Verdict
Bad North is a defence game the size of a postcard. Each island is one screen of procedurally generated cliffs, houses and jetties; you have two or three squads of infantry, pikes or archers; longboats land where they like. You drag squads to the right spots, use the cliffs and the houses, and either hold or lose a commander for good. Then you sail on with the fleet behind you.
It is lovely to look at, perfect on a pad and genuinely tense for its first two campaigns. It is also short and, after those campaigns, it has shown you everything it has: the islands blur, the squads do not change, and the Jotunn Edition's extra items and difficulty tiers stretch rather than deepen it. A good £12.79 on a wet weekend, not a game for the long haul.
Buy it if
- You want something small and beautiful for a weekend
- You play on a pad or Deck
- You like tactics more than building
Pass if
- You want depth and variety
- You want a long campaign
- You want co-op
Towers 14 of 20
Infantry, pikes, archers and the commanders who lead them, with a few items and upgrades per squad. The whole kit fits on one hand; it is tactics rather than towers, and the variety runs out early.
Lanes 17 of 20
The islands are the game's best idea: tiny, generated, with real height and choke points, and a different landing problem every time. They are the reason to play.
Waves 15 of 20
Boats land in increasing numbers with shieldmen, brutes and archers that each need a different answer, and the pressure to move on before the fleet arrives is well judged. Later campaigns mostly add more boats.
Economy 15 of 20
Coin from saved houses buys upgrades and items between islands, and losing a house loses the coin. Tight and fair; small.
Longevity 13 of 20
A campaign of four to six hours, three difficulty tiers and permadeath for replay value. No co-op, no endless, no new content since 2019.
In pictures
Report written against the Steam build current on 31 October 2026; prices read the same day.