Spirit of the North

The controls and physics are too stiff to be a platformer, the puzzles are either too easy or not explained enough to be a puzzle game, and the story is too vague to be a story game. It's a cool concept but the execution is just lacking. It feels boring

i don't generally write reviews but i love foxes and fox games so i decided to give this game a try. it is not a very fun one. the game traps you in the floor, in walls, doesn't make its' mechanics very clear and overall while i'm trying to finish this puzzle do i find myself growing increasingly bored. it is a nice idea. i like some of the graphics quite a lot (though the fox markings are strange, i cannot tell if it is meant to be the "vulpes vulpes vulpes" (scandinavian red fox) or a stereotypical red fox with incorrect placement). the hitboxes are giant and aren't equal to the actual item, the parkouring is broken by either shoving you off the objects or just letting you hang on weirdly. the fox doesn't even make the correct noise!

i'm to finish this game later, but i'm really disappointed at the moment.

A very wholesome experience. Foxessss!

Sadly it isn't a good walking simulator, it does too little to explain its mechanics and most landscapes feel samey. The music and visuals are very well-done though, if generic at times.

Also, oil spills... really...?

Love love loved this game! Fantastic! I love story driven games and even though not one word was spoken throughout the game the amount of emotion I felt playing it spoke for the game. Highly reccomend!

This game is good, but it is possible to get yourself softlocked.
I wasted an hour trying to solve a puzzle and when I finally gave up, I looked it up online only to discover I was softlocked and had to replay the whole chapter.
So yeah, if you feel like you’re taking too long to solve a puzzle don’t hesitate to google the answer

Cute and whimsical game. Controlling the character is sometimes difficult. I had the game glitch out a handful of times. One time in particular, I was trying to place a staff with the shaman, shaman completely disappeared and when I went to look around the area to ensure I was in the correct spot, I accidentally dropped the staff and then couldn't pick it back up. Other times came from trying to use the spirit form and then having to use the bark on the blobs, this is hit-or-miss. Otherwise, this is a nice little game to zone out to.

Quite the chill game, the puzzles aren't too hard but it's still a lovely game.
The last achievement is a pain without a map... but still doable.

Fox/10

great game! You'll learn to enjoy it

My not-troubles:
quite easy to learn mechanics
great soundtrack; fits the with mood almost all the time
the map does not limit you too much; you can utilise your abilities to get out of the map or cheese some parts (you don't need to be infused to do so sometimes)
you can spam jump and movement to get out of the map
there are a few ways to progress in different parts, some probably being unintended

My troubles:
confusing and/or unclear in some parts (as expected of a puzzle game)
mildly infuriating to play
takes a decent amount of patience to play
you can get soft-locked on some parts
collision with objects, especially bricks, are inconsistent
you can forget where the exit is - a lot
if you drop a staff below a source, you may not be able to pick it up again
the game requires a fair bit of backtracking to progress
doing the shaman stuff requires more than a fair bit of backtracking

Visually beautiful, and the music was absolutely magical.

It was fun at the beginning..

However, I really wanted to love this game, but there are a few cons I’d like to mention:

[table]
[tr]
[th]The movement feels too linear. [/th]
[th]There's a lack of fluidity when navigating. It’s essentially just up, down, left, right controls, and I was hoping that tapping in each direction would provide some minor redirection. Instead, the movement is locked to rigid north, south, east, and west directions..[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Invisible walls are a real issue.[/td]
[td]There are too many invisible barriers that make jumping feel frustrating and often impossible.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]The story is unclear.[/td]
[td]I’m not entirely sure what the narrative is trying to convey. Besides following the spirit fox, I didn't really get a sense of a cohesive story unfolding..[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Certain maps can trap you.[/td]
[td]There are areas where if you fall from a high place, you get stuck and have to replay a section of the chapter just to escape.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Lack of guidance and overly spacious maps. [/td]
[td]While I understand there are no quest or task markers, some maps feel so vast that I had to explore every single corner to see if I missed an item or hidden objective (like a staff to awaken a corpse). It can feel a bit tedious at times.[/td]
[/tr]

[/table]

I'm still gonna recommend this game for kids, as the puzzles are still quite fun, and the graphics are absolutely stunning. It’s a visually captivating experience. If you’re on the fence, I’d suggest picking it up on sale when you can.

