northern journey wooden eye

A Review of ‘Northern Journey’

This is a review of a videogame ‘Northern Journey’ by Hild Studios. I found out about it via this video;

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I thought this would be interesting to False Machine readers and OSR types as a game art which has a bunch of OSR-type theming and but also as a distinct work of art by chad neurodivergent creator who made it while sitting in a cellar for several years.

(Maybe also with fans of 'Thief' and the Thief modding community maybe? It has that kind of feel.)

Chad Neurodivergent Creator

Interviewer - " Working on your own, you must have had a pretty deep schedule."

Chad - " No I didn't really have a schedule or a plan. As you are working on something, things, story beats, come to mind. So for instance you might realise you want some mountains, or you want to fight a witch. Then you might be in a forest and realise you need something to go between the forest and the mountains or it doesn't feel right "

Chad - " There were a lot of things I didn't spend time doing. Like sketching and drawing and planning enemies and whatnot. I usually just made them then and there ."

Chad - " The game was made in a cellar and there were a lot of spiders there so there are spiders in the game."

Chad - " Anyone can make music really, you look at pictures of the place you are making music for and start making sounds."

So, he made the game by making the game .

I will return to this in the end.

The Level Design

Northern Journey combines vast-feeling levels and wide-open spaces with complex, nested and carefully planned challenge routes. In the interview above the creator says they often solved design problems by just removing space, bringing things more closely together.

Often the routes and locations are nested vertically, with looping fishbone paths, leaps and scrambles taking you from one to another, or caves, long diversions or surprising detours leading you back to somewhere you have already seen from afar, maybe only a few feet away from where you were standing, buy previously unable to reach.

The internet tells me that this is “like Dark Souls”  whatever dude.

You are almost always in sight of the promise of a future journey,  being shown expanses you might traverse, places you might visit and methods you might use. There are keys to open doors but there is also a winch thing you can use to access ziplines which take you whooshing across these densely-plotted levels - you can see the ziplines coming in but can't access them till you get this widget. In terms of level design this is in practice, just another kind of key or teleportation system, but it doesn't feel like that, instead it feels like an extremely cool reward for achieving stuff.

How could this feeling be expanded to OSR-style games? With difficulty I think. The functioning of team play using largely the minds eye and maps doesn’t work the same way as in a videogame. In Northern Journey, the ‘correct’ or accessible routes are obvious and the language of the game and movement in its space is easy to accept. You know you can’t climb things above a certain set incline, so you don’t bother. In an OSR game you can try climbing things above a set incline, and can try doing a whole bunch of things that wouldn’t work in Northern Journey.

As well, the presentation of a vertically nested environment is more difficult in map form, and the sheer power of a open view of a big landscape promising various adventures and possibilities wouldn’t act the same way.

Perhaps to some extent, partial maps, rumours and ‘promising objects’ serve a similar aim in D&D adventures. I tried to do something a bit like this in Demon-Bone Sarcophagus but apparently fucked it up ☹.

The music is custom, nothing in its pockets but knives and lint. It’s dungeon synth/ambient created for each environment. This is distinctive because there really isn’t a big gap between the sounds of the environment, the twitchy calls of insect danger (or witches), the wind, the treetops moving in the wind, the echoing of cave noises and whatever the ambient music is for that area.

The Fucking Spiders

Or monsters generally, but most of them are fucking spiders.

None of the spiders are the same, look the same, act the same or interact with the environment and the player in the same way. Some crawl in the undergrowth quietly, some swarm in gangs, some hover and leap, or hang in treetops and drop on you.

The enemy design, movement plans and AI loops are carefully integrated into the environments, the spiders in the trees, the tree-tops slowly waving, the spiders in the waving grass which bob and move in the same rhythm as the grass.

The juddering, weaving repetitive but incoherent attack patterns of the insect enemies exist apparently because they were easy to program - presumably real insects are running something not that much more complex than the systems in a modern computer.

The deep integration with the environments means you spend a lot of time hiding, listening, watching, stalking and paying a huge amount of attention to trees, grass, sounds and movement.

I feel like there are two main ways to run the combat in Northern Journey; Doom Style or Cheese It.

