By Em Stonham,Patrick Dane Patrick Dane

Copyright escapistmagazine

Cozy games and puzzles are a match made in heaven, offering calm, beautiful worlds to explore with challenges dotted throughout to keep things engaging. Go North is a perfect example of this blend, taking players through a variety of colorful, labyrinthian mazes.

While the full version of Go North has not been released at the time of writing, there is a charming demo up for grabs, which gives players a glimpse of what’s to come. Here are our first impressions of Go North based on the demo to help you decide whether to pick it up or not.

The Escapist recaps

Go North is an upcoming puzzle-adventure game from developer gazuntype, with a short but sweet demo that shows off the title’s core mechanics. The game is cozy and cute, with an almost painterly aesthetic and a whimsical world to explore. While the demo didn’t reveal too much about the game’s lore, the characters were engaging and sweet. For the most part, the demo ran well and looked lovely, with two strikingly different mazes to wander through. A few visual quirks popped up while playing, but the overall experience was charming. The only major complaint that could be drawn from the Go North demo was the choice to make key text change colors and have it wiggle around on the screen. While it was cute, it was hard to read and may present an issue for some players who are visually impaired. On the whole, Go North’s demo was whimsical and comforting, painting a wonderful picture of what the full game will be like.

Whimsical, winding paths

Go North is a cozy, atmospheric game that offers a blend of adventure, exploration, and puzzles. Players are popped into the tiny shoes of Dara and told that if they solve all of the Maze God’s mazes, they will be granted a wish.

The demo features two mazes to explore, both with unique aesthetics and Maze Makers, who seem to act as the guardians of the mazes. The first maze was in a light and airy field of flowers, while the second took place in an enchanting forest.

It’s not just a case of getting from A to B in Go North, as the mazes are full of puzzles, interesting characters, and items to help you along your way. One character may ask for Dara’s help while exploring, while another might give her a pickaxe to help her mine valuable gems. The puzzles weren’t overly challenging, but they were fun and relaxing.

There is a story being told in this game, although the demo did not reveal too much about Go North’s overall lore. Characters like Dara and the Forest Maker were intriguing, conjuring up theories about what the story may be like in Go North’s full release.

Most importantly, there were animals like fluffy sheep roaming around the mazes – and it was possible to pet them while exploring. Lovely stuff.

Something else that stood out in the demo was the wide variety of items on offer, which all seemed to lean into different playstyles and preferences. There were tools like the Mazecresta, which indicated the direct path to the maze’s exit, along with others like a location beacon to indicate where you’d already walked to avoid retracing your steps.

This indicated that there would be multiple ways to enjoy Go North, with items available to suit both a speedier playstyle and a more leisurely style of solving the mazes on offer.

Alongside the standard single-player experience, the game’s Steam page highlights both an endless Arcade mode and a multiplayer mode. This first-impressions piece was written based on a solo demo experience, but it’s exciting to see multiple ways to play being included in the game.

Mostly a-maze-ing, with a few tiny quirks

It was a delight to explore Go North’s mazes and uncover the treasures dotted around the paths, with the experience painting a promising picture for the release of the full game.

On the whole, the game looked lovely and performed well – there were a few animations that felt somewhat heavy, but the game ran nicely and felt good to explore. The art style and music helped to increase the comforting, cozy ambience, with the music being immediately impressive from the get-go.

There were a few visual quirks within Go North’s demo. Occasionally, a character would repeat the same piece of dialogue in a conversation, and there were a few small typos or grammatical errors dotted throughout. These weren’t major issues, though, and they didn’t take away from the overall immersive experience.

The only issue that stood out as notable was the animation and color choices for key words in dialogue. A key piece of dialogue may be highlighted pink or green and wobble up and down in the text box while a character talks to Dara.

Artistically, this is a fun idea and was seemingly implemented to show the player what to focus on, but from an accessibility point of view, this may not be a good fit for everyone. Some players who are visually impaired may find this unhelpful, and there did not seem to be an option to toggle this on or off in the settings.

Adding a button in the settings menu to turn text movement/color-changing on and off could be a great way to keep the feature in play for those who like it and remove it for folks who prefer text to be static and in a consistent typeface.

Other than this, there were no notable issues or concerns to raise about Go North based on the demo. It’s important to reiterate that this is a first-impressions piece based on a demo and not a full game review.

Go North’s demo was charming, with two intricate mazes and a vibrant roster of characters. The spread of items on offer made it clear that this game could suit a variety of players, ranging from explorers to speed-runners. While there were a few smaller quirks, the experience was charming and highlighted a promising release for the full game.

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Go North on Steam (Steam)