I enjoyed it. It has some expected indie game growing pains from missing menu sfx and animations that aren't quite keyed up correctly, to some more severe issues on a few levels involving not being sure where the heck to go. If you have a spoonful of patience and give it a shot you may find some bits of enjoyment in the atmosphere, storytelling, or the movement/game feel to make it worthwhile. I give it a C+

The visuals are beautiful but that's the only thing good about it. The game is just not fun. There are no directions for what to do, no map to figure out where to go, and as lovely as the landscape is, all the rocks look pretty much the same with few visual landmarks. This makes it very difficult to navigate, identify where you are going and remember where you have been. Apparently you're suppose to follow the ghost fox, but if you don't see where she lands or you accidentally trot off in the wrong direction (easy to do when there are so many identical-looking paths) you don't get a cue or a reminder, so you just end up wandering around lost. I struggled for about an hour and gave up. Very disappointing because I was so excited to play this gorgeous-looking game, unfortunately the appeal ends at gorgeous-looking.

The landscape, at least in the opening chapters, is empty with no animals or anything to do. I'm a fox, shouldn't I be eating mice or something?

Also the controls are not great, sometimes the movement seems a little awkward, especially when turning around. You can run up sheer, almost-vertical walls but can't climb a gentle slope out of a river? Sometimes when climbing to the top of a hill, you will try to jump onto a ledge and overshoot a little, causing the character to fall down to the bottom. This doesn't kill or even hurt him, you just have to climb the hill again. I feel like this is supposed to be challenging but it's just plain annoying. I would rather the character got injured or something, at least then SOMETHING would be happening to put a bit of challenge in the game and give the player some motivation to try and overcome these challenges.

And there are times when changing from one action to another, the animation just cuts into the next animation with no transition between the two, which is pretty jarring. Sometimes when the camera intersects a solid wall, you can see through the wall. This takes away from the one positive thing about the game, the stunning visuals.

All in all the game seems full of promise but nowhere close to being finished. It needs directions, some kind of map and navigation system along with prompts to find your way, and some features to make the beautiful but empty landscape less boring and frustrating.

It's a neat and visually appealing game, but as a whole, it leaves a lot to be desired.

The controls need refinement—too often, I found myself stuck while dashing, jumping, or running.

The game has some creative ways to handle invisible walls, such as using rocks, water, or wind, but there are still plenty of moments where you simply hit an arbitrary invisible barrier, like at cliffs or waterfalls.

The spirit world feels excessively large and becomes tedious to explore. Good luck chasing down that greeting achievement.

The puzzle-solving elements show potential but are generally too simple to present a real challenge.

That said, the ambiance and music are quite good, and the story seems to be cohesive enough to follow.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend it. However, if you find it cheap on sale and just want to spend four hours traversing Scotland as a fox (kek), go ahead

spirit of the north literally me cry. it is SUCH a beautiful game, visually and narratively. the fact that there's no dialogue in my opinion made it even better. i love interpreting stories through visuals so this was awesome :)
the ending is adorable, as is the story. chapter four was the most difficult in my opinion. chapter seven was my favorite (there are eight chapters total).
couldn't recommend this enough <3

I must say im impressed this game really is an amazing adventure puzzle game the story was just fantastic for indie game its really good better than most triple a titles if you wanna support the developers buy it on steam dont buy it from key resellers its never good and it hurts the devs too. i got the game in winter sale and i must say fun game it was so was the story what wasnt fun the puzzles HAHHAHA.

STORY: 10/10 - Lovely story
Gameplay: 6/10 - there were uh glitches u could get easily out of bounds but its indie devs so i understand
Puzzles: 9/10 - im giving 9 out of 10 since some were kinda hard but yea i figured it out after all
Animations: 10/10 - amazing animations
Music/sound: 10/10 also amazing really the music adds alot to the game.

It's very pretty, I'll give it that.
The soundscape is also very nice.
But the experience of playing is so frustrating. It's super linear, but it doesn't tell you where to go.
So the difficulty if this game is trying to read the mind of the developer and doing the thing they want us to.

