In a day and age where the CIA has admitted they have the technology in place to use consumer electronics to spy on the populace (yes, this is a thing thanks to Wikileaks), society’s paranoia is at an all-time high. That said, the themes featured in North may terrify you. As Jason said in his review, this is not a horror title, but the themes and some of its imagery pushes it close to that territory.

Your short journey, which I completed in under an hour, will visit a few areas in an unnamed dystopia. Each area is highly stylized and features unique visuals that make each one stand out. You are an immigrant who is seeking citizenship in the city after traveling through a desert. The city itself is eerily vacant, with a number of security cameras in place, with only a few of the places you visit having other beings present. You’ll regularly need to visit mailboxes to send letters to your sister, which provide insight into the narrative, as well as provide you with hints that will be needed to complete the different tasks for each area.

Most of the tasks are fairly simple yet vague, one of which is skill based. This event requires you to run back and forth in a large maze, activating switches and collecting something from each. This worked much like one of the cleansing phases for those who are familiar with the Destiny raids and was almost as frustrating as doing so with a group of newer players. This puzzle arrives early into the game and if you can finish this, you’ll likely find the rest of the title a breeze. The other challenges are more along the lines of playing “one of these things is not like the others” or simply interacting with a few specific objects.

The visuals are unique but extremely basic – nothing to write home about. I did find the doctors to be highly disturbing as well as the other NPCs which primarily look like they belong in an episode of The X-Files. While I did not find the overall presentation to be awe inspiring by any means, it fits the title well as it keeps the player focused on the narrative while trying to figure out exactly what is going on. I never noticed any of the sounds implying someone was at my door as Jason mentioned (so apparently someone was actually trying to break into his house), though I did find the music and effects to have a strange unsettling feeling at times, similar to what images full of holes do (trypophobia). Not necessarily a fear, but an anxious feeling.

North is the definition of a bare-bones title; while this doesn’t impact it in a negative way, some gamers will likely be turned off from the lack of a pause menu, replayability, or even the option to change gameplay settings. These aren’t needed, nor did they affect my ability to complete the game, but some may dislike it. Those people will be missing out on a thought provoking game that makes us question the roles of religion, the police, and the government in our lives. With North being a work of fiction, it clearly takes examples from our current day to day lives. If the premise intrigues you, I would definitely recommend purchasing the title; even though it is short, it offers an entertaining diversion at about the same cost as a trip to the movie theater.

7 out of 10

Pros

• Creepy Character Design
• Unique Environments
• Interesting Premise

Cons

• Lack of Proper Direction
• No Replay Value

North was developed by Outlands and published by Sometimes You. It was released on PC in 2016, and on PS4, X1, and NS March 6th, 2018. The game was provided to us for review on PS4, X1, and NS. If you’d like to see more of North, check out the developer’s official site.

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