If you have really good twitch sensitivity and aim then you could maybe burst into target-rich environments and race around shooting things while brilliantly swapping weapons for optimal effect. I absolutely could not do this and so most of the time I just cheesed it by save-scumming, creeping forward till I trigger one or two enemies then running like fuck away till they are lined up behind me on an attack run, then turning round and shooting them, save-scumming and doing the same thing again.

The sling was an interesting embodied weapon. You get it for free, it never runs out of ammo.

On pulling out the sling the p.o.v character WHUMPS it round your head, one, two, three, four, five, six times then puts it away. You can trigger a cast at the peak of any of those WHUMPS. If you wait till the 3rd or 4th WHUMP, the damage goes up to 100, which is actually not bad, on par with other weapons, or you can release early for a faster shot with less damage.

This starts as a crap and awkward weapon, but as you get better with it, it becomes quite workable and your skill with its timing helps you upgrade it along with your other stuff so it never quite goes out of fashion.

Oddities drawn from something like a folk tale; a village idiot, a suspicious priest, a fool in the stocks, a policeman in his hut, some mysterious crones with a bubbling pot, a doctor throwing runestones and laughing, a sketchy soothsayer whacked out on fumes, an isolated engineer living in a box held over an abyss; there is literally no-one normal in this village,

Crones - Lots of crones in this one, a large variety of tricky witches doing crazy witchy things, trying to push you off bridges, strand you in infinitely black pools, fly screaming and cackling at you on broomsticks

The Mysterious Flute Player – is he Odin? A wizard? The Gygaxian Game Master? He feels a little like all of these things. He has his own theme and you can hear him noodling on his flute as you enter some levels. At other times a dog or raven will turn up with a rune-stave message.

The Special Missions!

Caving, cave-diving, diving into a haunted, drowned village in a leaky bathysphere, taking a hang-glider through super-mountains, diving into a maelstrom & coming out the other side, slowly scaling and ziplining up a staggered and vast mountain face; the darkness, fear and paranoia was lovely . In particular the bathysphere mission and cave-diving was just utterly rich with darkness and a deep sense of strange otherness. Any Veins of the Earth fans  would enjoy these.

There are parts of the end I love, and which feel a lot like the pure mood of the game and other combat-based parts I don't love anywhere as much.

It feels like a lot of supernatural problems in Norway are solved with a midnight communal village rave to dungeon synth electrobeats. Probably this is just how they do it, who knows. The game nearly ends with what I think should have been the final scene, a game of keep-away with a bunch of crazy villagers dancing in a circle around a cursed dimensional violator while the village idiot keeps trying to grab it and run away, while demonic root monsters run interference. Then there is a tower shooting bit which is less interesting.

Hyperreality

A game about an environment by a guy who lives in that environment. The production loop is a hiking loop - guy goes for a hike or climb in Norway, takes photos, records sounds, observes nature

then comes back to the spider-cellar, makes textures from the plants and rocks, builds the sound of streams from the recordings.

All of the sounds and textures in the game are made by the creator, so those curiously pixelly textured shadows, waving plants, lichen-spotted wood, are all recovered dreams from the real world.

The combination of the tightly-plotted but expansive-feeling level design, the intensity of dealing with the FUCKING SPIDERS and this transposition and concentration of the natural phenomena means with Northern Journey has a kind of Hyperreality, like its NorwayPlus. The same hyperreality you would get from surrealism but driven towards a natural environment, a bit like 19th century romantic paintings of guys staring at the alps where a natural view is intensified, but in this case it’s a game and a process of doing which includes movement, exploration and challenge.

(I am not saying Northern Journey is 'like being there' which I think would be a mediocre aim and which I am unable to confirm anyway, bit it is more like an intense, lucid dream of Norway)

Singularity of Vision

Though original, no single element is absolutely better than the best in other games, though much is very good. Instead we must speak of the combination and synthesis of elements in a manner original, expressive and rare. It would be hard for a large group the make *this particular* game because things were combined and "cooked" very closely and very intuitively.

The textures, plants, sounds, arrangements of form, living entities, (especially the spiders), etc, are all seemingly drawn from life and inscribed directly into the game without much pre-decision or conversation.

For instance; in one level the waving of grass mimics the colour and movement of the resident spider enemy, which skitters and bobs exactly like the movement of the grass in simulated wind. in another, the texture and size of an attacking spider means it blends with and seems to move "under" the textured knee-high foliage. Combined with its silence (which would have no significance if not for the aural tapestry of the levels), this makes it a particular paranoia-inducing threat.