Honestly, I was really looking forward to playing this game but I had to look at a game play to get past chapter 2 part 1 because there are no directions on HOW to proceed and then my game glitched when I didn't know that I needed to grab the Shaman's staff in a little hidden room. Apparently if don't follow the guide's path exactly and know that you need to go into that side room to get the staff you will get stuck after the cut scene and be unable to proceed forward. Again, I'm very disappointed because I was looking forward to the game as it looks very fun and it's very pretty. But I do not want to have to have a walk-through video just to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

A majestic mind-cleansing adventure

I like this game, just chill and solve puzzles etc.

[H3]The game is simple. We run after the fox, solve easy riddles and move on.

Spirit of the North. Its a visually and musically stunning game, to the point it felt like a movie. In this game you are the only living creature alive aside from the plants. you follow a spirit to the top of a mountain to stop the plague that has wiped out every animal and human. there it no dialogue and no signs so if you don't pay attention you'll get lost like I did. There is one part that is creepy, mainly because its dark and the only light is coming from the plague its self, but other than that its a peaceful game.

I love this game! Playing as a fox wandering through vast wild grasslands and majestic ruins to free monks' spirits is such a calming and relaxing experience. Lately, I’ve been listening to the game’s OST non-stop while working—it’s just so inspiring. Can’t wait for the sequel!

I absolutely adore this game, but also, specifically. The human skeletons are SO WELL MADE. They have the accuracy of a real skeleton. they have the lines on the skull, they have the metacarpals. It's wild. I keep stopping to just. Look at them. Incredible.

Extremely beautiful, chilling, relaxing and great game, the music is beautiful the red fox is beautiful and powerful, the story is wonderful.
You must play this game.
Spirit of the North 10/10
Heisen

Very fun and challenging! I thoroughly enjoyed running around as a little fox! A couple minor gripes i had with this game: If you are playing on pc the controls can feel a bit like trying to control melting butter in a frying pan and sometimes those gaps are a little too long to make easily but other than that Spirit of the North is a really great game and I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes a chill puzzle/adventure game that's not too difficult and not too easy!

Spirit of the North is a good adventure game. A beautiful story with a touch of magic, some beautiful graphics and a nice ambiant. I recommend it!!! 💗🦊💗

Beautiful game with a lovely soundtrack and absolutely NO POINT in playing. This game has convinced me to only buy something after playing the demo. Looks alone can’t save this one.

I had to force me to play this game. I was expecting it to be an enjoyable and relaxing game. Instead it was awfully boring and meaningless wondering around. What totally killed my immersion is usage of dog braking sound to simulate a fox. Has developers ever Googled how foxes sound!?
Music selection is very limited and get repetetive, boring and annoying very fast. Some sound effects on the other hand are rather good. Especially in the dark sections of the game near the end.
For a game that was put together by 2 people it looks rather nice.
For a game as such, one can see that it needed much more development time and playtesting. There are still too many bugs in the game, wonky animation and in general poor design decisions. I had to restart level several times due to that and getting to some places was pure frustration. There are at leat 2 places that I managed to pass totally not the way game intended to. But was I was truely was not able to find how to progress.
Big nice open worlds that are just empty and dull. Last 2 levels were pure frustration. Especially when one needed to climb down the slope for 5min. I was shouting profanities aloud at the game at that moment.
I like the theme and I usually enjoy small indie games but I really hated this one. I think I never had such a strong negative reaction to any game.
Also, in general, what is the whole point of the game!? What is the message? Fox that moves like a doll, bark like a dog and shits magic out of it's ass is not a rather appealing concept. I don't know... This game was a big disappointment for me.
I think it needs a lot of work (and even more testing) before making somewhat enjoyable game. With SotN2 around the corner I hope they can improve.

The game is pretty, some of it's gameplay can be frustrating if you aren't good at parkour

Very cute, with nice scenery and a basic plot. That said, there were two or three extremely frustrating parts (mainly those with see saws and geysers) that almost made me quit (though those seemed to work better once I realized you can jump further when running). The camera positioning was also a bit irritating, though it stabilized a bit after turning my graphics down. Lastly, it's kind of disappointing that they used a dog bark instead of a fox bark.

