Northgard scratches my nostalgic itch for both Age of Empires and Civilization, with RTS gameplay mixed with zone-based expansion and development which feels a lot like the city-based economy of a traditional 4X game in real time. This zone structure puts real constraints on the pace of expansion and aggression, encouraging fun multiplayer gameplay between players of a variety of skill levels. Better players can still rush or macro you off the map, but it's less frustrating than in AoE or StarCraft because you still get some time and space to actually play the game, even while being utterly stomped. Meanwhile, the variety of win conditions and useful creep/PvE fights mean that players can be as confrontational as they want to be -- from a bloody deathmatch to a peaceful Eurogame, and anything in between. The flip side of the zones and win conditions is that Northgard can also be frustrating for new players. Unlike the constant growth of most RTS games, Northgard adds in a complex economic system requiring you to balance a wide variety of resources and needs throughout the game, You don't just accumulate resources and spend them on one-time "purchases" or units and buildings (as in AoE or StarCraft); you also have to meet your people's constant and ever-increasing needs for food, firewood, happiness, money, etc. This isn't a game that you can play on cruise control, as you can completely wreck your own economy at nearly any stage of the game simply by overspending or neglecting a single resource. Several of of the victory conditons (esp. Commerce) allow strategies that are so non-interactive that they can feel like the game randomly ended out of nowhere! There's a decent amount of comeback potential, but that also means that it's relatively easy to lose a game that you were utterly dominating. Still, if you stick with it through the steep learning curve and occasional frustrations, Northgard will reward that effort with hours upon hours of engrossing gameplay.
I think everyone knows by now – this game is really good!