There is a level where, after coming out of a deep dark and claustrophobic mine, you do nothing but climb and zipline up a seemingly endless series of mountain faces, facing a rolling grey sea, it’s wonderful and arguably 'nothing happens'.

These things, if done as part of a group or company, would have taken meeting after meeting and description and argument after description and argument. Here, done by one individual, they are simply created and arranged immediately, intuitively, in a manner which speaks of a coherent world, creates beauty and interest in the eye of the beholder an is 'gamic' or playable, leading to interesting and cohesive play.

The whole game is like this; a collage or weaving together of elements, some drawn from nature, but woven coherently, subtly, to create a kind of hyper-reality. The sensory aspect of a Norwegian wilderness/biome, compressed, transformed and made into something that can be played. Any addition of complexity of the kind a corporation or marketing director would instantiate would disrupts this clear fluidity and directness of approach.

The credits are literally three lines;

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Video Game / Northern Journey

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Northern Journey is a 2021 FPS/RPG game by Slid Studio set in a strange Norwegian version of The Middle Ages . The game starts with the unnamed player character rowing through a fjord when unseen assailants pierce the bottom of his boat with an arrow. Barely reaching the shore near the small village of Deadwell, the player character gets recruited by a travelling Flute Player to help him retrieve some Dimensional Violators, powerful artifacts which can open portals into other worlds. The journey will lead the player through forests, swamps, caves and mountains, all the while encountering hostile wildlife, demonic impostors, scheming witches, and worse.

Gameplay takes the form of a first-person-shooter with heavy emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving. The game rapidly switches gears as it progresses, switching from freeform exploration to linear combat gauntlets with abandon. The story sees you trek up and down the fjord, visiting both the highest peaks and the deepest caves. Also noteworthy is the game's arsenal. Due to taking place in a time before firearms, your weapons are ancient missile-launchers such as longbows, hand-axes, crank-operated crossbows, and more.

This game provides examples of the following:

• Anachronism Stew : Downplayed. The game's world for the most part stays in a Medieval European Fantasy setting. For the most part ; there are also crank-operated automatic crossbows, most of which are magazine fed, a bathysphere that you get to take down to the bottom of a ghost infested lake (Plus the Nokken), and in that lake is a big, metal, riveted pipe that looks right out of the industrial age.
• Saving is disabled on any precarious ledges or in the middle of an "interaction" (read: near monsters or during a scripted event) to prevent unwinnable situations or accidentally breaking scripts.
• The first are the witch sisters, who are the villains for the first third.
• The second is the village priest impostor .
• The third and final is none other than the village idiot .
• Awesome, but Impractical : The Ballista and Bear Crossbow deal impressive amounts of damage, fire fast projectiles with generous firing arcs, and can be pre-loaded so they're ready to fire immediately after being brought out. Unfortunately, ammo is hard to come by and it takes several seconds to load each shot. The Ballista in particular has a lengthy un loading animation that must play out before you can reload it, and the recoil throws you back a few feet every time it's fired— often straight off a ledge if you're not careful.
• Big Bad : Arguably the Village Idiot, who stole the Dimensional Violators, fed his pet worm enough to turn it into Nidhogg, and spends the last bit of the game trying to mess with the Flute Player's plans to fix the situation. Despite this, he doesn't really care much about what's going on and is mostly an antagonist through the irritating trouble he causes .
• Big Creepy-Crawlies : The player will come across many types of invertebrate during the journey, and they all want a piece of them: dragonflies , leeches, spiders , flies, centipedes , bumblebees , spiders , ticks, mosquitoes , diving beetles, spiders ...
• Black Comedy : Used frequently to break up some of the tension. The crowning moment is probably the encounter with the witch daughter on the bridge. She eerily walks forward onto the bridge, makes an ominous declaration, then raises her arms and starts shrieking as she sprints towards you... only to slip, fall, and go careening into the ravine below with a splash.
• Boring, but Practical : The stone sling has a bit of wind-up and doesn't do much damage, but it has endless ammunition, a long range if you know how to arc your shots, and it gets a damage upgrade in the latter half of the game.
• Bows Versus Crossbows : Your mainstay weapons during the game will be one heavy-hitting bow and a variety of repeating or heavy crossbows.
• Does This Remind You of Anything? : The game takes heavy inspiration from Norse myth, but often does so in subtle ways that go against traditional depictions of characters and events. For instance, the Flute Player is heavily inspired by Odin- he's a sly, offputting and devious person who seems to be able to get anywhere in the world before the player character. He uses a raven to communicate (just like Odin) and can possibly even be a shapeshifter, if the wolf you see throughout the journey is potentially him in disguise (note the wolf pelt that the Flute Player is wearing). He makes a departure from Odin by being somewhat young-looking and still having both of his eyes, so while elements are borrowed to help make connections, they are not one-to-one parallels.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind : The Village Idiots' "pet worm" turns out to be a demon and is the final boss of the game. Its final form is a huge red dragon.
• Everything Trying to Kill You : But of course, from mosquitoes to moose.
• Exact Words : Shortly before fighting a horde of troll-spiders , the flute player earnestly promises you that this will be the last time you have to fight any living, air-breathing spiders in this world. The next three kinds of spider you fight are, respectively, spider-shaped undead monsters, underwater sea spiders, and located in another world entirely.
• Fire and Brimstone Hell : The door which the Village Idiots pet worm came through turns out to lead into one of these, complete with Big Red Devils .
• Floating Limbs : A weird variant, as the game is an FPS. The player character's limbs are detached past the elbows, making them just float there.
• Giant Spider : Almost something of a Mascot Mook for the game considering how many varieties there are.
• Gonk : Even good, helpful characters look like super creepy. And then you have the villains...
• Guide Dang It! : Getting the ballista near the end of the game requires you to find a certain amount of red potions hidden throughout the game.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place : Location names gradually get more overtly hostile as the game goes on, starting with the innocuous Deadwell and Greenslit and eventually reaching the accurately-described Drowned Veins and Hypothermia Waste.
• Infinity +1 Sword : The Ballista is this, requiring the player to find at least 40 health upgrades and hitting things very hard, one-shotting the lategame mooks you'll be facing afterwards. Its overall unwieldiness keeps the weapon from being totally overpowered.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold : The Flute Player is one sardonic asshole, but he gives you good advice, praises you for your hard work, and dishes out supplies as you proceed through the journey. He's also the one who sunk your boat at the beginning of the game, but considering how losing the Dimensional Violators was a serious problem and he ends up paying you back in the end by giving you valuable treasure, it can at least be rationalized.
• Junkie Prophet : The Timewaster Seer will take a huge breath of smoke rising from his brazier and then tell you things that either already happened or which you can't prevent .
• Jump Scare : Sprinkled liberally throughout the game to keep you on your toes. Notable ones include your first meeting with the witches on the raft and the return visit to Deadwell where the demon woman escapes.
• Lampshade Hanging : After fighting yet another nest of spiders, the Flute Player will promise you that you will face no more living, air-breathing spiders after this point. Cue the skeletal and aquatic spiders.
• MacGuffin : The Dimensional Violators which the Flute Player keeps losing track of.
• Mood Whiplash : Used liberally, as Tropes Are Tools . The developer describes the game as being "happysad", which is a literal translation of the norwegian term Gladtrist. This term describes a work that oscilates between extreme cheerfulness and dire circumstances, which also happens in this game. One minute your traipsing around the woods or interacting with the funny locals, and the next you're battling terrifying supernatural monsters buried deep underground.
• Our Sirens Are Different : The Nokk seen in the page image lives in a big, deep lake and will try to physically pull the player character into the water with its song. When you dive into the pond later in the game using a diving bell you see that it is in fact a big cephalopod-like creature that always keeps its many tentacles below the waterline.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner : The player character utters one before the final fight against the fully evolved Petworm on the tower : "Petworm, is that uncooked meat I see?"
• Save-Game Limits : A tooltip at the beginning of the game helpfully informs you that the game provides zero autosaves and only four manual save slots to rotate between. Where you can save is also harshly limited, letting you do it only on flat ground away from any NPCs.
• Shown Their Work : The range of giant invertebrates pitted against the player is truly impressive; alongside familiar fare such as spiders, centipedes and beetles are more obscure creatures such as pseudoscorpions and harvestmen.
• Suspicious Video-Game Generosity : Boss battles and large enemy encounters are well signposted by the large amounts of health and ammo pick-ups scattered around their arenas. Gets to comical levels in the second-to-last fight against Nidhogg , where the entire arena (a narrow walkway) is lined with health vials and spare bolts.
• Super Drowning Skills : The player character can't swim at all, so stepping into water that is below knee deep is a sure way to see the Game Over screen.
• The Unfought : Dnarg Dlihc is the only witch who doesn't attempt to kill you, instead merely rowing you into Darkthroat and confidently telling you how dangerous her mother is.
• The Time of Myths : A low-fantasy variant, but still. The game takes place in the far reaches of the northern parts of the Nordic countries during the Medieval Ages. As such, witches, trolls and other ghoulies still roam the lands.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works : The only way to use the Exhumed Axes, Swords From Below, and Throwing Spears is to lob them at enemies. They do respectable damage, and benefit from fast reload animations as you simply pull another one out of your pockets.
• Underground Level : The player goes into underground caves and tunnels several times to fight trolls, beasts, or retrieve artifacts.
• Unique Enemy : The game boasts on the Steam store page that it has more than 50 unique enemy and boss types, and this is no exaggeration. Each zone has multiple encounters with completely unique enemies or bosses, each with their own methods of beating them.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight : The people of Deadwell do not seem to mind the many-eyed snakes or burrowing mole creatures that run around their village.
• Wham Line : The game ends with the player character rowing away from Deadwell in your repaired boat. The Flute Player tells them goodbye and says that if he needs help in the future, he'll sink their boat again.
• Wolfpack Boss : A good chunk of the boss fights are encounters against a small horde of powerful Mooks. Special mention goes to the five shield-wielding ghosts in Greenslit, who will dutifully only attack you solo or in pairs.
• Nocturne In Yellow
• First-Person Shooter
• Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi

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About this game, mature content description.

The developers describe the content like this:

Some blood-effects when monsters are damaged. And a naked witch (a bit cartoony, no genitals visible)

System Requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10 (64)
• Processor: 2.4 Ghz
• Memory: 3 GB RAM
• Graphics: GT 640
• Storage: 7 GB available space
• Sound Card: Stereo
• Additional Notes: Game highly optimized. Will run fine even on older hardware.

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Northern Journey's surreal world deserves to be experienced, not merely described

But you’re only going one way

Oh my goodness, what a creepy, funny, and odd game Northern Journey is. I almost don't want to say any more about it, not because it can be spoiled but because it seems appropriately respectful. Not in a reverent sense, you understand. It just feels like such a world should be preserved, even slightly feared, rather than trampled on by some idiot with a camera in her face.

To call Northern Journey "retro" would completely misrepresent it. It's beautiful in an ugly, desolate way reminiscent of Kenshi or Morrowind. It's translucent in its exposition but not obtuse, hostile, or obnoxiously hard. It's a bit clunky, without that ever undermining the experience. It's vaguely amateurish, yet almost consciously so, like a painter who knows their talent and intent is enough to overcome any technical flaws. This is a bloody treat and I'm so glad I got to play it.

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• Gaming Discussion
• General Gaming

Incline   Northern Journey - the best indie of 2021 you haven't played (yet)

• Thread starter Curratum
• Start date Nov 20, 2021
• Nov 20, 2021

already had it wishlisted, waiting for a sale  

toughasnails

Now that you remind me, Gloomwood's dev was raving about this game some time ago. He was p good at sniffing out worthwhile obscure indies in the past (much more than he is at getting his own game out lol).  

toughasnails said: Now that you remind me, Gloomwood's dev was raving about this game some time ago. He was p good at sniffing out worthwhile obscure indies in the past (much more than he is at getting his own game out lol). Click to expand...

Wirdschowerdn

Ph.d. in world saving.

Curratum 's enthusiastic description reminds me of Hedon, a game that I thought looks totally retarded but ended up becoming one of my favorite shooters of all time. Well, guess I'll check this one out at the next week's Autumn sale.  

I found this review on YT It does look p impressive.  