2.5 / 5

Before I begin.. I'd just like to state that this is in no way unplayable or what I would consider a "bad game" by any means. I am placing my review as a down vote simply because of how enjoyable I found the game to be overall and how much back-tracking I had to do in order to "officially by steam standards" complete the game. My game-play hours are from a combination of playing the game through once normally without any guide (which took a while because I legitimately got lost), needing to step away from my PC for something without hitting an autosave point and not wanting to re-do everything, and re-playing the game a second time using a guide and having to continuously tab out to watch where to go and then tab back in to move there. Since I saw a review claiming people with large amounts of time were "afk card farming."

Gameplay
If I have to be honest the platforming was a little buggy at times. There were several instances in which I needed to platform to get somewhere and I was being knocked off by collision despite it being the way to go. Rather than stopping me short it actively tries to turn your character around which in turn pushes you away from the thing you're supposed to be getting on. This means ledges pose a particular issue for the player.

In addition there is a lot of back tracking that isn't exactly linear. It is easy to miss things in your first playthrough and also easy to get lost. Without a mini-map or a clear way to know "yes this is where I'm supposed to be going" the player is forced to either look-up a guide or wander around aimlessly until they figure it out (this is how I ended up with a large amount of playtime. I simply got lost and then when I missed unlocking stuff, needed to replay the chapter).

The final chapter (9) was a nightmare to find all the shaman. Even though you don't need to find them all in one go.. it's one big open world. The first time I figured out where to go completely by chance just by running around all over the place and eventually finding my way. The second time I followed a guide and it was still nightmarish to do.

Autosave
A blessing and a curse.
While chapters are re-playable, the game prevents you from saving at any given point and only allows you to save via checkpoints. This is frustrating because some chapters are long before I hit an autosave point and I needed to step away from the PC. My choices were either "lose progress" or "leave the game running" which meant leaving my PC on.

Cosmetics
I'll be honest.. my very first playthrough was done entirely with the default skin because I missed one Shaman in Chapter One which prevented me from unlocking any further skins even if I'd found other Shaman going forwards.

Story
What..
... What was being told?

I could make assumptions in some cases when stuff was happening but after finishing the entire game (twice) I'm still left wondering what the purpose of all that was. I understood I'd probably died in the beginning and that I was freeing trapped souls but I didn't know if I was a reincarnation of something or if I was a deity. I knew the spores were toxic but I didn't know why they existed or how they came about. What put them there. The ending was pretty lacklustre and didn't offer much closure either.

Visuals
This game is *stunning* and is something to take note of.

Overall Thoughts
Did I have fun?
- Kinda?
If you take the game at face value it's a cute adventure game.
If you're like me and want story and like to achievement hunt it's a little more frustrating and you will be spending time backtracking and replaying chapters.

Would I play it again?
- Nope (since it's 100% completed I've uninstalled it)

Do I recommend it?
- Tentatively
It depends on what kind of a game you're looking for and whether or not the flaws I found with the game are something you value.

A Beautiful and Mystical World

Gameplay – A Journey of Discovery

Sound Design – The Soundtrack of Nature

Final Thoughts

One of the best games i have played in a long time, the story is well written and you get to feel the Emotion that went into making this game. If you like Foxes and etherial themed stuff you will love this Game.

I had been looking at this game for a while because I like foxes, so I grabbed it on sale. I'm glad I did - get it *on sale*, that is.

The good:

The fox is cute (because of course it is), and the music is pretty good. Some of the scenery is pretty. It's funny to watch your fox get launched by gyzers.

