Go North
Go North is a wholesome and relaxing adventure game focused on exploring deep, convoluted mazes. You play as Dara, a young girl who embarks on a journey to reach the Maze God at the end of the world. Legend says he grants a wish to anyone who conquers every maze, and Dara hopes to ask him to heal her sick mother.
The gameplay loop consists of clearing maze after maze, connected by a level map that displays these mazes as individual levels. The title Go North is quite literal: every maze exit is positioned at the northern edge, so your goal is always to head north. Map progression follows the exact same pattern, steadily pushing you upward toward the north. And as you advance, the mazes become bigger and more complex.
The game’s greatest strength is its atmosphere. The handcrafted mazes are gorgeous, with plenty of things to discover, inviting you not only to explore every nook and cranny but also to slow down and appreciate the beauty of the environment. You’ll be walking a path through lush trees or small cherry blossom forests, with swarms of butterflies flying all over the place or cute sheep that cross your path (and of course, you can pet them). Some of these mazes are bathed in warm sunlight; others are shrouded in moody rain. And you’re not alone in there. There are other explorers like you who traverse the mazes. You can stop and exchange a line with them, and some of them will offer you quests. These are usually fetch quests, either gathering scattered chicks or hens or finding an item or a person.
There are occasional puzzles to solve, but they’re on the easier side. You will mainly encounter simple obstacles, like pressing a button to temporarily open the way forward, mirror puzzles or finding passwords on nearby signposts to unlock chests, which are immediately recoded in your journal for later use. You do not start with a map, but you can gather map pieces as you go, although I found this to be extremely difficult.
Beyond lore collectibles and outfits, you can find temporary items that boost your movement speed or help with navigation. Zipping around on a hoverboard is always a treat, even if it is a single-use boost that lasts only a few seconds.
However, the experience wasn’t entirely flawless, and, to put it bluntly, the user interaction needs a considerable rework. While the world-building is really nice, I felt the narrative execution sometimes fell a bit flat. The lore surrounding the Maze God was revealed too slowly and consisted only of snippets of text that didn’t have any emotional impact on me, which made it quite difficult to invest myself in their legend or in Dara’s personal journey. Gameplay-wise, utility items do not carry over between mazes. Having to re-find essential tools like the pickaxe for mining or the whistle for clearing sheep that block your way in every single maze gets tedious and extremely repetitive.
The controls and UI also have noticeable issues. Chest passwords can only be entered using the keyboard, even though the UI displays arrow sliders that look clickable. Several other UI elements (buttons mostly) look like they can be clicked, but they require keyboard input instead. There’s no toolbar to hold the most common tools; these require equipping and unequipping from the inventory on every use. Leaving them equipped will just prevent you from picking up other items. Additionally, some traders sell mystery cosmetic items without previews or refunds, quests require manual check-offs in your journal, and talking to the same NPC multiple times clutters your log with duplicate quest entries. None of these are game-breaking issues, but it shows that the development in these areas was very sloppy. It’s again one of those cases where the user experience could improve by a huge amount at the cost of 1-2 days of development work. Another big downside for me is that the game doesn’t feature any Steam achievements.
Overall, if you want a visually impressive and cozy exploration experience that prioritizes peace over progress and you don’t mind its shortcomings, Go North could be well worth your time. Players who enjoy games like A Short Hike would probably like this one a lot too.