Riskbreaker

• Nov 21, 2021

I can't overemphasize how good the environments look here. Raw, imposing landscapes, sometimes sprinkled with ruinous architecture that is akin to something that sprung outta rocks themselves and is always overwhelmed by its surroundings. It's like you're playing through a Friedrich painting. And all of it with very restrained polygon count. I'm 12 hours in and the game still keeps introducing new environments, always with unique enemies and often with new tricks and mechanics being introduced. The aforementioned Gloomwood dev has almost 30 hours of recorded playtime on Steam.  

Looks like a running backwards while pressing 1 button simulator.  

• Nov 22, 2021

toughasnails said: I found this review on YT It does look p impressive. Click to expand...

I use SpeedHack to make every game that fast.  

• Nov 24, 2021

Man, the creepy crawlies here. There's this foggy, swampy area later on. Most common enemy there is this sort of giant tick. They'll either hide in trees and fall on you when you approach or they'll have eggs hidden around that will burst open when you're close enough. Which is annoying alright. What happens if you fail to avoid their attack tho is that they'll attach themselves to your chest and slowly suck, suck, suck untill their "reservoir" is filled and grown, whereupon they detach their now ample selves, waddle away and burst into buncha eggs with new ticks inside. Fun times.  

I have a powerful disgust at insects in real life, probably bordering a phobia. This game has been worse than any horror game in recent memory. I am tense as fuck every step I take, also because the game hardly ever reuses enemies and there's shit waiting to fuck you up at every step.  

Game is now part of the Steam Autumn Sale. Come on, you slags, it's just 8 EUR for the most fun you'll have this year!  

Curratum said: Game is now part of the Steam Autumn Sale. Come on, you slags, it's just 8 EUR for the most fun you'll have this year! Click to expand...

• Nov 25, 2021

Enjoying the game so far, I'm at the swampy area with mounds right now. The combat takes some time getting used to, combination of wind-up, limited time you can hold either the sling or bow up, the way enemies move and how unforgiving their hitboxes are. It's not like you can miss it either bc of those gates that require set number of kills to open. Also, in the forest area, mobs sometimes kinda blended in with their surroundings.  

toughasnails said: Also, in the forest area, mobs sometimes kinda blended in with their surroundings. Click to expand...

Aye, it seems to be intentional in some places. The second, marshy portion of Nokkpond, ace lake, has these small bugs that'll crawl out of grass or dark water. What sometimes tricks you, too, is that as Curratum said the game won't be reusing enemy types between areas and some of them will actually be limited to one "dungeon" so you won't necessarily ever recognize them for what they are at first. There was this one cavern that had what seemed to be luminescent fungi or crystals on its walls. Only, once you're close enough, you'll see it's actually these silverfish-like (?) things. They'll already be crawling at ya with their many legs at that point.  

Riskbreaker said: Aye, it seems to be intentional in some places. The second, marshy portion of Nokkpond, ace lake, has these small bugs that'll crawl out of grass or dark water. What sometimes tricks you, too, is that as Curratum said the game won't be reusing enemy types between areas and some of them will actually be limited to one "dungeon" so you won't necessarily ever recognize them for what they are at first. There was this one cavern that had what seemed to be luminescent fungi or crystals on its walls. Only, once you're close enough, you'll see it's actually these silverfish-like (?) things. They'll already be crawling at ya with their many legs at that point. Click to expand...

• Nov 26, 2021

The cavern with that betentacled thing was pain the ass. Took me dozen+ tries to run trough the first stretch and I did it without even using the bait bc it doesn't really distract it for so long and sometimes a couple of tentacles stay around even while the rest of it goes for the bait. And you have to do it while platforming while the most of your screen is pitch black. The second stretch was easier bc of the more reliable way to get it off your back. That said Greenslit area is jaw dropingly gorgeous, the cavern was the bad thing about it.  

• Nov 27, 2021

toughasnails said: That said Greenslit area is jaw dropingly gorgeous, the cavern was the bad thing about it. Click to expand...

