This Upcoming Indie Game Has an Interesting Concept, But It Lacks Polish

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Creating a video game is challenging, but Tade Ajiboye – known as gazuntype – accomplished it entirely on his own with *Go North*. This game is a visually appealing exploration experience where players navigate a maze-like world. Although the gameplay could be improved, the demo of *Go North* is a solid first impression.

I only played the demo of *Go North*, but even those two levels gave me a good idea of what the complete game would be like. The core idea is strong: you guide the character, Dara, through tougher and tougher mazes to reach the Maze God, who promises to fulfill any explorer’s wish. Unfortunately, that’s where the good parts end. The actual gameplay feels bland and moves at a sluggish pace.

Pros Cons
Great atmosphere and visuals. Story execution is almost non-existent.
Interesting concept. Controls don’t always function as intended, or in some cases, at all.
Little to no challenge.

Go North Isn’t Bad, But That’s All I Can Say

While the idea behind *Go North* is intriguing, the gameplay doesn’t quite deliver. I played the demo, and it immediately throws you into a maze without any introduction or story. Even a little bit of context would have helped, but the game offers no explanation at all, making it hard to get invested in the world.

The game relies on brief interactions with unremarkable characters to reveal information, but their conversations are mostly just functional and don’t create a strong sense of place. Even the most intriguing character is only briefly shown. While it’s fine to let players piece together the world’s story themselves, this game doesn’t quite manage that. The core idea-a young girl navigating challenging mazes to make a wish-is interesting, but the demo doesn’t fully deliver on that potential.

Walking Through a Maze Is Only Fun for So Long

Beyond a somewhat weak story, the mazes in *Go North* aren’t very engaging. I only tried the first two levels, and they felt more like aimless wandering than actual puzzle-solving. While mazes can be enjoyable, simply walking around gets old quickly. Good maze games avoid this by adding puzzles, traps, and other challenges to keep players interested and provide a more rewarding experience.

The furthest you’ll encounter in this direction of *Go North* are a few simple pitfall traps in the second maze. These are easy to see and avoid using a plank nearby, or even just by climbing out if you fall. The game encourages exploration, suggesting players “Take a moment and breathe. Look around. Explore at your own pace without penalty as unknown characters, items, and environmental traps await discovery around every corner,” but that’s essentially all there is to do. There aren’t any challenging puzzles to solve; reaching the end of the maze is simply a matter of walking through it.

I didn’t feel very connected to the story in *Go North* because the world isn’t very interactive. While the game has lots of collectible items, they mostly just serve one purpose: helping you find your way out. Unfortunately, the puzzles themselves are too easy, and the game doesn’t live up to the quality of its inspirations, like *Journey* and *A Short Hike*.

Go North Shows Promise in Both Concept and Visuals, But It Needs Work

Ultimately, *Go North* feels like a solo project, and that shows. While the game is visually appealing and stylish, it’s missing a certain spark. I found the basic idea interesting, but after playing for about an hour, I never really became invested. This was especially frustrating because I tried the demo first, hoping it would convince me the full game was worth buying.

What really brought down my experience with *Go North* wasn’t just that the gameplay lacked excitement, but that it also felt clunky. Everything felt slow and unresponsive, and tools often didn’t work as expected. These problems ultimately made me lose interest after finishing the demo.

I didn’t really get hooked by *Go North*, but it’s not a bad game overall. It’s perfect if you want something relaxing and don’t want to invest a lot of time. It just wasn’t for me personally. I hope the final version includes more challenges to really make me want to follow Dara’s story.

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2025-09-17 02:12