The bad:

Your fox's collider is a big circle around it, so it's easy to accidentally clip geometry despite visually being pretty far away. This is especially a problem with jumping puzzles, because hitting stuff while in air causes you to ricochet off rather than slide along like basically any other platforming game. The game is mostly jumping puzzles, but I use that term loosely: none of the puzzles exceeded the complexity of about the fifth room in Portal (I know that's kind of apples and oranges, but the point is, the puzzles aren't tricky to figure out most of the time). I once almost soft locked the game by "falling" for a while onto a bit of level geometry in Chapter 3 that you're not supposed to be able to stand on, but is well within reach. Invisible walls are absolutely everywhere. There are 28 hidden shamen who you're supposed to reunite with their staffs, most of which are just completely missable completion collectible type things, but the first one was presented as if finding them and returning their staffs was a core mechanic, which led me to scour every square inch of each map looking for them thinking they were important despite the fact that I didn't like how much that disrupted the flow of the game (I still missed 3). Sometimes, a place that looks like the kinds of places that will have a staff or a shaman would actually have an invisible wall, so you'll spend a lot of time jumping into nothing to find them. The fox's animation sometimes gets a bit weird, like when standing on a 60 degree slope or floating over a ledge because of its huge hitbox. I thought the mechanic of having to bark at the glowing blue flowers to keep recharging your spirit energy (or whatever it is) felt like a waste of time, because you just have to keep going back and forth between the flowers and puzzle elements, and the flowers take a second to actually charge you once you bark at them. It wasn't until the second to last chapter that the game really made an effort to make *not* having your energy charged sometimes into a meaningful mechanic.

The ugly:

I feel like the story was meant to be a big draw, but it's very simplistic. The puzzles are also simplistic. So, what's the deal? It didn't scratch either itch I expected from this game. I also kind of thought that the fox didn't seem very fox-like (foxes also don't normally bark in the wild like they do in this game. Rather they tend to make this whiny laughing sound, or scream like banshees). For playing as a fox, I also would appreciate some theft (which is such a well known behavior of foxes that there's even a word in English for a fox stealing something: "vulpeculation") though I understand that isn't really what this game is about.

Overall:

I cannot recommend this game for $20. I got it on sale for $2, and I don't regret that, but I definitely would have regretted paying full price for it. Unless it's known to be vastly improved, I'm not very excited about the sequel.

I really enjoyed the story and the fact that you get to play as a fox, plus the scenery was stunning. However, there are a few things to consider: there's a lot of backtracking, and the controls can feel floaty and frustrating, especially for a platformer. The constant interruptions can also disrupt the flow of gameplay. At times, the game can feel unclear. Overall, it's definitely worth it if it's on sale, but if not, I'd recommend waiting for a discount. Also, if you have a controller, it might provide a better experience than playing with a keyboard.

During the time of this review, I have completed the game and got all achievements.

[hr][/hr]
Story: In Spirit of the North, players embark on a serene and mystical journey as a red fox. The narrative is inspired by Nordic folklore and unfolds through exploration and visual storytelling. There is no dialogue or text, allowing the environment and the fox's interactions with the world to convey the tale. The story is beautifully crafted, evoking a sense of wonder and connection to the natural world and the spirits that inhabit it.

Graphic and Presentation: The visuals in Spirit of the North are breathtaking, with stunning landscapes that capture the essence of the Nordic wilderness. The game's art style is both realistic and ethereal, creating an immersive and visually captivating experience. The environments are richly detailed, from snow-covered mountains to lush forests, each area is meticulously crafted to enhance the sense of exploration and discovery.

Game-play mechanism: Gameplay in Spirit of the North is centered around exploration, puzzles, and environmental interaction. As the fox, players traverse diverse landscapes, solving puzzles that are seamlessly integrated into the environment. The controls are smooth and intuitive, allowing for fluid movement and interaction with the world. The progression is natural, encouraging players to explore at their own pace and uncover the secrets of the land.

Collectibles: Throughout the journey, players can discover various collectibles, including ancient artifacts and spirit flowers. These collectibles add depth to the exploration, encouraging players to thoroughly explore the beautiful landscapes. Finding these items not only provides a sense of accomplishment but also enriches the story and lore of the game. Although I must admit that one of the final level had an achievement that took me multiple times to achieve at times where I thought it might be glitched.

Sound: The sound design in Spirit of the North is exceptional, with a soothing and atmospheric soundtrack that perfectly complements the game's serene and mystical tone. The ambient sounds of nature, combined with the music, create an immersive auditory experience that enhances the sense of solitude and connection with the environment. The audio cues are subtle yet impactful, guiding players through the world without breaking the immersion.