Just finished the game. This was the most enjoyable, creepiest, tensest, most original, most eye-opening experience I've had with a game in nearly a decade. This is also the best indie game I've ever played, together with Salt & Sanctuary. Dusk's dev is the top rated (and positive and flattering) review on Northern Journey, but the irony here is that NJ is a much more important and overall better game than Dusk, or even Amid Evil. I'd argue that even Salt & Sanctuary is a step below, because it's so heavily derivative from DSouls and is borne primarily on its outstanding art design, just like Dusk and Amid Evil are so heavily derivative from older shooters. Northern Journey is a game that is largely unlike any other. Perhaps King's Field or Lands of Lore come close, but not quite the same. It's an ADVENTURE in its purest form, it is varied, beautiful, diverse and rich in content, it has thrills and a sense of mystery and combat and exploration, all blending together in the wrap of a very skillfully executed art style and weirdness.  

Unkillable Cat

Lest we forget.

• Nov 28, 2021

I gave this a go, gave up just after entering Greenslit. Yes, it's very atmosphereic, has some gorgeous-looking places and is not afraid to do things at its own pace. No, I didn't really enjoy it. I've played dozens (if not hundreds) of games with all the same mechanics. Do these tasks before being allowed to progress. Kill X many critters before being allowed to progress. Be forced to use cantankerous weapons against enemies with stupid AI, while gliding all over the place. It's not bad, but IMO Northern Journey doesn't do enough to set itself apart from the others.  

The dev is already at work on his new game. I'm not sure what it's supposed to be but melee combat with directional swinging and modular damage looks p sweet. King's Field style game with the environments he is capable of making and with such an involved melee combat would be godly.  

• Dec 7, 2021

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Deadwell is the first location in Northern Journey . Your boat is perforated by some sniper hidden in the mountain's crevices which lead you to this isle. It's also home to the major town area for the game.

• 1.1 Red flasks
• 1.2 Orange flask
• 2 Chronology

There are 6 red flasks and 1 orange flask in this location.

Red flasks [ ]

Here is how all of the red flasks can be found:

• Red Flask #1: It can be found in a passage to the left of the witches' hut in the village.
• Red Flask #2: After talking to everyone in the village and checking out the boulder near the church, go through the woodsmen hut and across the bridge on your way to meet the Inventor. The flask is on top of one of the rocks on the left past this bridge. To reach it, jump onto the rocks to your right and then across the gap to where the flask is.
• Red Flask #3: After acquiring a sling from the inventor, go past the woodsmen on your way to the lighthouse. After defeating the spiders, follow the path until you reach an intersection. Go left all the way to find a red flask.
• Red Flask #4: This flask is available after discovering an entrance to Deadwell from Greenslit. Find a shortcut ladder and knock it down, then try to jump to the hill directly ahead. Take a running start and jump from the tip of the rock on the right of the ladder. If you can't make the jump, you can get the flask later, after completing Haunted Glacier, as you will be teleported to that hill. The flask is next to one of the trees.
• Red Flask #5: This flask is only available after getting the Ropewheel key. Acquire a crank from Greenslit, ride down the elevator near the woodsmen shack, and fight the ghost witch. Then, open the door in the witches' hut and proceed to the bridge where the witch-daughter is waiting. Jump to the plank on the left and climb all the way up to find the potion.
• Red Flask #6: Cross the witches' bridge and follow the path until you arrive at the moving platform. Before riding it, climb down the rocks and search for the flask in the grass near the edge.

Orange flask [ ]

Here is how the orange flask can be found:

• Ride the moving platform and then go in the direction of the lighthouse. You will find the orange flask at the end of the cliff.

Chronology [ ]

• Previous location: N/A
• Next location: Forest Path
• 2 Greenslit
• 3 Under Nokkpond

For the first time Rosatom Fuel Division supplied fresh nuclear fuel to the world’s only floating nuclear cogeneration plant in the Arctic

The fuel was supplied to the northernmost town of Russia along the Northern Sea Route.

The first in the history of the power plant refueling, that is, the replacement of spent nuclear fuel with fresh one, is planned to begin before 2024. The manufacturer of nuclear fuel for all Russian nuclear icebreakers, as well as the Akademik Lomonosov FNPP, is Machinery Manufacturing Plant, Joint-Stock Company (MSZ JSC), a company of Rosatom Fuel Company TVEL that is based in Elektrostal, Moscow Region.

The FNPP includes two KLT-40S reactors of the icebreaking type. Unlike convenient ground-based large reactors (that require partial replacement of fuel rods once every 12-18 months), in the case of these reactors, the refueling takes place once every few years and includes unloading of the entire reactor core and loading of fresh fuel into the reactor.

