Bad North Jotunn Edition

Bad North: Jotunn Edition is a charming but brutal real-time tactics roguelite. Your home is under attack. The king has been killed by Viking invaders. You rise to take your father's place and stage the defense of an idyllic island kingdom against a horde of Viking raiders — but make no mistake, this is not a fight for victory. It's a desperate grasp for survival, and the eventual goal is to lead a desperate exodus of your people across the islands ahead of the invasion.

The gameplay layer is built for accessible depth. You command the broad strokes of defenses and monitor positioning — your soldiers do the rest, navigating and engaging intuitively in response to the situation at hand. Simple inputs mask a dynamic combat simulation, so newcomers can pick up the game immediately while veterans find real tactical depth in unit placement, movement timing, and reading the unique shape of each island.

Each island is procedurally generated, both visually charming and unique in its tactical layout. Plan strategies around every nook, cliff and chokepoint — you only get one chance to save each island from the invasion, and lost commanders are gone forever. The Viking invaders come in different types, each with their own counters to specific threats you can pose. Picking your battles and planning your evacuations carefully is the meta-game above each individual island defense.

A stronger, smarter defense earns greater rewards, which you use to develop your subjects from a ragtag militia into seasoned warriors. The visual contrast between the beautiful procedurally-generated islands, the adorable soldiers, and the blood-stained realities of war is part of the design's specific charm. The Jotunn Edition is the expanded version with additional content layered onto the original release. Bad North is one of the cleaner, more focused tactics games on Steam — quick to learn, hard to master, brutally fair throughout.