izigame.me

I cannot recommend Norse Lands at all.
I just stayed up for the entire night and most of the morning playing this DLC, I got to island three and even survived a winter first try only to have my progress locked off by a bug. I also experienced numerous other bugs that aren't present in the base game and previous DLC instalments any longer due to quality assurance. (Those particular bugs usually required a reload to fix temporarily.) I cannot express how soul crushing it is to get cosy with a game like this which clearly has a lot of creativity and time for presentation only to be pulled completely back to reality with a game ending bug after sinking so many hours into it.
The bug that locked my progress was basically my 'Knights' couldn't die, had no ranged support, and couldn't be sent off to destroy portals. Even after resetting the game and reloading the save it changed nothing. I even tried making the 'Knights' take the brunt of the Greed waves at night and on Blood Moons by paying one coin at the totem and having them dive into the enemies head first over and over... They literally wouldn't die and I couldn't replace them.
Because I couldn't send the 'Knights' off this meant I couldn't destroy the portals and as a result I couldn't get to my boat to build it which also meant I couldn't get off the island which made all possible progress come to a complete stand still. The only option is to restart the DLC campaign. I'm not overly motivated or enthusiastic in trying this DLC again because I'm anxious I will just reach the same fate, and it ultimately could be worse as I could end up getting even further into the DLC campaign just to reach the same bug and hard lock on progress.
Coming off playing Kingdom Classic, Kingdom Two Crowns, Dead Lands, and Shogun on Xbox solo and with my partner I simply cannot recommend this DLC or Olympus for that matter. It feels like Norse Lands and Olympus were built on top of a previous beta build of Kingdom Two Crowns so the developers (old or new) could implement new mechanics and features without having to reverse engineer old code. Why else would old bugs that had been fixed previously in Two Crowns and its previous DLC instalments be present?
It feels like the same instance when players discovered Bethesda had built Fallout 76 from an extremely old build of Fallout 4 and bugs that had been fixed in Fallout 4 previously were found in Fallout 76. It's very literally incompetence, and laziness. It's also embarrassing being mentioned in the same discussion as developer such as Bethesda but ultimately it's the same practise, an old build being passed around just so an easier time can be had implementing changes and new features whilst quality assurance takes a criminal backseat. Not to mention too many cooks in the kitchen playing with spaghetti code, they fix one thing and something else breaks. Change a bit of code here and there and a preexisting bug rears its ugly head once again.
The fact these bugs are still present is also just shameful for those involved, Norse Lands came out in 2021 and clearly has not received the same treatment as previous instalments from this game series. It doesn't feel like it was play tested nor does it feel like it has received any kind of quality assurance. The DLC also feels abandoned considering its been years and it seems the state of the DLC has remained unchanged as these issues and bugs have been present for a long time now according to other players.
When seeing the publisher name Raw Fury I usually could trust in the name knowing the majority of their published games were of decent quality as was the same for Fury Studios too but clearly that isn't the case anymore. I don't know if the other development studio has caused this or if there is a lack of communication between the two studios involved, or if either (if not both) development studios just gave up caring but I know it's not acceptable and it's inexcusable. Today I lost a bit of faith in indie games, usually they are my safe space away from AAA games that are uninspired and lack creativity or most of the time just aren't ready to be released but this has definitely left a very sour taste in my mouth and has upset me. If I hadn't already spent longer than 2 hours playing Norse Lands I would refund it and I have already successfully refunded Olympus.
I'm still trying to understand and diagnose how this has even transpired when the developers have already made Two Crowns, Dead Lands, and Shogun previously which are of decent quality. They literally have three shining blueprints of success and somehow have still managed to completely botch the release and maintenance of Norse Lands and Olympus, it's some top secret clown business and it baffles me.
In summary;
I will definitely think twice when I see the name Raw Fury and Fury Studios.
Neither publisher or developer respect your time.
Can't recommend Norse Lands.
Can't recommend Olympus.
Best avoid both to avoid disappointment.
Stick to the base game Kingdom Two Crowns, Dead Lands, and Shogun.