Sadly, not every game can be fresh or inspiring, a testament to the genre, or whatever other buzzwords we like to bring out when we’re impressed. Sometimes a game is just a game, and whether or not it’s any good really is up to your individual tastes. Real Warfare 2: Northern Crusades is one such game. The sequel to 2010’s Real Warfare: 1242, this is a stock strategy game that carries little else aside from its own identity to the table. No frills, no icing on the cake, no nothing.
 

Imma gonna get mah siege on

At the very least though, you can say the developers listened and learned. The original game was little more than a series of tactical battles connected by an over-arching narrative. This time around, they’ve put some extra effort in and made it a lot more free form with the inclusion of a campaign map. In terms of visual style, it looks like something pulled from the later Total War games, but in terms of gameplay it plays a bit like Paradox’s Mount & Blade –with you only controlling your character and a single army as you fight across Eastern Europe.

This time around, the main storyline deals with the iconic Teutonic Order, and how they waged war against the Baltic peoples of Prussia. Since this game has RPG elements, you actually take the role of a disgraced Knight, fresh from the Holy Lands and atoning for his sins by serving the order in their new campaign of conquest. From a single Castle and its holdings, to an entire state you go from battle to battle as the Order spreads across North-Eastern Europe. As commander of your own personal army, you can travel across the campaign map, collecting taxes, fighting brigands, trading, and of course fighting the good fight.
 

Now, if only Mount & Blade's campaign map was like this...

Again, we allude to Mount & Blade because it’s a similar feel, although far more directed. You can wonder anywhere you want, spend your time trying to trade instead of fighting, and if you have a particularly hard main objective, you can just beat up on peasants and brigands to ‘grind’ experience. Your level determines how effective a commander you are, and each level allows you to assign skill points to certain traits so you can specialise. The amount of units you can control also increases so you can field larger and better armies.

The tactical side of the game has changed little from the previous, except in that only the main objective missions have any kind of pre-determined elements. The terrain is generated depending on where on the map you encounter the enemy forces – and it does quite a good job as well at presenting a realistic battlefield. If you’ve played one tactical strategy game, you’ve played them all and so there are no surprises here – but Northern Crusades still does things quite well. Unit management is way more in depth than in other games, with 80 factors governing morale alone, so there’s a lot to think about.

The variety of units leaves something to be desired – basic pikes, swords, cavalry and missile units, but there’s enough there and there’s the traditional rock-paper-scissor element to things. There’s also several ‘tiers’ of troops, and as you get more experienced you can upgrade troops and then replace the lower ranks for large and diverse armies. You can also upgrade individual traits such as unit size, strength, morale etc… so credit where credit’s due, there’s plenty of room for customization and improvement. Aside from the main campaign, there’s the customary ‘Custom’ Battle, allowing you to fight random skirmishes using whatever parameters you desire, as well as multiplayer so you can fight tactical battles online for up to six people, with a variety of multiplayer modes that can be played over the internet, as well as a local network.

This is a game all about momentum, really – if you keep following the campaign mission, you’ll eventually hit one that you can’t complete in your current state. This means you have to trawl the country side for brigands to beat up on until you’ve levelled up a bit, and in all honesty that’s as fun as it used to be in the old Final Fantasy games (hint: not very). Not to mention there are still some technical hiccups present in the game, so it can sometimes feel a slog at times. Still, provided you’re smart these moments can be few and far between, and of course the further you go the better things get (we’d say ‘easier’ but it really doesn’t – there’s always a bigger fish).
 

They sure look pretty, although AI pathfinding leaves something to be desired...

We’re off the opinion that the worst that can happen to a game is it being uninspiring – Northern Crusades isn’t a bad game, but neither is it a particularly good game. It simply is and it’s hard to give a passionate answer either way as to whether it’s worth your time. There have been so many other decent releases in the past couple of months alone, not to mention what’s due out early next year, that perhaps you’d be best off saving your money – but it’s up to you. It is possible to enjoy this game – the main story thread does drag you through quite nicely and keeps you interested, and the tactical battles certainly provide a challenge, even in the early parts of the game.

Top Game Moment: Like with any strategy game of this nature, winning a particularly hard fight is always immensely satisfying.