[hr][/hr]
Overall experience: Spirit of the North is a mesmerizing and tranquil adventure that excels in storytelling, visuals, and sound. Its unique approach to narrative, combined with beautiful graphics, engaging gameplay, and a soothing soundtrack, makes it a standout title. Whether you’re looking for a meditative experience or simply appreciate well-crafted games, Spirit of the North is a must-play. It’s a journey that invites you to connect with nature and the spirit world, leaving a lasting impression with its serene and enchanting atmosphere.

Lots of fun, Relaxing. I little confusing. Kinda sad. One of the few games I'd play again. Recommended for a relaxing getaway.

Pretty fun and no violence. Fairly relaxing except for a few crux moves that can get pretty frustrating if you're like me and have trouble with timing the key presses right. The fox is cute as your player character.

EDIT to add: I completed the game and got all the shamans but Chapt. 5, Part 6 where you have to turn left while flying. I cannot make this happen with the WASD keys, looking left, or even with my Steam controller. If anyone with PC has done it, I'd sure like to know how. I can still recommend the game is fun, especially if you're not into combat as with most games. It's relatively easy, even a grandma like me can do it (except for where it's obviously broken!) I hope that the new SotN2 has been optimized for PC with modifications for this sort of thing. I may buy it when it goes on discounted sale!

The game's graphics and the soundtrack are beautiful. Would recommend.

This is one of the most beautiful games I've played. The graphics, the story, the characters, everything grips you from the start and doesn't let you pull away. I can't wait to see what's ahead!

pros: simple and freeflow navigation.
cons: no maps...very confuse when get into large maps chapter.
overall: 4/10

Spirit of the North is a short and lovely experience. Despite there being no true story or plot, the visuals and the music were captured very well. I would definitely recommend this game, though I'd say to get it on sale.

Nice relaxing game about a fox trying to save it's spirit friend (or vice versa). The scenery is great, lots of nature. The game can get maze like in points and there are a couple of points that can't be passed unless you find one of the sticks to give to the dead dudes. Frustrating. Also I went two chapters before I found out you can run using the LB button. Overall a great game.

It's a pretty decent game, beautiful graphics, chill soundtrack, easy puzzle, some part is a bit tedious, control a bit wonky, but overall recommended 'w')b

I think this game is beautiful, and a true spectacle of design, bit, I wouldn't recommend playing this game without a guide. Without a guide, this game is somewhat of a confusing and aggravating mess. It is possible to get soft locked at certain points in the game if you do a puzzle in the wrong order. Despite the game being a platformer of sorts, you are completely unable to strafe (move midair after a jump), meaning you lose control of your character immediately after jumping. The platforming can be a bit clunky, the puzzles a bit confusing, and the movement rather annoying, but beyond those somewhat minor issues the game is absolutely beautiful, and a great playthrough experience.

Adorable, Relaxing game that still required some thought power for the puzzles, Very much buy if you can, can't wait for the sequel!

Pros: One of the most visually beautiful games I've ever seen. The music is gorgeous throughout, though it does repeat endlessly and can get a little annoying if you're playing for a long session. The fox is adorable and lifelike and so cute and enjoyable to play!
Cons: The movement mechanics can be fiddly and frustrating, particularly turns and jumps. So many of the jumps have to be timed SO precisely, and I had to attempt them over and over and over. The puzzles were either simple and easy, or completely impossible to figure out without resorting to help from Google. Having to stop and go look up how to get past certain puzzles quickly became annoying. The final Chapter of the game gives you zero hints or directions, you're just left in a massive, wide-open spirit/Heaven type of landscape. It's gorgeous, but trying to find the last few puzzles/clues was just too bothersome and I didn't have the patience to trigger the official ending.

Overall, it was still worth playing just for the breathtaking beauty of the Icelandic landscapes, the lovely music, and the charming little fox.

Pro:
Solid gameplay with great atmosphere. There are cure moments like getting the spirit bark in reply which I did about once every minute... It's fun to explore the levels with the beautiful landscape or scenery.

Cons:
Not exactly a walking - or running - simulator, but if you expect a lot of action or intricate puzzle solving, you'll be disappointed.

