The recent history of real-time strategy has been more dark age than golden era, but there have been a few bright spots over the last decade. One of those is Northgard, a Viking-themed RTS that was released in 2018. Built on traditional strategy foundations, Northgard added novel ideas like game-altering weather systems and a region-based expansion system.
The result is one of the best strategy games of the last decade. "While the inspiration is clear, it would be a disservice to imply that it's mainly trading in nostalgia," Fraser Brown wrote in his Northgard review, awarding it a score of 84%. "This Viking saga builds on the history-themed RTS romps of the '90s, but it's not beholden to them."
