Til Nord is a free open-world snowmobile game released by students at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. The gameplay is straightforward with its mobile open-world gameplay and pulls off a finished level of design from the beginning.
Ride your snowmobile around the Loften Islands of Norway. Day and night, bright snowy roads and northern light skies at night, solving delivery missions for enterprises around the village like lumber mills and fisheries. Or test your skill at time-lapse contests with your learned speeding abilities.
Til Nord: Student Games Are Cool
This is, I think, around the third time I’ve done a full review on a university game that I have stumbled across, including the recent one for Rag Labs and, also, Beasts of Maravilla Island.
Each experience has been really fresh and rewarding, which encourages me to pay attention to this very specific category of games more carefully. This is not exactly an oversight in the past, but simply a realization of something new that is happening.
Til Nord: Good, Clean Fun, and Occasionally Smashing Snowmen
As I mentioned, this game is really well polished. Generally, there are limitations to fixed resources on a substantial game, but this one pulled it off. Start off delivering a fish shipment to the mayor on your snowmobile.
You’ll swish through snow, up and over hills, and follow a compass to find your way there. Some of the other missions are delivering fuel to the lighthouse, racing through a junkyard, and opening some locked gates from inside an official facility for its workers. There is a substantial amount of content at any rate. And as I mentioned, this is free.
Oh, you can also run over snowmen as an achievement. I thought that was pretty funny.
There is no violence or anxiety-creating moments in Til Nord, no negativity at all really, which is so nice. People generally accept that conflict is necessary for compelling gameplay, which is true, but there are different ways you can do it. It’s been so long since I’ve played a game like this that didn’t involve mob bosses or alien battles.
It was just really chill and relaxing really. And that is my favorite kind of game. Not at all boring. Actually, I was very interested in the missions and loved zooming through the forests and streets to track down markers on my compass. I expected a wild snow wolf to hunt me at some point, but it never did.
Some Tips And Comments
The game is about 8 GB of content, which seems rather huge, but may correlate a lot to the quality of the map and riding physics. It might mean there is a ton of content though.
There is plenty of time to figure out nuances for this game though, which is obviously a labor of love. I’m always looking for games to pass the time, and this one is checking all the boxes: indie, academic, Scandinavian, open-world, racing. No joke, that’s a magic combo.
One tip from my experience if you fall off your snowmobile and can’t get up, just press R for respawning. That worked quite well for me. If you’re stuck and still on your snowmobile, try reversing for a few moments, you might be unstuck.
And if you like snowmobiles or the Norwegian ambiance, this is the game for you. I have never had a snowmobile, but they seem to enjoy riding through our yard in the winter, aha, but no relation there, and I’d probably love it if I ever tried. Also, it’s very pleasant to watch the northern lights in the sky, aka aurora borealis, while navigating through coastal terrain and bright-colored structure.
Final Thoughts
If you want to play this game, I will link to the Steam page below. It’s free! Not just a demo, totally free! So check it out and show your support. I’m sure they won’t mind.
Thank you so much for reading MrDavePizza.com. I am grateful to have an audience like you and something new to try every day and I hope you enjoy this content. I have reviewed many games, and in that way, I do that. So, have a look around the site and read as much as you like!
Beyond this review, there is a ton of information on the project’s student dev team here: https://www.tsvetangadzhev.com/ If game development is something that interests you, definitely check this out.
