Go North Review: A Maze Walker | The Gamerheads Podcast

Platform reviewed: Steam

Also on: Xbox Series X|S

Price: $14.99

Growing up in a rural area I was lucky enough to be surrounded by forests and would pretend to get lost in my own yard, or pretend to be going on some grand adventure. Go North feels like one of those childhood quests I had in my yard come to life. In Go North, those that seek out the Maze god, who resides at the northernmost point of the world, will be granted one wish. I play as Dara on a quest to save my mother. Dara is from a race of people known as Littlers (picture a hobbit from Tolkien's Middle Earth) and observing everyone’s surprised reaction to seeing me, Littlers do not often take up the quest to meet the Maze god. 

I’m the kind of person that will hoard everything just to avoid the risk of not having something when I truly need it.

Go North’s gameplay loop consists of taking on several mazes where all the exits are, you guessed it, at the north end of the maze. Throughout each maze I would find magical tools to help me go north. The uses all varied some where marker like tools showing me where the exit was or keeping a spot I wanted to go back to marked on my map for later. Other tools assisted in my mobility or collecting coins to let me buy even more items. During my first maze I didn’t use any tools I collected because I’m the kind of person that will hoard everything just to avoid the risk of not having something when I truly need it. Go North breaks this habit because after I completed the first maze and went on to my second I was surprised to find my backpack was completely empty, the game's way of telling me “use it or lose it.” This was the majority of the game, I would enter a maze with nothing and have to explore to replenish my inventory. 

Dara is not on a lonely quest even if she is a little shy around strangers. Each maze is filled with other explorers trying to go north the same as me. Then of course there are the maze builders and their workers. One thing I did not learn until about thirty minutes into the game was that everyone walking around has some sort of help to offer me, whether it be a helpful tip or maybe a whistle to herd some chickens that got out of their pen. Meadow Maker was my favorite character I met during my time with the game. As mentioned, Dara is quite shy and for the most part, her dialogue is contained in her head. Meadow Maker reminds me of that elderly figure that sees the potential in someone even if they don’t and does everything to bring that potential out. At one maze when I got to the exit Meadow Maker was there trying to nurse a sick sheep back to health. This is when I connected with Dara, she wasn’t shy anymore. She saw this sick animal and didn’t care about anything else, she knew what had to be done and just went and did it. Then I learn that all Littlers have an innate knowledge in the medical field and Dara is just the right Littler to find out who or what is corrupting the mazes.

Along with sick sheep, there are lost explorers looking for their partners, or items left on the ground. There are so many reasons to not go north right away. Each maze has its own collectables to find. There are the map pieces that reveal the maze and its secrets. Then there are the golden compasses, each maze I complete gives me one golden compass but there is at least one usually hidden throughout the maze somewhere. Once I leave a maze I get the collectable screen either saying “good job! You found everything” or instead “oops looks like there’s one compass you still haven’t found, good luck!” I’m definitely the kind of person that sees a screen like this and if there’s anything missing I have to go back and find it. If the game just let me leave and go to the next level without knowing I wouldn’t try and find everything. If I didn’t know what “ignorance is bliss" meant, I would after this game.

Final Grade: B

Go North is a fun, relaxing game that itches the “I gotta collect 'em all” mentality without becoming overly grindy or monotonous throughout. With a variety of tools to let players play their own way at their own pace, and a variety of themes to keep the game always feeling fresh