing as the graphics are bright and colourful throughout. The music also sounds top notch as well. Overall, Nords: War of the North is a great game with high production values and gameplay that is easy to master. It promises to offer hours of fun and the excellent voice work adds another level of charm that other free to play video games usually don’t have. If you are a fan of strategy games, you should try it out. You won’t be disappointed.