This Upcoming Indie Game Has an Interesting Concept, But It Lacks Polish

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I didn’t get to play the full game, but the two levels contained in Go North‘s demo were enough for me to get a taste of what the full experience will look like. Overall, the concept is solid: help the main character, Dara, navigate increasingly complex mazes in order to reach the Maze God, who will grant the wish of any explorer who reaches him. However, a great concept is as far as it goes. The gameplay itself is lacking any sort of character and is much slower than it needs to be.

Pros	Cons
Great atmosphere and visuals.	Story execution is almost non-existent.
Interesting concept.	Controls don’t always function as intended, or in some cases, at all.
	Little to no challenge.

Go North Isn’t Bad, But That’s All I Can Say

Despite its interesting premise, Go North‘s gameplay falls short in quite a few ways. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that I only got the demo or if this is the case in the full game as well, but the demo drops the player in front of the first maze with no explanation, no exposition, and no way to acclimatize before the game begins. I don’t need a lot to buy in to what a fantasy world is trying to sell me, but Go North doesn’t give a scrap of explanation.

Instead, you’re expected to gather what you can from the tragically generic NPCs littering the maze. They offer repetitive dialogue that’s more utilitarian than it is scene-setting, with the most interesting of the bunch being an NPC that’s only barely introduced. While I find there’s nothing wrong with throwing worldbuilding at players and relying on their comprehension skills to figure it out, Go North doesn’t really do this. While the story’s premise is compelling—one of a young girl traversing increasingly complex mazes to have her wish granted—its execution in the demo leaves much to be desired.

Walking Through a Maze Is Only Fun for So Long

Alongside a disappointingly shallow story, Go North‘s mazes are also, sadly, surface level. Again, I only played the first two mazes, but of those two, the gameplay was more walking than solving any sort of puzzle or problem. Mazes can be fun, but walking around in circles is only fun for a few minutes before it gets tedious. Other maze-focused games circumvent this issue by including puzzles, traps, and other mechanics and logic tests in their mazes to add, for lack of a better word, enrichment for their player.

The furthest Go North goes in this direction is a few pitfall traps in the second maze, all of which are easily spotted and foiled with a nearby plank–or even just climbing out once you’ve fallen. While the game encourages players to, “Take a moment and breathe. Look around. Explore at your own pace without penalty as unknown characters, items, and environmental traps await discovery around every corner,” this is all you can do. There are no tricky puzzles to solve on your way to the end of the maze, making the path from beginning to end just a walk through the scenery.

The world created in Go North just isn’t as interactive as it could be, and left me feeling disconnected from the story. While the items and trinkets you collect from the ground and NPCs as you explore are cute enough, and there are a wide variety of them, they all come in some flavor of “Use this to find the exit.” The maze part of this maze game is tragically simple, and left me unsatisfied compared to the games it claims to be inspired by, like Journey and A Short Hike.

Go North Shows Promise in Both Concept and Visuals, But It Needs Work

In all, Go North is the product of just one person’s work, and it feels like it. While it’s beautifully developed and full of style, it lacks the charm that I wanted to see. I was passively interested in the game’s premise, but throughout my hour or so playing it, there was never a moment where I felt hooked. This is particularly disappointing because I played the game’s demo, which is supposed to convince prospective players that the game is worth however much it’s being sold for.

The cherry on top of Go North is that not only was the gameplay not too interesting, it also didn’t feel very good. Every interaction is slow, none of your tools react quickly, and sometimes don’t even work at all. Unfortunately, these issues added up for me, and left me less-than-interested in continuing to play once I’d finished everything the demo had to offer.

While I wasn’t sucked into Go North, that’s not to say that its a terrible game. It has its draw, and is a great option for people looking for a low-stress, low-commitment use of their time—this just isn’t me. I’d love to see some additional challenge be added in the full game’s release, something to convince me that Dara’s journey is one sticking around for.