The cores of KLT-40 reactors of the Akademik Lomonosov floating power unit have a number of advantages compared to the reference ones: a cassette core was used for the first time in the history of the unit, which made it possible to increase the fuel energy resource to 3-3.5 years between refuelings, and also reduce the fuel component of the electricity cost by one and a half times. The FNPP operating experience formed the basis for the designs of reactors for nuclear icebreakers of the newest series 22220. Three such icebreakers have been launched by now.

For the first time the power units of the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant were connected to the grid in December 2019, and put into commercial operation in May 2020. The supply of nuclear fuel from Elektrostal to Pevek and its loading into the second reactor is planned for 2024. The total power of the Akademik Lomonosov FNPP, supplied to the coastal grid of Pevek without thermal energy consumption on shore, is about 76 MW, being about 44 MW in the maximum thermal power supply mode. The FNPP generated 194 million kWh according to the results of 2023. The population of Pevek is just a little more than 4 thousand, while the FNPP has a potential for supplying electricity to a city with a population of up to 100 thousand people. After the FNPP commissioning two goals were achieved. These include first of all the replacement of the retiring capacities of the Bilibino NPP, which has been operating since 1974, as well as the Chaunskaya TPP, which has already been operating for more than 70 years. Secondly, energy is supplied to the main mining companies in western Chukotka in the Chaun-Bilibino energy hub a large ore and metal cluster, including gold mining companies and projects related to the development of the Baimsk ore zone. In September 2023, a 110 kilovolt power transmission line with a length of 490 kilometers was put into operation, connecting the towns of Pevek and Bilibino. The line increased the reliability of energy supply from the FNPP to both Bilibino consumers and mining companies, the largest of which is the Baimsky GOK. The comprehensive development of the Russian Arctic is a national strategic priority. To increase the NSR traffic is of paramount importance for accomplishment of the tasks set in the field of cargo shipping. This logistics corridor is being developed due regular freight voyages, construction of new nuclear-powered icebreakers and modernization of the relevant infrastructure. Rosatom companies are actively involved in this work. Rosatom Fuel Company TVEL (Rosatom Fuel Division) includes companies fabricating nuclear fuel, converting and enriching uranium, manufacturing gas centrifuges, conducting researches and producing designs. As the only nuclear fuel supplier to Russian NPPs, TVEL supplies fuel for a total of 75 power reactors in 15 countries, for research reactors in nine countries, as well as for propulsion reactors of the Russian nuclear fleet. Every sixth power reactor in the world runs on TVEL fuel. Rosatom Fuel Division is the world’s largest producer of enriched uranium and the leader on the global stable isotope market. The Fuel Division is actively developing new businesses in chemistry, metallurgy, energy storage technologies, 3D printing, digital products, and decommissioning of nuclear facilities. TVEL also includes Rosatom integrators for additive technologies and electricity storage systems. Rosenergoatom, Joint-Stock Company is part of Rosatom Electric Power Division and one of the largest companies in the industry acting as an operator of nuclear power plants. It includes, as its branches, 11 operating NPPs, including the FNPP, the Scientific and Technical Center for Emergency Operations at NPPs, Design and Engineering as well as Technological companies. In total, 37 power units with a total installed capacity of over 29.5 GW are in operation at 11 nuclear power plants in Russia. Machinery Manufacturing Plant, Joint-Stock Company (MSZ JSC, Elektrostal) is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of fuel for nuclear power plants. The company produces fuel assemblies for VVER-440, VVER-1000, RBMK-1000, BN-600,800, VK-50, EGP-6; powders and fuel pellets intended for supply to foreign customers. It also produces nuclear fuel for research reactors. The plant belongs to the TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom.

Rosatom obtained a license for the first land-based SMR in Russia

On April 21, Rosenergoatom obtained a license issued by Rostekhnadzor to construct the Yakutsk land-based SMR in the Ust-Yansky District of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

ROSATOM and FEDC agree to cooperate in the construction of Russia's first onshore SNPP

ROSATOM and FEDC have signed a cooperation agreement to build Russia's first onshore SNPP in Yakutia.

Rosatom develops nuclear fuel for modernized floating power units

Rosatom has completed the development of nuclear fuel for the RITM-200S small modular reactor designed for the upgraded floating power units.