Conclusion:
Get the game if you like animals, beautiful landscapes, slow-paced and relaxing gameplay. Don't get it if you're looking for puzzles or action. And if you play it - continue at least through chapter 2, the first chapter is not like the rest of the game.

My main issue with the game is that the two weakest levels are the first and the last. And that's a problem. The first level almost caused me to abandon the game and only by reading some more reviews I found out there actually happens something later on. And I don't think I'm the only one. If you check how many players got past the first achievement, it's few, less than 30%. I assume the first level put them off. Which is a shame because it gets much better.

And then the last level - some minor spoilers ahead - it felt rushed, like they designed a level and then didn't really think how to best use it. It's suddenly very open-wordly which doesn't work well for this game. I felt a bit lost. And why do you have to run on that path for what felt like 5 mins? It kills the atmosphere. The whole last level took me away from the end of chapter 6 which was powerful. But I forgot all about it because of the tediousness of chapter 7. If they had cut that last level to about 20% of the current size and made it a bit more straightforward it would have been great.

And so, while the mediocre first level prevents players from actually playing the game, the mediocre last level makes you forget, to some extent, how great the rest of the game had been.

Looks lovely, but it's kinda dull, the world building is only so-so, but the controls/physics being so wonky kills most of the fun.

I really thought, since foxes are my favorite, that I'd love this game no matter what.
I got it on my switch, and it looked and handled like crap. (Go figure lol) I still really wanted to like it, so I got it here and it's beautiful, but handles like crap lol what a bummer

Got a chance to play Spirit of the North that focuses on a fox that a player controls, as well as a spirit female fox that guides the player through beautiful landscapes of a mysterious world with gorgeous graphics and vistas. The story or more rather the premise of the game reminded me a bit of the game Submerged which I played and reviewed a couple of months back. The story takes place in a mysterious world that has been ravaged by some sort of a cataclysm wiping out its population, as we travel through the world we discover more details about this world and the said cataclysm, and try to help the world heal from the aftermath of it. Almost all of the story of the game is revealed through stone murals, some of which are presented to the player as a part of the story, and some that are hidden throughout the world/chapters.

The game play itself is pretty basic, you travel through the linear world (divided into different chapters), learn more about the world, and gain more powers as you progress further through the game. The game doesn't have any enemies or combat so it could be described as one of those "chill" games that focus more on story, explorations, and puzzles. The puzzles themselves aren't very challenging though, I may have had one or two instances in the game where I was stumped where to go or what to do but in general the game in terms of puzzles was pretty much a breeze.

Throughout the game you control the fox and you have actions to wiggle your tail, or bark to which your spirit fox companion will bark back which was very cute. Throughout the game I found myself a little bit attached to the fox as I was following along to his story with growing interest.

Performance wise, the game performs mostly OK on Steam Deck, although this is an indie game I would say that this game devours the Steam Deck battery to roughly the same extent as Doom (2016) which I found surprising. This essentially means that on full battery you'll be able to squeeze out about 1 hour to 1 hour and a half of game play before you would need to recharge. The biggest performance issue in the game happened to me when I was playing through the 2nd and 3rd chapter of the game, during those 2 chapters I already had clocked in 3 hours of game play and by that time the game/Steam Deck crashed on me about 4 times while playing through those chapters which roughly equates to 1 crash per hour.

Strangely enough, once I made it past chapter 3, I haven't experienced any further crashes for any further chapters till the end of the game so if you are playing on Steam Deck or a laptop and you're experiencing crashes, try making it past chapter 3 and the issue for some reason should hopefully resolve itself. Another downside of the game is the lack of manually saving your game. Fortunately, the game does provide checkpoints throughout the chapter that auto save your game and you can pretty much pick up from that point if you quit your game however for some chapters, the distance between one checkpoint and another can be quite far and if you quit the game without reaching that checkpoint, you'll be reverted back to the previous checkpoint after starting the game again.

Overall I enjoyed the Spirit of the North and will definitely give the sequel a try. The game offers a splendid and vibrant environments, and a unique (although a bit vague) storytelling. The performance of the game does suffer a bit at the start when playing the game on Steam Deck, and the game would definitely benefit from having an option to manually save your game. If you're looking for a nice relaxing game to take a break from the regular action games then you can't go wrong with this choice.