Despite not being a fan of the original Spirit of the North, its backstory is the type I love to constantly share: a couple of blokes with industry experience deciding to go out and make their own game. That story’s become a bit trite at this point, especially with animal protagonists, but it’s tough to downplay even years later. Usually, the first game is often used as more of a testing ground to challenge their collective limits before exploring different genres or another new IP; in this case, Infuse Studio’s goal is to push further with its pre-established template.
That’s immediately felt by now being able to customize your fox protagonist – eye color, ear length, tail fluffiness, muzzle shape, and so on. But it falls into that weird middle ground of customization: enough to have a modest slider to choose from, but nothing really radical compared to fur color or mystical runes inscribed on said fur (more on that later). What begins as a mellow time with other foxes moseying about quickly leads to disaster, as your actions unintentionally allow a dark shaman to escape his prison cell. Now, your only hope of rectifying this is to find and free several spirit guardians ensnared by his magic.
Reflecting the original, North 2 has a minimalist narrative that emphasizes visual framing and music over any dialogue; it’s emulative of a silent movie, essentially. Hell, the evil shaman’s name – Grimnir – can only be readily gleaned through collectibles. Just like before, Fox is given casual guidance by a red contrail in the sky, while also having the freedom to trot around and casually greet others. Once out in the wider world, said contrail is expanded upon to highlight each significant item required to unlock a spirit guardian’s “dungeon” (for lack of a better word). Freeing ethereal spirits from Grimnir’s grasp is met with their silent restraint and an rousing orchestral acknowledgment.
What isn’t as muted this time around is the world. While there are illuminated bright-blue pictographs to discover, they’re supplemented by a plethora of scrolls extolling legends, in-group/out-group background between tribes, and more. So, while the environmental storytelling from these hieroglyphs alone still doesn’t capture a coherent theme compared to similar indies – and feels disjointed given how easy some are to miss – it’s now supplemented by something concrete. And since the prose is often channeling classical Norse epics, this Icelandic world carries more dramatic heft.
Of course, it’s no great shakes. You’re just getting more context for what’s a rather unsurprising yarn about stopping a Big Bad through comradery. The tale is quite familiar. The emphasis is more on how that context more cleanly maps onto the grander conflict itself. Because now that Fox, and his trusty Raven companion, are thrown into an open world, North 2 avoids the original’s mechanical confusion. Fox Island was a breezier prologue with some light puzzle-solving; now, you’re spat out onto a larger mainland and have to put your acumen and dexterity to the test.
Perhaps the worst problem it’s greeted with is this: should Infuse have expanded this template to an open world? Yes, the task is more ambitious – and that deserves some appreciation. But instead of interrogating improvements to the original’s quasi-open linear structure, it’s essentially a new first step. The end result is something that can’t help but insist that being big is an answer in itself. That can carry a number of potential pitfalls, including – but not limited to – lumpy pacing. Not only must you now find McGuffins in mini-dungeons to progress ahead, but there’s now a heightened demand to piece things together without much of any direction.
Given that exploratory emphasis, alongside the Icelandic backdrop, it’s easy to consider this a mechanically pared-down Death Stranding – for better and worse. But even by that comparison, North 2’s structure feels more like a hodgepodge of tropes than a singular vision. Fox and Raven feel artificially weakened at first in order to find an excuse for its expansive skill tree, which seems unnecessary for a non-violent adventure game (outside of boss encounters); only being allowed to fast-travel through unlocked portals seems like a contrived way of extending its runtime; and it’s not enough to simply discover a mini-dungeon or a “Ubisoft tower” highlighting nearby points of interest, there’s also a cover charge between one of its two in-game currencies.
The currency critique is such a fascinating one because Glyphs are required for most mini-dungeons. If you’re not buying them from a raccoon trader, you’ll find them either through mini-puzzles or perhaps a school of them wandering in the wild. Seems easy enough. But hunting all of those loose ones down will be fruitless, since Fox’s starting state can only carry three at a time. So now, on top of finding the mini-dungeon, paying the cover fee (two Glyphs), and carrying the needed McGuffin over to the guardian’s lair (essentially acting as part of a key), you’re also compelled to be sidetracked finding more Glyphs out in the wild. Of course, to ameliorate Fox’s slim Glyph wallet, you can always invest skill points towards a bigger one.
I keep going back to the first boss encounter: a gargantuan, multi-leveled colosseum. To its credit, it was a simple platforming “fight,” but still fulfilling. Yet even with its tremendous scope, you could literally accomplish the same thing – mechanically and thematically – in less than a quarter of that arena’s total area. Whatever other meaningful critiques or nitpicks I may also have, the long and short of it is this: Infuse put the cart before the horse. Almost every feature is desperately servile to its open world; that works out on rare occasions, but most qualities feel like they’re being awkwardly smashed together. Contrast that to a foundation following earlier 3D Zelda games (Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time) whilst slicing the map size in half, and it’s easy to imagine how more of these pieces could fall into place.
But perhaps the most glaring fault to its advertised “vast open world” is the surfeit of technical errors. Between getting stuck on geometry to spastic camera jolts, you can’t go far without weird anomalies popping up. One of the strangest recurring issues involves your Fox doing the equivalent of a jump-scare: I’d turn my camera while running or changing directions, and then it appears like he’s turned around (although it’s not true). It’s like those parts in Fight Club where Tyler Durden is spliced in for one frame. Past the more esoteric and stranger bugs, there’s constant texture pop-in for foliage and smaller details. I know I just finished saying “the game should’ve been this,” but I can’t help but wonder how a painterly art style would look instead of fixating on Unreal Engine 5’s graphical power. Perhaps that could’ve helped craft a more technically-sound product, rather than this one signaling that another six months of polishing were needed.
In the end, Spirit of the North 2 only feels like a marginal step-up from its predecessor – partly due to its current shoddy state. Some lessons have been learned to make the gameplay and storytelling more cohesive and consistent, but it also discovers new problems by adapting the foundation to an unengaging open world. The vast expanse to brag about in marketing winds up feeling like wasted potential; and, as a result, so does this sequel overall.
Contractor by trade and writer by hobby, Lee’s obnoxious criticisms have found a way to be featured across several gaming sites: N4G, VGChartz, Gaming Nexus, DarkStation, and TechRaptor! He started gaming in the mid-90s and has had the privilege in playing many games across a plethora of platforms. Reader warning: each click given to his articles only helps to inflate his Texas-sized ego. Proceed with caution.
Full Article – https://www.vgchartz.com/article/464980/spirit-of-the-north-2-xs/
